Spiced Beef Hotdish with jalapeño and cheddar cornbread dumplings

 Spiced Beef Hotdish with jalapeño and cheddar cornbread dumplings:

INGREDIENTS:

For the Spiced Beef Hotdish:

Stewing beef

1 Onion, chopped 

2 Carrots, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced

2 fresh jalapeños deseeded and finely chopped

1/2 cup Sultanas

1 tin Kidney beans, drained

1 tin Cannelini beans, drained

Tin chopped tomatoes 

Beef stock cube

1 cup water

1tbsp Baharat spice blend

For the Cornbread Dumplings:

Dry ingredients:

1 cup plain flour

1 cup fine cornmeal 

1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda

1tsp baking powder

Salt and pepper 

Flavour:

1-2 jalapeños deseeded and finely chopped

1/2 cup grated cheddar

Wet ingredients:

115g melted butter

2 medium eggs

1 cup Greek yogurt 

METHOD:

1. For the Spiced Beef Hotdish, chuck everything into a slow cooker and cook on low for 8hrs.
2. Preheat the oven to 180*C
3. While the oven is heating up make the cornmeal dumplings.
4. Put all the dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix up.
5. Add the flavour ingredients but reserve a little of the cheese to sprinkle on top.
6. Mix the flavour ingredients in so they’re well distributed. The flour coating these will help to prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the mixture in the oven.
7. Add the wet ingredients and mix till just combined.
8. Transfer the stew from the slow cooker to a large ovenproof dish, and top with scoops of the cornbread mixture. 
9. Sprinkle over the remaining cheese.
10. Bake for 20 mins till the cornbread is fluffy inside and crispy and golden outside. 

Super-sized, super cheesy, cheese scones

So I was about to start baking and hubby says: “if you’re doing cheese scones can you do me at least one big one? Sorry just not a fan of the little ones you’ve made recently.”

So what’s a girl to do in response to that...?!

Well basically...THIS! 

I make cheese scones fairly regularly but these are my best yet. Quite a few little additions but I really turned the volume up flavour-wise.  It’s a scaled up variation on a basic recipe from the Be-Ro book but with Some extras to bring out the flavour in the cheese. 

INGREDIENTS:

700g self-raising flour 

1/2tsp salt

1/2tsp white pepper 

1/2tsp onion granules

1tsp dried thyme 

1/2tsp smoked paprika 

1/4tsp freshly grated nutmeg

100g butter/margarine 

300g grated Red Leicester

6 eggs beaten

180ml milk

Topping:

1 egg beaten with 60ml milk

100g grated Red Leicester 

METHOD:

1) Pre-heat oven roasted 200*C

2) thoroughly mix the seasoning ingredients with the flour so all the flavours are well distributed throughout 

3) rub the butter into the flour

4) add the 300g cheese and mix in well 

5) beat the eggs and milk together and add to the dry ingredients and mix well to bring together as a slightly sticky dough. Try not to overwork the mixture otherwise you’ll get tough scones 

TIP: add the egg and milk mixture a bit at a time as you mix it into the flour mixture. The original recipe used only 4 eggs but I couldn’t get it to come together with that as it was far too dry so add the wet mix as needed rather than all in one go. 

6) turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface or one lined with clingfilm (which is my preference, less messy and avoids adding more flour making the mixture too dry) 

7) gently roll out the mixture to around 2-3cm thick then cut out circles using a lightly floured cutter and place onto a lined baking tray

8) brush the tops of the scones with the remaining egg and milk mixture then top with grated cheese from the 100g

9) bake for 13-15 minutes till they’ve risen slightly and the cheese is melted and golden 

10) Cool on a wire rack or enjoy them still warm from the oven. Serve with butter

Peanut butter and jam cookies

 Makes 16 enormous cookies

• 185 g Plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 125 g softened butter 
• 200 g smooth peanut butter
• 185 g brown sugar
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1 egg
• 100 g jam

1) pre-heat the oven to 180*C

2) beat butter, peanut butter and sugar together till fluffy

3) add the egg, milk and vanilla and mix in

4) add the flour and baking powder and mix in

5) use an ice cream/mashed potato scoop to put scoops of the mixture onto lined baking trays. Make sure to leave plenty of space around each one as they’ll spread slightly when cooking

6) dip a teaspoon measuring spoon into cold water and use the back of it to make a little divot in the middle of each cookie -wetting the spoon again after each one. The water on the spoon stops it from sticking 

7) add a teaspoon of jam to the dip you’ve created. 

