Toffee meringues, blackberries & cream.

There was a small cupful of egg whites in the freezer, and upon finding that there was nothing else interesting to bake with in the cupboards, decided to try my hand at something new.

Meringue, fruit and cream isn't an original combination by any stretch of the imagination, but I really had forgotten just what a good one it is.
I called these 'toffee' meringues because the muscavado sugar gives them a gorgeous buff colour and toffee-like taste. I was going to christen them 'burnt sugar meringues' but decided that sounded a bit too pretentious! So toffee it is.
If we must get technical about it, these are actually mini pavlovas - the addition of cornflour and vinegar makes them so. But, hey, does it really matter? They taste bloody brilliant.

Ingredients:
5 egg whites
200g brown granulated sugar
150g light or dark muscavado
2 tsp cornflour
splash of vanilla
1 tsp vinegar

How to do it:
Preheat oven to gas 4/180°C
1. Whisk the egg whites until they hold firm peaks.
2. Add the sugar slowly, spoonful by spoonful, beating after each addition.
3. Once the mix is thick and glossy, fold in the cornflour, vinegar and vanilla. Spoon onto a paper-lined baking sheet.
4. Stick in the oven, close the door and immediately turn the heat down to gas 2/150°C.
5. Bake for about 20 minutes, then switch off the oven, leaving the meringues in there for about half an hour.
6. Sandwich with whipped cream and serve with a tumble of fruit alongside (blackberries for preference).



The home oven is completely unreliable, so I go by eye for everything which is not a great idea for something as exacting as meringues! But I didn't find them too scary - as long as they're baked at a low-ish temperature, you'll be fine. I started off at roughly gas 4, immediately went down lower, thought they weren't cooking so whacked the heat up a bit more, and then switched it off completely. They turned out lovely though! And as you can see, I had no greaseproof paper so used foil instead. It was absolutely fine, you just have to peel them off rather nimbly.
I also foolishly did this recipe by hand. Suffice to say, my arm just about dropped off.
Also, I think my mix wasn't quite stiff enough - I didn't even contemplate doing the bowl over head test! So it's probably best doing it in a machine.


If you're in the UK, look out for 'king' blackberries. I think they may be exclusive to M&S. They are absolutely stunning fruit. The normal variety are delicious, but these, these are something else.

I honestly haven't enjoyed a dessert as much as I enjoyed this - the meringues were crisp and chewy, the cream soft and thick, the berries slightly tart and staining everything a gorgeous purple.
My little heart is all aflutter with joy after the first attempt at these worked!

Basil, minestrone & veg box fury.

Mother is on the verge of cancelling the organic veg box we get every Wednesday.
I would believe her but for the fact she has said this every week for about 2 months now. Granted, it is rather annoying - it's summer and we're still getting rubbish potatoes, wizened carrots and massive smelly onions, just with the odd gnat-infested lettuce chucked in as a sign of 'summer' produce.
I know for a fact that not all organic produce is as crappy as this. We used to have an allotment, and the stuff we got out of there was 100 times better. It's just a theory, but we're almost certain they save the best produce for the market - everything was so fresh and crisp and enticing enough at their stall to make us sign up for the scheme in the first place.
That being said, we did get some utterly charming little broad beans this week, so maybe we'll hang on in there and see if it gets any better!
They were shelled by little hands (sibling no.4) and added to the minestrone.


Weirdly, I've never actually made this before, but I wasn't too worried since soup is one of the easiest things to cook.


I sauteed one large onion and three cloves of garlic and added two courgettes, a red pepper, two carrots and a handful of wholewheat spaghetti. On top of that went a whole load of water, one chicken and one mushroom stockcube, and a tin of tomatoes.
The ubiquitous squirt of ketchup and dash of soy (in my cooking at least!) also went into the pot.
Our purple basil is growing wonderfully, so a handful was finely chopped into lovely ribbons and added last of all. Yes, yes, I know - never chop basil, always tear. But to that I say CODSWALLOP.


