Beef Rendang

Beef Rendang, Malyasian Deliciousness!

This beautifully fragrant dish is made with a blended paste using lemon grass, galangal, mild chillies, ginger, kaffir lime leaves, and coconut milk to name but a few of the most wonderfully fragrant herbs and spices, the cubed beef is seared in a roasting hot frying pan until the pieces are well browned, after that, chunky chopped onions and squashed cloves of garlic are quickly fried in all that lovely meaty juiciness, the meat is added back to the pan and the spice paste and coconut milk are added. Some lovely potatoes are peeled and cut and then tossed into the pan, the whole lot is brought to the boil then transferred to an oven dish with a tight fitting lid and popped in a cool oven, Gas Mark 3 - about 130c (without fan) if using an electric oven, and it is left to slowly cook for 21/2 hours.

It is served here with plain white rice, a medley of green vegetables including sugar snap peas, shelled peas, sliced runner beans and calabrese and the whole plate is sprinkled with chopped coriander.

Absolutely delicious!

Christmas Cake

Merry Christmas everyone!

I make my buttery and rich Christmas Cake in November then I drip Amaretto over it weekly for 4 weeks, keeping it wrapped in cling film and foil and sealed in an airtight container. I marzipan the cake during the first week of December and Ice it during the second week. Here I have used ready to roll icing, I usually make Royal icing but with so much going on this year it was an easier option. I'll add another picture after the cake has been cut over the Christmas period to show you the cake inside together with the layers of marzipan and icing, mmm, I can't wait!

Deck the halls with boughs of holly, tra, la la la la, la la la la...

Chocolate Brazil Nut Brownie Cake

 

This cake is a bit special, two fudgy, nutty and chocolatey brownie layers, sandwiched and covered all over with a thick and creamy chocolate ganache, decorated with chocolate covered Brazil nuts and finished with a dusting of cocoa, need I say more?

Chocolicious!

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

A fabulously 'retro' cake, if you were at school in the '70's then you probably made one of these in Home Economics! To make the cake all sticky and moist, spread the lining paper for your tin with soft butter and sprinkle on a good layer of caster sugar, arrange the pineapple rings and glace cherries, I added a few drops of coconut extract once the fruit was arranged in the tin, it adds a lovely fragrant element to the cake.

I'll pop the recipe here soon...

Eccles Cakes

Usually when I offer Eccles Cakes to visitors they are met with a grimace, it's a shame that these gorgeous little gems from Lancashire have got such a bad reputation, no wonder really, mass manufacturing is to blame for producing lardy and tasteless lumps of nothingness.

Now these are a different experience indeed, I use flaky pastry and fill the cakes with a mixture made with melted butter, soft, light brown sugar, currants, freshly chopped preserved peel, cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg. The top of the cake is brushed with milk and sprinkled with caster sugar before being baked in a hot oven for 15 minutes.

Eccles Cakes are absolutely delicious served with some Lancashire cheese, believe me, it really does work!

I'll pop the recipe here very soon.

Bramley Apple & Cinnamon Crumble Cake

As autumn approaches, windy days come along causing fat and juicy fruits to fall off heavily laden trees, little gifts from nature which are then turned into tasty and satisfying little treats. Here, I have made a light and moist cake flavoured with ground cinnamon and stirred in some cooked apples then layered some atop the cake mixture and finished it off with a layer of buttery crumble with the addition of ground almonds then sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar as it left the oven for a little more aromatic sweetness.

Absolutely delicious, the best of two worlds, cake and crumble, no more having to choose one or the other! You still need to decide... Ice cream, custard or cream? 

All three, why not!

Thai Crumbled Chicken with Cos Lettuce Wraps

This fiery hot yet fragrant chicken dish is so delicious, it tastes so wonderful that you just can't believe it's healthy too! There is very little fat, just a spoonful of olive oil and Cos lettuce is used as a 'wrap' instead of a bread based one.

The recipe for 2 good portions

4 medium sized chicken breasts

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 red chillies, chopped

3 big fat cloves of garlic

1 teaspoon Thai 7 spice (I use the Schwartz version)

1 tablespoon fish sauce (nam pla)

2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce

2 good bunches spring onions

a good bunch fresh coriander (cilantro)

Juice of 2 limes

2 Cos (or Romaine) Lettuces

Put the olive oil into a frying pan and place over a low heat, you want to get the oil just warm at this stage. Chop up the chillies and garlic, no need to be fancy, it all goes down the same way! Remove the seeds from the chillies if you don't want it too hot, pop the chillies and garlic into the pan and give it a stir, you just want to get them warm at this stage, leave them to cook whilst you chop up the chicken breasts, again, no need to be fussy, make the pieces about a teaspoon size.

Wash the coriander, spring onions and lettuces, separate the lettuce leaves and place all on a clean, dry tea towel.

Sprinkle a teaspoon of Thai 7 spice into the pan, add the chicken and turn the heat up high, keep stirring and fry off the chicken until cooked through. Splash in the fish sauce and let it evaporate, then drop in the sweet chilli sauce, stir all the time until the mixture in the pan goes quite sticky, at this stage add the juice of 1 lime, turn the heat down and let the contents of the pan simmer for 5 minutes.

Chop half of the spring onions and coriander and pop them into the pan, turn the heat back up, cook whilst stirring for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and cover the pan with a lid, foil or greaseproof paper. Let the whole thing stand for at least 2 hours.

When you are ready to eat, take the lid back off your pan and place it back onto the heat, when it is thoroughly heated all through, throw in the rest of the chopped spring onions and coriander, spritz the remaining lime juice all over and turn out into 2 bowls or plates. Grab yourself some lettuce leaves and sit down to eat, put spoonfuls of the chicken into the 'cup' of the lettuce leaves and scoff it down, you'll be mmm-ing and ahh-ing within seconds! 

Enjoy.