8) bake for 10-12 mins or till light golden brown 

9) cool for a couple of minutes on the tray before transferring to a wire rack to cool fully

Spiced Cranberry and Orange Muffins

 Spiced Cranberry and Orange Muffins

Makes 20-24 muffins! 

Well it’s September so that means Autumn is upon us. A fact I am far too excited about! My favourite season by far, leaves turning the most amazing colours, bright crisp mornings, Bonfire Night and Halloween, toffee apples, or just apples and pears in season, cosy comfort food and snuggly nights in watching the wind and rain from indoors. Okay okay...I’ll stop! 

One of my favourite autumnal flavour combos for sweet baking is orange and cranberry with sweet warming spices so I decided to knock up some muffins with those flavours.  They do not disappoint if I do say so myself. 

This recipe uses orange zest and juice but I didn’t have an orange so I substituted it for the zest and juice of two lovely sweet satsumas/easy-peelers just be careful when grating the zest not to rip the whole skin off. 

Ingredients:

100g dried cranberries 

Zest and juice of a large orange/2 satsumas etc.

2 eggs

125ml oil (not extra virgin olive oil as it’s too strong flavoured)

250ml milk

125g caster sugar and 125g soft brown sugar (or just 250g caster sugar, the brown sugar just adds a caramel note)

400g self raising flour

Pinch salt

1.5 tsp ground cinnamon 

0.5 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Method:

In a little bowl, soak the cranberries in the orange zest and juice while you do the rest of the recipe. It just helps them to plump up a little and they absorb a little of the citrus flavour and become like little fruity bombs in the muffins. 

Preheat the oven to 180*C fan

Break the two eggs into a large bowl/bowl of a stand mixer and whisk on high speed for one minute till they are full of bubbles and fluffy.

Add the oil and milk and whisk till combined. 

Then add the sugar and whisk again till the mixture is smooth.

Add the flour, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix in till just mixed.

Add the cranberries, zest and orange juice. Whisk in briefly till it’s just mixed.

Scoop into paper cases in a muffin tin.

Bake for 15-20 mins till a skewer/cocktail stick comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the tin for 10 mins then turn out onto a wire rack to fully cool.

TIP: For a crispy top you could add a teaspoon of Demerara sugar to the top of each muffin right before they go in the oven. Or you can ice them with a drizzle icing which is just a mixture of icing sugar and orange juice and zest. 

Spicy Egg Parcel (breakfast/brunch/lunch/dinner/midnight munchies!) (V)

 Spicy Crispy Egg Parcel (breakfast/brunch/lunch/dinner/midnight munchies!) 

Serves 1

Vegetarian 

I promise these look trickier than they are to make. Also, nice to have a veggie cooked breakfast to draw on especially if you’ve got lovely vegetarians in your life. 

Looking in the fridge today trying to decide what on earth I wanted for breakfast/lunch and just started grabbing stuff and decided to just play and see what I could come up with. Pretty chuffed with the eventual product. I’d say it was a successful experiment! 

INGREDIENTS:

1tsp max cooking oil

1/4 diced red pepper 

1 chopped spring onion

3 medium eggs beaten

Pinch each of smoked paprika, dried chilli flakes, dried oregano, salt and pepper 

40g finely grated cheese (I used Red Leicester)

Wheat flour tortilla wrap 

Sriracha (to your taste)

Non stick pan

Greaseproof/baking paper

METHOD:

Fry off a little diced red pepper and chopped spring onions in very very little oil (if you use too much you risk being burned later) in a good non stick frying pan. Meanwhile beat 3 eggs and add a pinch each of smoked paprika, dried chilli flakes and dried oregano, salt and pepper, mix up and pour the eggs over the veggies and tilt the pan so the whole base of the pan is coated in egg, sprinkle over about half the grated cheese and once the eggs look about half cooked, lay on a tortilla wrap. Press down gently so the Runny egg and melty cheese sticks to the wrap. When you can jiggle the pan and the egg slides around you know it’s cooked enough to do this next bit. TURN OF THE HEAT! We don’t want anyone starting fires. Lay a piece of greaseproof paper over the top of the pan and put a plate face down on the paper. Can you see where this is going??? This is why it was important not to use too much oil! Keeping a hand firmly on the plate, invert the pan so the egg and wrap are now sitting on the plate and greaseproof. Put the plate to one side for a moment and put the pan back on the heat. Add a little sprinkle of cheese directly into the pan, and slide the wrap and egg back into the pan, wrap side down, this way you’ll get really crispy cheesiness on the outside of the parcel. Then sprinkle a little more cheese on the egg, fold up the sides of the wrap with a spatula/fish slice. And cook, turning every now and again until the tortilla wrap and the cheese that’s stuck to the outside of it, is crispy and golden. Serve with a drizzle of sriracha. 