I won't give a step-by-step recipe as it seems a bit condescending to be honest. Soup is lovely and forgiving because it is completely open to interpretation, so is pretty hard to get wrong.
Please forgive the photos, it looks rather awful but tasted fantastic - savoury and tomato-ey and fragrant with basil which was intensified with a little pesto and handful of freshly grated parmesan. Even the veg hater of the family managed a whole bowl! (And no, that's not me..)
I just wished we had an old hunk of parmesan rind to chuck in the pot, because it makes the broth lovely and silky and provides a beautiful savoury undertone.



I'll definitely be making more of this in the future. It's a fantastic way of using up odds and ends, tastes great and is exceptionally good for you.
Huzzah!

Hummus, pitta bread and spiced beef patties.

With the abundance of steak mince that arrived yesterday it made sense to make something with it tonight.
Since we had pizza yesterday it seemed a bit wrong to have pasta, which unfortuently ruled out the obvious and easy options of lasagne, bolognese and meatballs.
Instead the mince was turned into little patties to go with hummus and pitta bread - two things we eat often, so I was glad to have the oppertunity to make them from scratch. The meat was coarsely ground, which made it perfect for the job of making sure the finished product had lots of texture.
If you can't find sumac, it can be replaced with some lemon zest.

Serves 4
Ingredients:
1kg steak mince
1 shallot
3 cloves garlic
coriander
sumac
paprika
1 red chilli
salt
mustard seeds
breadcrumbs
1 egg

How to do it:
1. Finely chop the shallot, coriander, red chilli and garlic.
2. Lightly toast the mustard seeds in a dry pan.
3. In a big bowl combine the mince, shallot, coriander, garlic, chilli, mustard seeds, spices, salt, egg and breadcrumbs.
4. Shape into tiny burgers or 'sausages', kofta-style, and cook in the oven, a pan, or on the barbeque.


You can of course omit or add any flavourings you wish. These would also work with minced lamb.
Another variation would be using pork mince (with red chilli, coriander, garlic and ginger) and rolling them up in big lettuce leaves with a chilli, lime and nam pla dipping sauce on the side. Yum!
Go vegetarian - for a chickpea overload, make little falafels instead of the meat patties.




Hummus is very rewarding to make from scratch, because it requires only a few minutes of your time, costs pennies and is absurdly easy to do, but what you get out of it tastes fantastic. Remember the salt - chickpeas are a delicious but bland canvas and need to be seasoned well. This recipe is hummus at its most basic, and can therefore adapt to any additions you may choose to throw at it - black pepper, coriander, paprika, chilli...

Ingredients:
chickpeas
garlic cloves
lemon juice
tahini
olive oil
salt

How to do it:
It couldn't be simpler - go blender-happy and blitz the stuff into oblivion!
Well, okay, not quite. I blended the chickpeas, garlic, salt and tahini first for a bit and gradually added the lemon juice and olive oil. This ensures you get the texture you like best.
I didn't put any measurements down, because it's one of those things that does not require a recipe. You just blend away, and taste as you go along until you're happy with it.
I ended up using five cloves of garlic and the juice of 1 & 1/2 lemons, when I thought it would only come to about two cloves and half a lemon.
Point is, it's all down to personal taste so just go with it!


And lastly, onto the pittas. I used Jill Dupleix's recipe, which can be found here.
I'm assuming I rolled them too thickly, because they weren't slightly hollow as pittas should be. Also, I added some coriander to them to echo the coriander in the meat which is why you can see some weird dark green flecks in the dough.
They tasted really good though, and I would urge you to try making them - people are very impressed but they're so easy to do! I'll just have to remember to roll them thinner next time!


All in all, a very successful dinner. I felt all glowy and ethereal from cooking all day. I love being in the kitchen when it's quiet, just slowly and calmly working through everything.

Banana bread & my first attempt at risotto.

The family members that went to England (two siblings and both parents) returned today.
I wanted to cook something nice.
Possiblities were narrowed somewhat as dinner had to involve a whole cooked chicken that had been lurking in the fridge. Serving it whole was out of the question because it wouldn't stretch to seven people. A salad seemed too dull, sandwiches too pedestrian, a pie too boring. So funnily enough I settled on a dish that many find repellent in it's blandness, but seemed slightly exciting to me as I had never cooked it before. I have eaten risotto half-heartedly many times, yet never once made it myself.
I shredded the meat and used the carcass to make the chicken stock. I had no peas so instead sliced green beans into tiny rounds which were added with the shredded chicken to the risotto. Alongside, we had asparagus that had been brought from England. I forgot to add saffron.





