Author Archives: arabellacooks

Vegan gluten free fairy cakes

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Filed under egg free, Gluten free cakes, Vegan cakes, Vegan gluten free

vegan gf fairycakes

My daughter loves home made cakes.  As a coeliac who’s allergic to eggs (and very fussy) she has limited choices when it comes to cake so I’m  constantly trying to create the perfect baked good for her. I’ve been experimenting with all sorts of different types of flour recently in an effort to eliminate the claggy, chalky texture that you sometimes get in gluten free cakes and I’ve really fallen in love with Kinako, made from roasted soya beans and which tastes like caramel peanuts. I’ve used it here, but you can easily omit it (I give you that option) as it’s fairly hard to get hold of. I also often add ground almonds to a gluten free cakes as they also help with the texture. I’ve included them here but if you can’t eat nuts just  omit them and make up the weight in gf flour.

These little cakes, which are sort of a cross between a fairy cake and a cupcake came about because  we have friends coming for lunch on Monday (a bank holiday) and their youngest daughter can’t eat dairy. I still wanted to treat everyone to something indulgent so I decided to try making  vegan gluten free fairy cakes with chocolate frosting. I used the recipe on the back of the Doves Farm flour packet as my starting point and added a few tweaks (the Kinako for one), plus my own icing which is based on the Hummingbird Bakery frosting recipe and is amazing. I think they turned out really well – light but moist with a beautiful caramel undertone. I think my kids liked the frosting best, but then they always do.

Ingredients:

  • 100g dairy free spread  [I recommend using ‘Pure’ sunflower spread. It tastes and bakes the best of the most commonly available dairy free spreads. Pure also do a soya and olive version but don’t get those they don’t bake well]
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste or extract
  • 50g gluten free self raising flour blend (I use and recommend Doves)
  • 25g ground almonds
  • 35g Kinako flour (or omit this and just use 85g Self Raising Doves flour blend). You can buy Kinako from Souschef.com or from JapanCentre.com
  • 25g chickpea (or ‘gram) flour mixed with 4 tablespoons of water (this replaces the egg)
  • 3 tablespoons of dairy free milk. I use Koko coconut drink; you could use soya milk or almond milk. I think the Koko cooks best and you can’t taste it in the finished result.

Method:

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 180 fan
  2. Cream together the sugar and dairy free spread (I use a free standing mixer)
  3. Mix in the chickpea (gram) flour mixed with the water
  4. Mix in the dairy free milk and then the vanilla
  5. Mix in the flours, baking powder and ground almonds (I should tell you to sieve the flour but tbh I rarely bother)
  6. You could add some dairy free chocolate chips at this point if you fancied
  7. Half fill 12 cupcake cases with the batter
  8. Bang the baking tray down on your work surface a couple of times
  9. Cook the cakes for 18 minutes or until golden and an inserted cake tester comes out clean.

For the frosting:

Beat together (I use a free standing electric mixer with a paddle attachment but you can use a hand held electric whisk) 100g of dairy free spread (again I use Pure sunflower), 300g of icing sugar ad 40g of gluten free cocoa powder (I used Green and Blacks). If you’re using a free standing machine set it on medium slow until the mixture comes together then turn it down to slow and add 40ml of dairy free milk one tablespoon at a time. Then turn the speed up to high and beat the icing until it’s light and fluffy.

Pipe the icing onto the cooled cakes with a swirly flourish and serve.

vegan gf fairycakes 2

Spiced Maple Cashew Bark

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Filed under chocolate, Dark chocolate, Easy recipes, Edible Christmas gifts, egg free, Gluten free, Milk chocolate, Sweet things, tea time treats, white chocolate

chocolat bark 2

This is an absolutely knock out edible chocolate gift. I’ve given a few away already this Christmas and everyone says it’s delicious. The recipe came from Olive Magazine; it looks and tastes impressive but it’s a doddle to make and the recipe is very flexible  – you can adapt it to suit any tastes or dietary requirements (I include a non nut version below for allergy sufferers..). Utterly yum!

