Category Archives: Food & Recipes

Recipe – Apple Cake

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Autumn means apples are in abundance and, whether they’re from your own tree or from the greengrocer, it’s the perfect time to make apple pie and apple cake. This recipe is by children’s cookery writer Annabel Karmel but, as my husband can’t eat wheat, I substituted the flour for a gluten free alternative. Apart from how simple it is to prepare, the beauty of this truly delicious cake is that it will stay moist for at least a week, because it is made with sunflower oil rather than butter.

Ingredients:

5 Granny Smith (or other) apples

1 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon

2 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice

450g (15oz) granulated sugar

375g (12oz) plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

3 tsp baking powder

4 eggs

1/2 tsp almond essence

2 tsp vanilla essence

250ml (8fl oz) sunflower oil

icing sugar for dusting

Method:

  • Preheat the oven to 180C/350F
  • Peel and slice the apples thinly and place in a bowl. Toss with the cinnamon, orange juice and 100g (3 1/2 oz) of the sugar.
  • Ina separate bowl mix together all the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder and the remaining sugar). Add the eggs one at a time, then add the almond and vanilla essences along with the oil.
  • Grease a deep ring tin or other decorative moulded cake tin, such as a Cathedral mould. Pour in a third of the batter, then half the sliced apple mixture, then a third more of the batter, followed by the rest of the apple mixture. Finish with the remaining third of the batter.
  • Bake in the preheated oven for about 1 1/2 hours or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. When mostly cool remove from the pan and cool further.
  • To serve, dust the top of the cake with sieved icing sugar.

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Fooling Around With Food

Posted in Food & Recipes by

Reblogged from Strand Style: Autumn is a great time to experiment in the kitchen and I want to try every single one of these recipes!

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As you know, I’m slightly obsessed with Pinterest… lucky for you, I don’t just pin, I actually attempt the DIY projects and nummy recipes. These are my top 10 favorite food pins, that I’ve tested and love… Enjoy!

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Recipe: Gluten Free Apple & Blackberry Crumble

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Last weekend I made my first ever crumble. It was really easy and tasted delicious so I can’t believe it had taken me so long. My only excuse is that, until now, the children have not been super keen on cooked fruit. But it turns out that, if you add enough butter and sugar, they gobble it all up! It probably also helped that they had picked the apples and blackberries themselves a couple of days before.

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Ingredients

For the crumble

  • 30g/1¼oz unsalted butter

  • 3 large Bramley apples or similar tart cooking apples, peeled, cores removed, each apple cut into 0.5cm/¼in slices

  • 150g/5¼oz caster sugar

  • 80g/3oz fresh blackberries

For the crumble topping

  • 170g/6oz gluten free flour

  • 85g/3oz unsalted butter

  • 1-2 tbsps caster sugar

Preparation method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
  2. For the crumble filling, heat the butter in pan over a medium heat. Add the apple slices and fry for 3-4 minutes, or until softened.
  3. Add the sugar and stir well to coat the apples. Continue to cook until the apples are tender and golden-brown and the sugar has melted.
  4. Add the blackberries and stir gently to combine.
  5. For the crumble topping, sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and sugar and rub together, using your fingertips, until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. (Or even better, put it all into a food processor like I did and mix until it looks like breadcrumbs)
  6. Spoon the apple and blackberry filling into a shallow ovenproof dish. Sprinkle over the topping mixture to just cover the filling. Transfer the dish to the oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until the topping is pale golden brown and the filling is bubbling.

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Making Strawberry Jam

Posted in Family Life, Food & Recipes by

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The lesson I’ve learned today is that sometimes the experience is more important and enjoyable than the end result. My youngest son and I had been planning to make strawberry jam all summer but for one reason or another we didn’t get around to it before we went on holiday. So yesterday we finally went to the pick-your-own farm near to where we live only to discover that the strawberry picking season was over! Not ones to be deterred by such a small obstacle we decided to pick apples and blackberries for crumble instead and buy the strawberries from the greengrocers.

Being a complete jam-making novice, I found a recipe for strawberry jam on the BBC Food website which looked easy enough. So, having prepared the fruit the night before, we got to work today when daddy and big brother were at a football match and little sister was playing happily with Lego. It was great fun but, unfortunately,  we (read I) ended up over-boiling the mixture so in the end the jam had a rather toffee-like consistency. And although we halved the recipe, I still think we should have got 2-3 jars out of it rather than one! But the taste is great and if you spread it on hot toast it loses some of its chewiness. Casper happily wolfed down two slices so I think we did well for a first effort! Now all that remains is cleaning the red glue (sorry jam!) off the kitchen surfaces…

Strawberries mixed with sugar and ready to go in the fridge overnight. We used 500g of fruit rather than the 1kg given in the recipe.

Strawberries mixed with sugar and ready to go in the fridge overnight. We used 500g of fruit rather than the 1kg given in the recipe.

The jam boiling away on the stove.

The jam boiling away on the stove.

Our one and only jar of strawberry jam.

Our one and only jar of strawberry jam.

Casper enjoyed his jam on toast despite the toffee-like texture.

Casper enjoyed his jam on toast despite the toffee-like texture.