Don't you hate it when bananas go brown before you have a chance to eat them? There were five like that in the fruit bowl this morning so I baked banana bread. We haven't had it in a while, so it was lovely to make it again.
Banana bread is pretty hard to get wrong. Case in point, I completely made up this 'recipe' today and it turned out beautifully. This recipe is not very sweet, so tweak the sugar content to your liking. I used five bananas to save them the fate of being chucked in the bin, however three is around the right number.
The riper the bananas the better.

Makes one loaf.

Ingredients:
3 bananas
3 tablespoons natural yoghurt
1/2 cup granulated or muscavado sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 free-range eggs
100g butter, melted
2 cups self-raising flour
salt
cinnamon

How to do it:
Preheat oven to 350°F/gas 4
1. In a large bowl mash the bananas with the yoghurt, sugar, and eggs.
2. Stir in the butter, vanilla, salt and cinnamon.
3. Fold in the flour.
4. Pour mixture into a loaf tin lined with greaseproof paper. Bake until a skewer comes out clean.





This weekend was good.
My first loaf of bread and my first risotto.

More late night baking & something vaguely challah-like.

I can't believe I have never baked a loaf of bread.
Not once.

Sibling no.2 has a ballet exam tomorrow and will be dancing all day so I thought I would make her something sustaining for breakfast tomorrow. Hence the fact that I am awake at 1:30am, glazing a loaf with egg before it goes in the oven. I am attempting to make challah - it's always seemed so tempting, but one of those things that I never really thought to make at home. After much researching, I decided all the recipes online differed too much from each other. Not knowing which one to pick, I cobbled together my own:

Ingredients:
5 cups of plain flour, plus extra for kneading
1 & 1/4 cup lukewarm water
5g of dried yeast
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 medium eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons salt
poppy seeds



How to do it:
Preheat oven to 350°F/gas 4
1. Combine the yeast, sugar, honey and a 1/4 cup of water and leave for a few minutes until frothy.
2. In a large bowl mix the flour, salt and poppy seeds.
3. Into the flour add the oil, yeast mixture, cup of water and 3/4 of the egg.
4. Combine and knead on a floured surface, adding flour gradually until the dough is smooth and elastic.
5. Put dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a teatowel and leave for an hour or until doubled in size.
6. Split dough into three equal parts, and roll these parts into long snakes.
7. Lay the three parts alongside each other and press their ends together. Braid the dough and press the other ends together.
8. Place on a floured baking sheet, cover again with the teatowel and leave to rise for 45 minutes.
9. Using the remaining egg, glaze and scatter more poppy seeds on top if you want.
10. Bake until golden brown.

Makes one very large loaf.



You can see from the rather poor quality photo (sorry about that - the good camera is off to England along with half the family), I wasn't too great with the braiding. I am far too impatient. It didn't really matter in the end though - what a handsome loaf! And, wow, did it grow - as you can see, it rivals a cast-iron Le Creuset pot in size. I'm very pleased with my first attempt at bread.

Right, I'm going to sleep!

P.S. I have no idea how traditional my recipe is. All the recipes I came across stipulated using sesame/poppy seeds on the top of the loaf, whereas I put them through the dough too (I am a poppy seed fiend). I am certainly no expert, and haven't even eaten challah before. So this is most likely not the real deal. You have been warned!

Late night baking - boysenberry & lemon biscuits.

So it's 11:00pm here and I've just put a tray of biscuits in the oven. It's not to satisfy some rampant craving, but rather sibling no.2 needs some baked goods for her tennis match tomorrow at 10:00am and I don't plan to be up earlier than that. So out of love for sleep & laziness, I'm doing them now. Perversely, it's the same amount of work and the same amount of sleep whether I make these today or tomorrow.. I guess I just like being awake later rather than earlier.