Ingredients:

  • 100g unsalted cashew nuts
  • 25g unsalted butter
  • a generous pinch of ground allspice
  • a large pinch of sea salt flakes (actually you’ll need a few large pinches as you go along)
  • 1 tablespoon of maple syrup
  • 200g milk chocolate (I use Green and Blacks; don’t use Cadburys it doesn’t work in baking)
  • 200g dark chocolate (with high cocoa content; again I use G+B
  • 30g white chocolate (I use G+B again but any good supermarket cooking brand will do, just don’t use Nestle)

Method:

  1. Put the cashews and unsalted butter along with the allspice, salt and maple syrup into a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat.
  2. Cook until all the cashews are golden then tip out onto baking parchment, scatter over some more sea salt flakes and cool. (You’ll need to stir them from time to time, or do that cheffy pan flip thing to move them about. I like the pan flip thing).
  3. Melt the milk and dark chocolate separately in bain maries (ie glass bowls over pans of barely simmering water).
  4. Let the chocolates cool a little. Pour them out separately but making one large rectangle altogether, into a small baking tray lined with parchment.
  5. Mix them together carefully with a fork to make a nice swirly pattern. Leave to cool for a bit.
  6. Roughly chop the hardened cashews and scatter over the chocolate. Add some more salt (this may seem like a lot but you need to be able to taste it and it’s not too much of a sodium overload if you use sea salt flakes). Chill until set.
  7. Melt the white chocolate (in a bain marie) and drizzle over the top in very thin squiggly lines using a metal spoon. (Be careful with white chocolate; it has such a low/non existent cocoa content that if you let it get too hot it seizes really easily; keep it cool and keep an eye on it).
  8. Chill again until set then cut into shards. I put it into clear cellophane bags, tie with ribbon and label with a luggage tag to make it look fancy. [Store in the fridge as it softens very quickly].
  9. To make this suitable for nut allergy sufferers: substitute chopped up Crunchie bar or Green and Blacks butterscotch flavour chocolate for the cashews (I made some like this and used a combination of both, which was delicious).

Tomato Chilli Jam

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Filed under chilli jam, Edible Christmas gifts, egg free, Gluten free, Starters, Tomato Chilli Jam, vegan, vegetarian, Winter warmers

tomato chilli jam trio

Mr Arabella Cooks and I travelled round New Zealand eight years ago. We knew we’d be experiencing phenomenal wines there but hadn’t expected to be so blown away by the food. The portions were enormous but it was all so delicious I put on a stone and a half in three weeks. In Wellington we stayed with some old friends of Mr AC who made this amazing tomato chilli jam for us (along with some gorgeous barbequed salmon – match made in heaven) and I still salivate when thinking about it to this day. It’s tangy, sweet, punchy and a little bit tingly (though really not too much) and I recently  got in touch with Melissa and Dave to ask for the recipe as I wanted to make a batch to give as Christmas gifts this year. It’s an adapted Peter Gordon recipe; it’s the perfect Christmas or hostess gift but do keep a few jars back for yourself as it’s unbelievably good with cheese (I love it with soft goats cheese), ham, salmon (it’s the perfect accompaniment to salmon en croute), toasted sandwiches, in bolognaise, on pizzas – as Melissa herself says “it gives everything some zhush!”.  Peter Gordon suggests glazing fish or chicken with it before grilling, smearing onto lamb or pork legs before roasting or spreading to a slice of toast and topping with a fried egg. Its uses are endless. Try it. You’ll love it!