 

 

 

A Taste of Sweden

Posted in Family Life, Food & Recipes by

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Many people probably think that Sweden’s culinary delights only consist of meatballs and pickled herring but it’s a well kept secret that the country also boasts some of the best ice cream and pizzas. Good enough to rival the Italians in my humble opinion. Not to mention the melt-in-your-mouth Marabou chocolate bars and the bakeries with their yummy cinnamon buns and flaky buttery Danish pastries.
I’m firmly of the belief that holidays are for indulging and this trip has been no exception. Maybe it’s a good thing that we’re leaving in three days’ time, otherwise I’d end up the size of a house!
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Recipe: Salmon with butter and chive sauce

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I love salmon (tasty, easy to cook and boosts your brain power – what’s not to like?) and this is hands down my favourite recipe. You have to try it, the sauce is out of this world but beware, it tastes good enough to eat straight out of the saucepan!

This dish tastes great with rice or any kind of potatoes – last night we ate it with boiled new potatoes and green beans, simple but yummy. I squeezed some lemon over the salmon fillets and seasoned them with sea salt with garlic and chilli from The Garlic Farm, before cooking in the oven at 180 degrees for around 15-20 minutes.

Here’s how to make the sauce:

Serves 4

2 finely chopped shallots
1 tbsp olive oil
150 ml white wine
1 fish stock cube
300 ml double cream
1 tbsp lemon juice
75 butter, cubed
3-4 tbsp finely chopped chives
50 ml crème fraiche

Saute the shallots in the oil for approximately 2 minutes. Add the wine, fish stock and double cream and simmer uncovered for around 20 minutes. Strain the sauce through a fine sieve and pour it back into a clean saucepan. Stir in the lemon juice and gradually add the butter cubes, whisking the sauce while the butter melts. Finally, add the chives and  crème fraiche.

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Recipe: Gluten free chocolate cake

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For Clemmie’s birthday party last weekend I made a gluten free chocolate cake in lieu of a traditional birthday cake so that my husband, who suffers from coeliac disease, could have a slice too. The cake turned out really well – nice and gooey on the inside – and tasted delicious with fresh strawberries and vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients:

  • 100 g margarine or butter
  • 3 eggs
  • 250 g caster sugar
  • 90 g gluten free flour
  • 5 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1 tbsp vanilla essence

1. Melt the butter or margarine over a low heat and let it cool

2. Whisk the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence until light and fluffy

3. Combine the gluten free flour and cocoa powder in a separate bowl and carefully fold into the sugar and egg mixture

4. Add the melted butter or margarine and stir to combine

5. Grease a springform cake tin and coat it with cocoa powder before pouring in the batter

6. Bake in the oven at 150°C for 25-30 minutes.

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Recipe: Classic Scones

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What could be more British than afternoon tea with a pot of steaming Earl Grey and fresh-from-the-oven scones slathered with butter and jam (and maybe a cheeky glass of Prosecco)? This recipe takes no time at all to whip up and the scones taste as delicious for breakfast as they do for a traditional cream tea.

Makes around 10 scones

400g plain flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspooon salt

100g butter

300 ml milk

Preheat the oven to 250c. In a bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut the butter into small cubes and pinch it into the flour mixture with your fingers until it forms a crumbly consistency. Add the milk and stir it all together – don’t over-mix, stop when you can form it into a dough. Roll the dough into balls and place in a muffin tray before baking in the oven for around 12 minutes.

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Recipe: Lemon chicken with black olives

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Last night I tried a new recipe for a chicken dish which is perfect for this time of year – light but still filling with a refreshing taste of lemon.

Lemon Chicken with Olives

.4 chicken fillets
2 garlic cloves
butter for frying
1 tsp salt
a pinch of black pepper
250ml double cream
1⁄2 chicken stock cube
1 tsp rosemary
grated zest and juice from 1⁄2 lemon
a handful of pitted black olives
3 tbsps roughly chopped parsley 

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Slice the chicken fillets in half length-wise. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Melt the butter in a frying pan and brown the seasoned chicken along with the  garlic. Combine the cream, chicken stock, rosemary and lemon juice in a casserole  in a casserole pan over a medium heat. Add the chicken and garlic and simmer covered for around five minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Stir in the lemon zest, olives and parsley (I omitted the parsley).

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I served this chicken dish with potato wedges and peas – yummy!

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Recipe – Simple Banana Bread

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In our house there always seems to be a couple of sad overripe bananas left in the fruit bowl. The children don’t like them when they’re green and won’t even contemplate eating a banana with ‘black bits’ on. However, it’s a different story when they’re baked into a delicious banana bread!

This is a variation of a recipe I found in a magazine a few years ago and have adapted to suit my family’s tastes (ie no sultanas or apple pieces although these can be added if you wish. I sometimes add some chopped up chocolate which always goes down a treat). It really is very simple and the banana bread tastes wonderful eaten warm straight from the oven or toasted with lashings of butter.

220g plain flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

80g caster sugar

75g brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all of the above in a bowl, make a well in the centre and add:

2 medium eggs

125ml vegetable oil

3 mashed ripe bananas

Pour into a greased 20cm x 10cm loaf tin, sprinkle with brown sugar and bake in a preheated oven at 160c/140c fan/ gas 2 1/2 for 60 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.