Note: the dough will seem too crumbly too bind together, but don't be tempted to add any more liquid, instead persevere and conquer!

This is adapted from Nigella Lawson's recipe for Lemon Gems.

Ingredients:
200g butter, softened
75g caster sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
zest of one lemon
pinch of salt
275g plain all-purpose flour
40g ground almonds
25g cornflour
boysenberry jam

How to do it:
1. Beat the butter and sugar together. Beat in the lemon juice + zest, salt and egg yolk.
2. Fold in the flour, then the cornflour and ground almonds.
3. Preheat your oven to gas mark 4/350°F.
4. Shape the dough into balls and flatten onto a lined baking sheet.
5. With your thumb, press to make an indentation in the dough (for the jam to go in later).
6. Bake in an oven at gas mark 4 for roughly 20 minutes.
7. Once very lightly golden, remove and immediately spoon some jam into each indentation.
8. Leave to cool completely.
Makes roughly 20.

Variations: You could of course top with lemon curd to match the lemon in the dough. For orange biscuits, replace the lemon zest & juice with orange, and use marmalade for the top. For lime ones, use lime zest and juice and top with lime curd. Or, my siblings' favourite, add some crunchy peanut butter to the mix (beat in at the first stage) and use strawberry jam for the topping - delicious.

These were great. Crisp and buttery, not too sweet, and the boysenberry went nicely with the lemon.
Again, sorry for the rubbish photo! It was obviously rather dark, it being nighttime, so the flash had to be on. In real life the jam is a vivid purple, and the biscuits look like pretty little jewels.
Ah well.
You can always make them and see for yourself (:

A lonely dinner - chicken macaroni soup.

You know how food from other countries can seem really strange? And then you think to yourself, 'it's obviously not strange for them, because that's whast they've grown up with.. but DAYUMN! That's some weird food.'
Well, this is a dish that may seem slightly weird to some. I mean, it's not outlandish in any way, but I find a lot of people don't really get how delicious this soup is!
I don't think of it as anything exciting since I've been eating it my whole life. Actually, it's one of my top 3 favourite meals ever, but whatever.
Chicken macaroni soup (praise the lord) is from Singapore, where my mum grew up, and it is absolutely divine. I don't know why I like it quite as much as I do, but there you go.
As usual, I don't have any weights or measurements because this is also a meal that heavily depends on personal taste. Go with what you feel you will like, but if you feel you want some weights, give me a shout.

Ingredients:
chicken (breasts, thighs, wings, a whole bird, whatever you've got)
ginger
garlic cloves
spring onions (i.e. scallions, green onions, salad onions)
a red chilli
coriander
soy sauce
sesame oil
sriracha chilli sauce
chicken stock cube or concentrate
macaroni
beansprouts


How to do it:
1. Fill a big pot with water and place over a medium heat. Add the raw chicken. (The base of the soup is a chicken stock so meat on the bone is best, but you can use breast meat and add more stock cubes.)
2. Chop up the rest of the ingredients for the stock.
Slice the ginger into thick coins, and squash the garlic cloves under a knife. Add to the pot.
3. While the stock is bubbling away happily, get on with the garnishes.
Finely slice the spring onions and place in a ramekin or small bowl. Slice the chilli into rounds, as thinly as you can, and put in another ramekin. Chop up the coriander, and, you guessed it - put in a remekin.
4. Once the chicken has cooked and become tender, remove from the pot and shred the meat. Throw away the bones and put the shredded meat into a serving bowl. Taste the stock. It'll probably need some more chicken flavour, so add a cube or concentrate from a bottle. Keep the stock on a low simmer.
5. Cook your beansprouts by blanching them in a big pot of boiling water. You want them to still have some crunch so don't overcook them. Put the cooked beansprouts to the side. In the same water, cook the macaroni according to packet instructions. Once cooked and drained, return to the pot and douse in sesame oil to stop it from sticking and also to give a faint aroma that's crucial to this dish.
6. Pour some soy sauce over the sliced red chilli in the ramekin.
7. To serve: place the ramekins of spring onion, chilli in soy sauce and coriander on the table along with the bowls of beansprouts and chicken and the pots of soup and macaroni. Also have on the table the condiments (soy sauce, sesame oil, chilli sauce). Construct your own bowl of soup and enjoy!


