Really Easy White Chocolate Sauce

Another post made up ahead. Yes, I’m still on holiday. Fingers crossed I’m beautifully bronzed by now, and haven’t got too fat on all the lovely Turkish bread and beer that I will have no doubt feasted on.

My Mum took Ben and I to the new Cote Restaurant that has just opened in Bath before we went on holiday, a delicious meal was had by all and I can thoroughly recommend the duck. Mum opted for the Iced Summer Berries with a Warm White Chocolate Sauce for pudding, and we all agreed that it was the perfect simple, relatively good for you summer dessert. I decided to recreate the pud at home by using slightly defrosted raspberries and making the sauce from scratch, which is just so easy, and takes under five minutes. Perfect with fruit, I’m entirely sure the sauce would go nicely with cakes, crumbles and ice creams too.

Serves 4

100g white chocolate (I used Green and Blacks)

1 tsp vanilla extract

250ml double cream

1. Put all of the ingredients into a small saucepan and melt over a low heat.
2. Whisk together until the mixture has thickened and gone glossy.
3. Serve immediately.

Culinary Know How: FRESHER

Budget: UNDER £2

Kitchen Requirements: SMALL SAUCEPAN, WHISK.

Find more delicious desserts over at Sweet As Sugar Cookies, where this recipe is linked along with heaps of others!

Soda Bread

By the time you read this I will have jetted off on holiday to Turkey. I’ve never visited the country before and am of course very excited to sample the food, hopefully I will have some lovely foody photos and perhaps a recipe or two to share with you on my return. In the meantime, I thought I ought to share with you a couple of recipes I managed to fit in before flying on the 27^th, so as not to abandon the blog completely for half a month!!

This soda bread is the laziest loaf I’ve ever made. I think the aim is to have as little contact with the dough as possible, great for those who don’t like to knead, so it’s therefore best to mix the ingredients in a magimix. After that, just place the extremely sticky dough on oiled baking parchment and bake in the oven for half an hour. The lovely, slightly sweet, and very rustic looking (!) loaf is great toasted with butter.

From Gizzi’s Kitchen Magic

250g plain white flour

250g plain wholemeal flour

100g porridge oats

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp salt

25g butter, in pieces

500ml buttermilk

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Oil a baking sheet with flour. Place the flours, salt, oats and bicarbonate of soda into the food processor. Add the butter and mix until rubbed in.
2. Add the buttermilk through the funnel whilst the machine is running, until everything is thoroughly mixed (but not over mixed).
3. Bring the dough together lightly and handle gently. Place on the baking sheet and shape to a round loaf, about 20cm in diameter. Make a deep cross in the top with a sharp knife.
4. Bake in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes, tap the base of the loaf to check its cooked through, it should sound hollow. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Culinary Know How: SECOND YEAR

Budget: UNDER £3

Kitchen Requirements: FOOD PROCESSOR, BAKING SHEET, SHARP KNIFE, COOLING RACK.

Lemon Meringue Fool

The lengthy absence from my blogging is entirely honorable. I have both finished the second year of university and moved out of my flat, no mean feat considering its two flights up and included the transportation of a sizeable amount of kitchen goods and implements. Couple that with me going on holiday to Turkey on Monday and trying desperately not to eat carbohydrates and you haven’t exactly got the recipe for a perfect food blog post.

However, I decided to throw caution to the wind this weekend and venture back in to Nigella Kitchen that, as I’m sure you know, can be trusted to provide the most fattening recipes on the planet. I’m glad to say this Lemon Meringue Fool did not disappoint on calorie content. I’ve made this sumptuous desert once before, as part of an anniversary three course dinner I made for my parents in January. Back then in the New Year I was a complete novice in the kitchen and this recipe suited perfectly, being very simple to assemble ahead and leave in the fridge whilst you get on with the rest of the meal.

From Nigella Kitchen

Serves 2 - 4

150g lemon curd

2 tsp lemon juice (or Limoncello)

250ml double cream

lemon zest, to serve

1 meringue nest

1. Put the lemon curd and the lemon juice into a small bowl and stir. Add a little more juice if the mixture seems too thick, you want it to be able to fold it into whipped cream.
2. Whisk the double cream in another bowl until it just starts to thicken. Pour half the lemon mixture into the cream and fold using a rubber spatula, and then do the same with the other half.
3. Crumble the meringue into the cream and lemon mixture and fold.
4. Spoon the mixture into 4 smaller glasses or 2 larger glasses, depending on how greedy you are, and serve with a drizzle of the lemon mixture scraped from the bottom of the bowl and a few spirals of lemon zest.
5. You can serve immediately, or cover with clingfilm and leave in the fridge for up to 3 hours.

Culinary Know How: FRESHER

Budget: £2

Kitchen Requirements: WHISK, TWO BOWLS, GOBLETS/GLASSES, RUBBER SPATULA.

Gnocchi

I’ve always been keen to try making my own pasta, and hope to do so over the summer when I’m back in a larger kitchen and with the correct implements. Making this gnocchi however was the perfect middle ground, and can be made in any size of kitchen, with the minimal amount of fuss or items required. Basically, all you need is a big bowl, a floured work surface and some elbow grease and you’ve got your self some delicious pillows of potato-y goodness. Consisting of just flour and potato, its highly likely that you won’t even need to leave the house and buy ingredients to make them, so no excuses! I fried mine and served with a tomato and goats cheese sauce topped with some fresh basil leaves.

