The Easiest Recipe Ever?

I know, I know: I haven't blogged in ages.  Friends keep asking when I will be writing up recipes again, and in the interim one friend has told me that the cheating prawn Thai noodle dish has become his staple diet when he is away from his wife! 

The worst thing is that I have missed a whole summer of blogging with beautiful light in our new kitchen.  We are fortunate enough to have a roof which is one-third glass meaning we have a view of the sky all the time, and lots of light pouring into the kitchen.  Although we have had a gloriously sunny day today, by the time I took the photos it had already gone dark.  Ah, the joys off autumn.  On a positive note though, this recipe has to be one of the easiest recipe ever.  Honestly!
Spare, tired bread in our house is normally converted into bread and butter pudding.  I have real penchant for it.  But looking at the bread this afternoon, I remembered a taste and texture from way-back-I-can't-even-remember-when.  Bread pudding.  Not to be confused with one of my favourite desserts, this old fashioned English cake is custardless, and the bread is not sliced and buttered.  It's a dense cake, with no raising agent and it remains splendidly stodgy (in a good way!)

Easy Bread Pudding
20x20cm square tin, around 3cm deep lined with greaseproof paper
250g stale bread (you include the crusts)
130g sultanas, currants and raisins - in your preferred proportions
60g brown sugar
2 eggs
dash milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

1) Rip the bread into pieces and place in large mixing bowl.  Cover with cold water and forget about it for an hour.
2) After an hour tip the bread into a sieve and press down to remove the water.  Also preheat the oven to 170C.
3) Tip the bread back into the mixing bowl and mash with a fork until it is in small pieces - it will never go smooth!  Add the mixed fruit, sugar and spice and stir.  Finally add the eggs and a splash of milk and mix in.
4) Put the while mixture into the baking tin, sprinkle with around a tablespoon of brown sugar and transfer to the oven.  Bake for around 1 hour and 15 minutes.
5) Leave to cool in the tin for around half an hour, then remove and cut into about 12 pieces.

Enjoy this with a cup of tea, and be smug about your use of leftovers!

Heavenly Hairy Gooseberries

As I sit, I can smell wafts of the gooseberry flapjack I have just made floating across the kitchen.  It's divine.  Even the gas meter man commented when he came to read the meter a minute ago.  I couldn't give the poor chap a slice though as it was still roasting hot, and I have made it for the arrival of my dad who comes tomorrow for a couple of weeks to fit our new bathroom and do as many other DIY jobs as I can think of.  I have to make the most of the time he is in the UK to do all the things Mr B and I are completely inept at.  So my first small token of thanks is a gooseberry flapjack. 

I've never really cooked with gooseberries before, and I rarely spot them for sale.  I suppose this is because they have a short season, and they are a fruit you really need to cook to take the tartness away.  I saw a recipe in a Good Food magazine for a gooseberry streusel which really fired my enthusiasm, and I have tweaked (relatively heavily) the original recipe which makes the final thing more flapjacky and less crumble like.

Gooseberry and Pecan Flapjack

150g porridge oats

150g plain flour

100g pecans

250g butter

150g muscovado sugar

400g gooseberries

Prep. 15 mins  Cook. 50min - 1 hour

1) Line a swiss roll tin with baking parchment leaving a good height on the edges and pre-heat the oven to 170C

2) Put the pecans in a blender and whizz them until ground.

3) Rub together the oats, flour, pecans, sugar and butter.  You will end up with quite a sticky doughy mix.  Press two-thirds of the mixture into the bottom of the tin.  I found it was best to use my hands to do this.

4) If your gooseberries are particularly sharp, you may wish to dust them with sugar.  Cover the mixture in the tin with the gooseberries, ensuring they are evenly spread

5) Using the remaining dough cover the gooseberries.  I did this by breaking it into small chunks and dotting them all over.  Lightly press down everything in the tin.

6) Transfer to the oven and cook for 50 minutes to 1 hour until the top is brown.

7)  Remove from the oven and cool in the tin, then cut into slices as desired.

A Specially Requested Recipe for Danusia

Last night we had a barbeque.  We're still in boxes in the new house, but English summer is so fleeting that you have to make the most of every opportunity.  Fortunately, our friends were completely unfussed about the amount of boxes filling our house and garden, and they bought us a couple of fabulous housewarming presents!  

In the new garden, we have been lucky enough to inherit some raspberry canes which are currently fruiting.  I call them "our" homegrown raspberries, but in fact we are reaping the fruits (literally) of someone elses labour...  I couldn't possibly make a dessert for after the BBQ without including some of these fab little red beasties :-)

A clafoutis is a long standing fall back for me. I have been making them since forever (or so it seems).  They are super easy and require almost no effort.  What goes with raspberries? Well nectarines of course.  Or peaches.  You choose.  The almond batter in this recipe can be used with almost any fruit you like, just make sure the fruit is soft and ripe when you use it or it could turn out hard!