You could add any veg you like to this but just make sure it’s not too veg-heavy or the egg won’t hold together and go crispy and you’ll end up with a soggy wrap. A bit of bacon or cooked chicken would be nice in this too but I was working with what we had and sometimes I just fancy meat free. 

I can imagine this being really nice late night after you’ve been out for a few drinks but you MUST remember the two key safety steps:

!! Use hardly any oil or you’ll get scalded!!

!! Turn off the heat before placing the greaseproof on top of the pan or you’ll start a fire!!

Mediterranean Salmon with Lentils and Broccoli

Mediterranean Salmon with Lentils and Broccoli 

Valentines dinner tonight: oven roasted salmon with roasted courgettes and tomatoes, served on a bed of green lentils in a tomato, chilli and garlic sauce, with tenderstem broccoli. Hubby LOVED it! It was really tasty and only 3 syns for 0.5tbsp olive oil and 1 syn for the pouch of green lentils from Aldi. So 2 syns per person.

Ingredients:

2x boneless skinless salmon fillets
2x courgettes, split lengthways and chopped
1/2 punnet of baby plum tomatoes
1/2tsp dried oregano
1/2tsp dried basil
1tsp olive oil

1tsp crushed garlic
1/2tsp olive oil
1tsp finely chopped red chilli
2-3tbsp tomato purée
Pouch of Aldi Green Lentils
1/4 cup water
Splash balsamic vinegar
Splash lea and perrins

Tenderstem broccoli

Method:

1) preheat the oven to 170*C
2) prepare 2 sheets of foil, lined with a sheet of baking paper/greaseproof. Fold each sheet of foil and greaseproof in half (like a book) then open it back up ready to use them as parcels
3) trim the broccoli and slice the courgettes
4) fry the courgettes in a non stick pan with 1/2tsp olive oil till they start to colour
5) split the courgettes between the two parcels, add some cherry plum tomatoes
6) sprinkle on some dried oregano and dried basil to add extra flavour
7) pan fry the salmon in 1/2tsp olive oil for 1 minute per side (use a timer or it’ll overcook)
8 ) put the salmon on top of the courgettes and tomatoes
9) fold the paper and foil back down so it’s just resting on the salmon (this helps protect the salmon from overcooking but by not sealing the parcel it lets them roast rather than steam)
10) bake/roast in the oven for 15-18 minutes
11) while the parcels are baking, prep the lentils etc.
12) heat the pan again and add the last 1/2tsp olive oil, add crushed/grated garlic, finely chopped chilli and tomato purée, fry it off for a minute on a low heat.
13) add the lentils and toss in the tomato mixture, add in about 1/4 cup water from a recently boiled kettle. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar and a splash of Lea and perrins and let it cook to reduce the liquid
14) steam the broccoli in a tiered steamer for no more then 5 minutes
15) serve the lentils, encircling them with the broccoli, remove the salmon from the parcels and put on a plate for a moment while you tip the courgettes and tomatoes out of the parcels into the lentils along with any juices in there. Top with the salmon and serve.

Easy Egg Fried Rice

Last nights dinner - egg fried rice using ASDA diced lean bacon. So yummy and hubby took the leftovers into the office for lunch. 2 syns for half of everything in the pan.

Ingredients:

Asda diced lean bacon
Sliced chestnut mushrooms
Trimmed bunch of spring onions chopped
Frozen peas
Frozen sweet corn
2 chopped red peppers
Garlic
Fresh ginger
Chilli
Soy sauce
Syn free oyster sauce (sorry I can’t remember which one)
Aldi basmati rice pouch (2 syns per pouch)
Eggs beaten

Method:

1) in a large non-stick wok fry off the bacon and mushrooms, keep cooking till the moisture from the mushrooms has evaporated
2) add the rest of the veg and fry till the frozen veg is tender
3) remove from the pan and set aside
4) scramble the eggs in the wok and when they’re almost set, remove them from the pan and set aside
5) squeeze the rice pouches to break up the rice
6) fry the rice until it starts to toast stirring frequently
7) add the chilli, garlic and ginger, oyster sauce and soy sauce
8.) return the vegetable and bacon mix and eggs to the pan and stir everything together till it’s all piping hot again and well mixed