From ‘Gizzi’s Kitchen Magic’

Serves 6

500g floury potatoes

1 egg, beaten

250g plain white flour (00 pasta flour if you can find it… I couldn’t)

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Boil the potatoes, unpeeled, in a large pan of boiling water until tender. Drain and leave to cool until you are able to handle the potatoes and remove the skins. Mash until really smooth. Add the egg, plenty of salt and pepper and the flour and mix with your hands to make a dough.
2. Knead on a floured work surface for a few minutes, and then cut the dough into four 2cm thick ropes. Cut each rope into 2.5cm pieces, and roll to create gnocchi shaped cushions. Leave to dry out for 10 minutes to 2 hours on a floured work surface.
3. They can be kept in the fridge for up to two days, or you can cook them straight away by boiling in salted water until they rise to the surface.

with a tomato and goats cheese sauce

Culinary Know How: 2^ND YEAR

Budget: UNDER £2

Kitchen Requirements: MIXING BOWL, SAUCEPAN, MASHER.

Cardamom and Rosewater Infused Crème Brûlée

If there’s a crème brulee on the menu, chances are I’m going to order it. That or melt in the middle chocolate puddings… or zabaglione… or… now I’m just thinking about pudding. Back to the pud in question. Velvety creaminess under an ice rink of melted and cooled sugar, the simplicity of crème brulee is perhaps what makes them so popular on the menus of restaurants around the world. This variation however, from Gizzi’s Kitchen Magic, is anything but run of the mill. Delicately infused with cardamom and rose water, this dessert is different without being too out there, and was the perfect excuse to crack out the rose water that’s been lurking at the back of my cupboard since Christmas.

Slightly Adapted From ‘Gizzi’s Kitchen Magic’

Serves 4 (or 8 if you use old GU ramekins like me)

570ml double cream

6 egg yolks

5 cardamom pods

7 tbsp golden caster sugar

2 tbsp rosewater

1tsp vanilla extract

1. Heat the cream and the cardamom really slowly in a small pan until little bubbles begin to appear round the edge. Meanwhile, mix with the egg yolks with 3 tbsp on the sugar in a bowl. Remove the pods from the cream and then quickly whisk the cream into the egg mixture. Add the vanilla extract and rosewater and leave for 10 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 140C and divide the custard between the ramekins. Lay a piece of kitchen paper in the bottom of a roasting tray/tin (that has high sides). Boil the kettle and add enough of the water to fill the tray to half way up the sides of the ramekins. Place on the lowest shelf in the oven and bake for around 30 minutes, checking about 5 minutes before the end of cooking, they should be a wobbly loose jelly. Don’t worry, they will set in the fridge.
3. Remove from the oven, and remove the ramekins from the tray, and leave to cool for half an hour, before putting in the fridge for at least two hours.
4. When you come to serve the crème brulees, sprinkle the remaining 4 tbsp of sugar over the top of each, and then, using a blow torch or very hot grill, heat the sugar until it turns golden brown. Keep a close eye as they can burn very quickly. Allow the sugar to set (on my second attempt I actually put my crème brulees back in the fridge for an hour or so to set again, as I like the creamy part to be cold, but you’re more then welcome to serve immediately).

Culinary Know How: FRESHER

Budget: UNDER £4

Kitchen Requirements: 4 RAMEKINS, DEEP ROASTING TIN, COOLING RACK, PAPER TOWELL, SMALL SAUCEPAN, BOWL.

Lemony Salmon with Cherry Tomato Couscous

So here’s the second installment of the meal I made for my parents last week, a Lemony Salmon Steak with Couscous, another Nigella creation, and just as good as the last. Brilliantly easy to put together, the couscous cooks itself, leaving you time to get on and fry the salmon. Frying gives you all the control that you need to ensure the salmon is cooked just right, crispy and brown on the outside, but still deliciously coral coloured on the inside (at least that’s how I like mine). Together, the salmon and the couscous make a tasty, light meal, which is perfect for those watching their waistline in preparation for the summer getaway.

The recipe can be found here, the only changes I made was to omit the paprika as I didn’t have any. (1 cup couscous = 200g, 1 pint of cherry tomatoes = 300g)

Salmon Pre-frying 

Culinary Know How: FRESHER

Budget: UNDER £4

Kitchen Requirements: WIDE DISH, NON-STICK FRYING PAN, 3 BOWLS, CLING FILM.

Halloumi Salad with Beetroot and Lime Puree

I’ve been a rubbish cook this week, but I do have the excuse of two university exams. I’ve also been a pretty terrible blogger, it’s taken me a whole week to put up this fresh, vibrant salad that I made for my parents on an impromptu trip back home last week. Having a copy of Nigella Kitchen both at university and in Bath, I had a quick flick and this simple recipe immediately jumped out as a good starter option on a warm summers evening. A good choice when entertaining, the beetroot sauce can be made up ahead, so its just a case of frying the halloumi till golden on either side, and serving over salad leaves. The earthy beetroot flavour really compliments the halloumi, and the lime juice provides the right level of zing.

Slightly Adapted From Nigella Kitchen

Serves 2/3

1 packet of halloumi (approx. 225g)

2 small beets from a vacuum pack (or 150g cold cooked beetroot)

juice of half a lime

2 tbsp olive oil

1. Slice the halloumi to ½-1cm thickness. Being careful not to dye your fingers red, roughly chop the beetroot, before putting into a blender along with the olive oil and lime juice. Blitz to a puree.
2. Warm a large dry non stick pan over a high heat, add the halloumi and leave for about a minute until it has turned a golden colour, then flip and do the same with the other side.
3. Serve the halloumi on top of mixed salad leaves, and dollop the puree over.