Nectarine and Raspberry Clafoutis (or Flognarde if you're a purist!)
4 Nectarines
A punnet of raspberries (sorry, can't give you the exact amount as I just stripped my canes!)
50g ground almonds
2 tbsp plain flour
2 eggs
2 yolks
300ml double cream

1) Pre-heat your oven to 180C
2) Slice your nectarines into wedges and place in the bottom of a 27cm or 11 inch pie dish.  My nectarines were a bit hard so I cooked them off with a knob of butter in a large frying pan until they were soft enough.
3) Put a good scattering of raspberries across the top of the nectarines
4) Whisk the remaining ingredients together until you have a thick, smooth(ish) batter and pour ove the top of the fruit.
5) Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the top is golden brown and the batter has just set in the middle.  You can test this by touch, or by poking a sharp knife into the middle.

When it is pulled out of the oven it will be risen and look amazing, alas, it will collapse slightly by the time it is cool enough to eat. 

You can make the clafoutis in advance and just reheat it for serving.  And with a blob of ice cream or clotted cream, this makes a simple but divine dessert.

Squiggly Millies and Frozen Delight

I haven't blogged in a while, mainly because I am mainly eating boring healthy stuff which is no fun to blog about so I can get (more comfortably) into a dress I have bought for my friend's wedding.  It's by Ozzie Clark so I have to wear it as it's the poshest dress I have ever owned!

Anyway, to break this silence, I have two none too healthy things to write about.  The first is from the marvellous Red Velvet and Chocolate Heartache cookbook which I have already raved about.  Again, owing to the No-Cake diet, this is only the second recipe I have used, but it works like a dream and they taste gooooooood.  Ginger Millies are teeny tiny cupcakes (I made mine in wrappers meant for chocolate truffles) which have a cracking hit of ginger which is mitigated by lemon icing and their bitesized-ness.

I didn't have a tiny muffin tray so I just wedged them in a Swiss roll tin, hence the wonkiness of these little gems. I kind of like them a bit wonky actually - it looks like you made them yourself! I also topped them off with a small piece of crystallised ginger which I found completely by chance in the supermarket.

Sorry, I am not going to give you the recipe (am I allowed?! I don't know copyright laws for these things!)  And anyway, you should go and peruse the book yourself to see all the yummy things in it!

Today I also used my ice cream maker for the first time.  It's a wedding present, and I haven't used it yet (Mr B and I got married in December last year) which would be shocking, apart from the fact I promised I wouldn't unpack any of the wedding presents until we got a new house.  This has taken far far longer than I would have liked, so I broke the rules because we have friends coming round on Saturday and I want to serve ice cream for pud.

I used the basic vanilla ice cream recipe from ice-cream-recipes.com and even if I say so myself, it is one of the best vanilla ice creams I have ever tasted.  (I scraped the remnants out the bowl once the churning had finished).  On Saturday I am going to serve it with a scoop of apple and cherry sorbet adapted from this recipe.  Once I have the results of this experiment, I'll blog again!

Curry for a Gloomy Thursday

Today is a gloomy day for all manner of reasons, and cooking and eating a curry is just the thing to cheer me up!  A search through my most recent Good Food magazine gave me just the recipe I needed: lamb and pea keema, which is a mince based dish packed full of green peas and flecked with red tomato.  It's full of fragrant spice rather than anything too hot, making it edible to everyone, not just boys trying to show off their ability to cope with heat!  I served this with naan bread and chutney, and I will definitely be making it again when we have people round for curries as it is relatively fast and is made up of store-cupboard stand-bys.

Lamb and Pea Keema (serves 4)
1 large onion, oughly chopped
2 garlic cloves
4cm piece of ginger
2 large red chillies
500g lamb mince
2 tbsp garam masala
2 tsp turmeric
2 tomatoes, roughly chopped into small pieces
2 tbsp natural yoghurt
200g fresh or frozen peas
Small bunch of coriander

1) Put the garlic, onion, ginger and onion into a blender and whizz until finely chopped.  Add a tsbp of oil to a wok or large frying pan, and then cook the chopped ingredients until fragrant.  Don't do this on too high a heat or the chilli wil choke you!
2)  Add the lamb to the wok and cook until brown.  Then add the tumeric and garam masala.  Cook for a minute or so.
3) Add the tomatoes and yoghurt, stir in and then cook for 30 minutes.  I put in about 100ml of water at this stage to stop the currying drying out too much.
4) Add the frozen peas after 30 minutes, and cook for another five minutes. 
5) To serve top with a good handful of coriander.

Samosa Pride

Today is a cooking day.  It started with me flipping through cookbooks (I am currently loving The Masterchef Cookbook).  It's got a ton of fab recipes and simple instructions - plus lots of photos which I think are a must in a cookbook!  So much of food is visceral.