This is the way we have it at home - everyone serves themselves and adds as much or as little of each component as they want.
I have my chicken soup with lots of shredded chicken, beansprouts, sliced chilli, a squirt of sriracha, copious amounts of spring onion and lots of soy sauce.
Your finished bowl, however you wish to garnish it, will be fragrant with ginger, very faintly garlicky, and extremely, extremely delicious.
You could also have some chinese veg in this, such as pak choi, or substitute the macaroni for noodles (but trust me, macaroni is the best here!).


Sorry for the rubbish photo. I'm at the flat so I only have access to a rather old compact digital camera. (But look how sparkling and white my stove is ;D) And unfortuently I don't have those lovely big chinese bowls at the flat, or chinese spoons so I had to have it in a tiny white bowl ):

I love chicken macaroni soup more than life itself.

The cookie saga continues! (And possibly ends)

Today I was reflecting. Reflecting upon my failure to bake a proper cookie. Yeah, yesterday's were okay but they just weren't good enough.
Well, I decided that this pitiful character flaw cannot go unchallenged so I tried a new recipe today.

Ingredients:
2 cups + 2 tablespoons plain all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 & 1/2 sticks (170g) butter, melted
1 cup soft light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg +1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
chocolate chips

How to do it:
Preheat oven to 325°F/Gas mark 3
1. Combine together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.
2. Combine the melted butter, two sugars and vanilla extract and beat together. Add the egg and egg yolk and beat until thick and homogenous.
3. Stir the dry ingredients into the butter/sugar/egg mixture until combined.
4. Stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Roughly shape into balls - the craggier the better - and bake for roughly 15 minutes.
6. Take out when the edges are lightly browned. You want them to look slightly underdone in the middle - they'll harden slightly upon cooling and still be soft and chewy.



I don't know exactly how many this recipe makes since I only baked one as a test run and froze the rest of the uncooked mix in logs. Since mother reads this blog I thought it best not to be gorging myself on dough. However, I would guesstimate it to make about 15 chocolatey circles of delight. (UPDATE: It makes 12 large cookies.)
And, yes, these are about as near to perfect that I'll probably ever get. They're thick and chewy and soft and pretty amazing.
I implore you to make these as soon as possible. In fact, just go and do it now. Yes, you. Make them. Make them now! And tell me how you get on (:


NOTE: The dough will seem really crumbly and won't mix together easily, but do not add more liquid! Persevere and squidge it together with your hands.
Also, the recipe specified unsalted butter + 1/2 tsp of salt. I used salted butter and also the extra salt. Possibly because I am a disgusting human being, but whatever. They taste goooood.

Original recipe here.

Chocolate chip cookies.

Oh no! I can't find my ancient digital camera that I keep here at the flat. No photo today ):
I've only made CCCs twice before, and they have always been disasters - flat, spongy, delicious disasters. You know the type of cookie that's really chewy and thick? That's what I've aimed for, but when they come out of the oven they've collapsed into cakey puddles of (not so much) joy. They tasted nice and were chewy, but it just wasn't what I wanted.
So I've been scouring the internet ever since for a recipe that sounds good, and decided for this one. I halved the mixture because the full amount claims to, rather disconcertingly, make 60 cookies. So these are the modified amounts.

Ingredients:
1 & 1/8 cup plain all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup of butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup soft light brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
Chocolate chips

How to do it:
Preheat oven to 375° F/Gas mark 5
1. In one bowl mix together the flour, salt and baking powder.
2. In another cream together the butter (I used salted but you can use unsalted) and both sugars. Beat in the egg until the mixture is homogenous and completely blended - it will be quite runny.
3. Add the flour mix into the butter mix and stir until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips (or chocolate that you've chopped yourself).
4. Shape into balls and place onto a lined baking sheet.
5. Bake for roughly 10 minutes until slightly golden, then take out and leave to cool for however long you can restrain yourself. If you want smaller cookies make the balls of dough smaller and bake for 7/8 minutes, and bake for longer if you want bigger cookies.