Anyway, one recipe that I am not cooking from there today is a practice for an upcoming dinner party.  A group of Mr B's and my friends have started Come-Dine-With-Me style dinner parties.  Fortunately there is not judging going on, but it's basically to make sure we get our arses in gear and reciprocate dinner!  Our turn is coming up, and so far the canapes on offer have been pretty bloody good!  For mine, I have decided on two things so far: beetroot scones with goats cheese, and miniature samosas.  I have to admit that the beetroot scones are a second choice as I initially wanted to make beetroot meringues as they do at the Ledbury in London (thanks to Gourmet Traveller for the photo and inspiration) but after numerous trials (and a lot of errors!) I wasn't getting anything like I wanted!

Anyway, the samosas are the main point of this entry!  I suppose this recipe is actually a cross between a samosa and a spring roll as the veggies I used in it were supposed to be for a stir-fry, but I flavoured them with Indian spices.  Either way, if you pack your filo with lots of filling they are very yummy indeed!

Baked Vegetable Samosas

250g pack of stir-fry vegetables.  I used one with bean shoots, carrots, peppers, and cabbage.  Make sure the chunks aren't too big if you are making canape-sized samosas.

1 garlic clove

1 flat tsp ground cumin

1 flat tsp ground coriander

1 flat tsp mustard seeds

3/4 tsp tumeric

3/4 tsp mild chilli powder

salt to season

100ml water 

150g ready made filo pastry

30g melted butter

1) Dry fry the spices for a minute or so in a wok.  Add a small dash of oil and the crushed garlic clove and cook for another minute or so.

2) Add the vegetables and stir well.  The tumeric will turn everything yellow.  Add 100ml of water and salt and cook the until the vegetables are cooked through and are turning slightly soft.  Remove from the heat.  Preheat the oven to 180C.

3) Taking one sheet of filo at a time, brush it with melted butter and then cut the sheet into 5cm wide strips (or 8cm if you want larger samosas)

4) Place a heaped teaspoon or so of filling on the filo strip at one end. Fold the end of the strip into a triangle shape and keep folding until you reach the end of the strip. Place on a baking tray. Below is a very skillful drawing(!) of folding the samosas:

5) Keep on going until you run out of pastry, filling or patience!  You should be able to make 16-20 samosas.  Once you are done, put the samosas in the oven for 10-15 minutes until golden.

6) Serve hot with chutneys and raita.

Berry Good

I have to open with an apology for this recipe - I threw it together and took no real measurements of what I used.  If you're a keen cook, you should have no problem recreating these as they are super simple, you will just have to use a bit of "feel" to guess what's right!


As I say, I threw these together for a quick dessert and this normally includes me rummaging around the cupboards, fridge and freezer to see what I might be able to cobble together.  Frozen berries are one of my all time favourite standbys (along with frozen peas!) because they add so much colour to whatever you are cooking.  They are also incredibly versatile and can be used in anything from smoothies to cakes to coulis.

I also tend to have some form of pastry floating around the freezer.  Pastry is something I tend to make double amounts of so I can rustle something up quickly (if I take it out of the freezer in time of course!).  It's not that I hate making pastry, its just...well, I don't know.  It's just not my favourite kitchen pastime!


Eggs, milk, cream and sugar are my staples.  And by this point, you can probably see where I am going with this!  Berry and custard filled tartlets anyone?

I used my small tart tins (again! I am loving them!) which are around 10cm across.  You will need enough frozen berries to fill them about 3/4 full (so you have space for custard and pastry).  You can make as any as you like, as there will be plenty of pastry and ample custard. Defrost the berries before using them and drain off any juice.




Sweet Shortcrust Pastry
As I mentioned, this will make far more than you need. Simply place the extra in a freezer bag and freeze until next time!


8oz/200g plain flour
4oz/100g butter
3-4 tbsp icing sugar
1 egg


Put all the ingredients into a food processor and blitz until you have a pastry.  You will probably need to add a little water too.  Roll the pastry into a ball and wrap in clingfilm and put in the fridge for around 20 minutes to rest.  Preheat the oven to 180C


After 20 minutes, flour your work surface well and roll out the pastry.  Make sure it isn't rolled too thin.  This pastry is not the easiest to work with, but as you are only making small discs of pastry it should be a little easier.  Cut out pastry to fit the tart tins, trim and cover with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans.  Bake blind for around 10 minutes.


Custard Filling
While the pastry is baking, you can make your custard.  This makes around 1/2  pint (250ml) of custard which will be ample for 4 tarts. 


4 fl oz/100ml double cream
2tbsp caster sugar
drop of vanilla essence
2 eggs
milk to make the custard up to 1/2 pint or 250ml.


Whisk all the ingredients together well, and then strain through a sieve. 


Building the tartlets
Remove the pastry cases from the oven.  Take out the greaseproof paper and beans.  Fill the cases with berries and then pour over the custard to the top.  Carefully transfer the tarts back to the oven and bake for around 20 minutes until the top is turning golden and the custard is set.


There is nothing technical about these, so you should find them easy enough to make.  And even easier to eat of course!  Serve warm with mascarpone or creme fraiche.  The berries add a lovely sharpness to the creamy custard. Mmm.