By halving the amounts, this is meant to give 30 cookies. I actually got about 15 from it, and these weren't even very big. This recipe is fantastic, the cookies come out browned but soft inside, and perfectly sweet and salty.
However, it's still not exactly what I'm looking for - I'm beginning to think only factory machines can make the perfect American cookie. ):

Original recipe here.

Oh, and you can roll any unused cookie dough into a log, wrap in clingfilm, and store in the freezer. They can be baked without thawing.

Chilli con carne pt. 2

Wanted to make guacamole. Cut one avocado open and it was brown. Cut the second one open and it was brown. Dammit.

Ah well. We had salsa, grated cheddar, sour cream, tortillas and rice. Some disgustingly decadent individuals even had a mix of chilli and rice within a tortilla.
Personally I find the texture of the mince with the tortilla too soft, and with rice too same-y, so I compromised and toasted my filled tortilla (chilli, cheese, salsa) in a dry pan. I had it with salad and dipped the wrap into sour cream. It was okay - I guess I'm just not that into chilli. Except of course two days later, when the flavours intensify and everything is just a heck of a lot better. The photo is unfortunate in the way that the lovely black beans in the chilli aren't visible.
And is it just me or does that blob of delectable sour cream look a little like an albino fried egg?

A very basic salsa recipe:
Chop two tomatoes, a red pepper, a little coriander and one spring onion finely. Make garlic paste by crushing one small clove with salt under a knife. Mix everything in a bowl, squeeze some lime juice over and mix again.

Chilli con carne.

There was a load of mince to be used so I decided on chilli for two reasons:

1. Apart from some initial chopping and getting everything together etc., it's a very easy meal - plonk it all in a pot and simmer for a good few hours. Okay, that may be oversimplifying things but you get the jist ;D
2. The whole family likes it. With seven of us, there's going to be at least one person (usually me) that doesn't like what's on offer. We're all very good and eat it anyway, but it's nice to have something that everyone looks forward to.

So here's the first ever recipe I've posted on the blog. I don't use measurements because a) something like a chilli is really all about your own personal taste and b) I actually have no idea what the measurements are... indeed, the ingredients vary too depending on what there is to hand! Tinker with this recipe to your heart's content. Oh, and if you have it handy, a single square of 70% dark chocolate is always good to add in.

Ingredients:
Steak mince (1kg)
Chopped tinned tomatoes (two cans)
Two medium red onions (finely chopped)
Three cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
Olive oil or vegetable oil
Beans (kidney beans, turtle beans, whatever you like)
Cumin
Smoked paprika
One dried smoked chipotle chilli
Soy sauce
Worcestershire sauce
Tomato ketchup
Chilli sauce of your choice.

Serves 8.

How to do it:

1. Add your oil to a large pot (enough to coat the garlic and onion). Put the pot over a medium heat and add the finely chopped onion and garlic. Stir until softened. Add the mince. (You can brown the meat if you want but I don't bother since I'm using such a large amount.)

2. Once no more pinkness is visible in the mince add the two tins of chopped tomatoes, a glug of soy sauce and a generous shake of worcestershire sauce. Stir to combine then top up with water. (I leave the chilli to simmer for about three hours, so I add a lot of water. You may want to add less) Adjust the heat so everything starts to simmer.

3. Add your spices and seasoning - today I used cumin, smoked paprika, a smoked dried chipotle chilli, a little chipotle sauce, a squeeze of ketchup and, of course, salt. Play about with whatever flavours you wish.
4. Add in your beans.

5. Leave to simmer gently for as long as possible - the longer the better - because the flavours will get better and the meat will be tender. Remember to stir everything together every so often so it doesn't all burn onto the bottom of the pot.

6. When it's thick and a lot of the water has evaporated it's ready. Serve with guacamole, salsa, tortillas, rice, sour cream, cheese... whatever you want. You could also have it with corn chips, or cornbread (chopped green chilli and cheddar in cornbread is delicious).