Recipe (makes roughly 10 – 15 small Killner Jars worth)

  • 2.5 kg ripe tomatoes
  • 6 red chillis, 5 of them de-seeded; for a mild but punchy jam leave in the seeds of ONE of the chills; if you want it hotter, leave in more of the seeds;  for a milder jam, leave out all the seeds.
  • 10 cloves of garlic, peeled
  • three thumbs of ginger, peeled
  • 100ml fish sauce
  • 1kg golden caster sugar (or plain white if you don’t have golden)
  • 500ml red wine vinegar

Method:

  1. Blend half the tomatoes, all the chillis, garlic and ginger with the fish sauce in a blender (don’t de-seed the tomatoes, they contain the pectin which thickens and sets the jam).
  2. Put the puree into two large pots and add the vinegar and sugar to both (divide equally).
  3. Bring to the boil, stirring constantly, then add the remaining tomatoes (chopped finely) and simmer for 30-40 minutes. Skim off any scum that forms and stir every 5 minutes. Scrape the bottom and sides of the pan every now and again to ensure an even cook and release the solids that collect at the bottom.
  4. When the jam is done (if you put a dollop onto a warmed side plate and push the edge of the dollop with a spoon it should stay where it is and not slide back to where it was), spoon the mixture into sterilised Kilner jars (to sterilise just run through the dishwasher and take out just before you need to use them so they are still warm), top with a small circle of baking parchment, then once the jam has cooled, close the lid and store in the fridge until needed. I used an old school Dynamo to make the label for the jars which looks lovely (a Dynamo label maker doesn’t cost much and you can get Kilner jars fairly cheaply on Amazon). This makes a super gift along with the spiced maple cashew bark in the photo below. Yum!

tomato chilli jam singleedible gifts

The Ultimate Flapjack

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Filed under Baking, chocolate, dessert, Easy recipes, Flapjacks, high tea, pudding, Sweet things, tea time treats, white chocolate

flapjack8

Delilah had another end of term music concert today and we’re always asked to make a contribution to the tea afterwards so I made some flapjacks as I didn’t have much time yesterday. I stupidly forgot to press start on the timer when I put the mixture into the oven so it got rather over-cooked and I thought it was a disaster; Mr Arabella Cooks pulled a face and said “the top is too crunchy”.  So I went along intending to put the plate of flapjack slices anonymously onto the catering table and pretend they weren’t mine. I was amazed and delighted therefore when people started asking who’d made them and could they have another one because they were delicious? I (obvs) quickly claimed them as mine and when a very sweet lady said they were the best flapjacks she’d ever tasted I promised to post the recipe. So here we are. The best flapjacks in the world (maybe; they’re also a bit Christmassy as they have cranberries in them).

Ingredients:

  • 400g oats (I used regular porridge oats)
  • 200g golden syrup
  • 200g light muscovado sugar
  • 200g unsalted butter
  • Grated zest of 1/2 a lemon
  • 3 tablespoons of dessicated coconut
  • 100g dried cranberries
  • 100g raisins
  • 80g white chocolate, melted
  • 80g dark chocolate, melted (or some of the chocolate sauce from my pumpkin pie recipe)

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees (fan); grease and line a baking tin (I used a 7 inch square tin but I think it was a bit too small; either an 8 or 9 inch square or something rectangular would work well)
  2. Melt the butter, golden syrup and sugar together in a large saucepan.
  3. Take off the heat and stir in the oats, coconut, lemon zest, cranberries and raisins. Mix it all together well and make sure all the oats are coated with the melted butter and sugars.
  4. Pour into the prepared tin and pat it down (I started with a metal spoon but in the end just used my hands).
  5. Bake – you have two options here. If you like your flapjacks squidgy and soft, cook it for 25 minutes. If you like them crunchy, cook it for 40 minutes.
  6. When cooked, remove from the oven, allow to cool in the tin for 20 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack.
  7. Again you have two options here. You can either wait until the flapjack is completely cool and drizzle the white and dark chocolate (or chocolate sauce) over the top as per my picture above, and then cut it into squares, OR cut the flapjacks into squares before it cools completely (as it’s easier to cut then), push the squares together to form one big square, drizzle the chocolate over and then separate them while the chocolate cools and hardens. Dead yummy!

 

Chocolate, Chai Spiced Pumpkin Pie with an Oreo cookie crust

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Filed under Chai spice, chocolate, Chocolate pumpkin pie, dessert, Dinner party pudding, No bake pumpkin pie, pudding, Pumpkin pie, Sweet things, Thanksgiving

pumpkin pie 4

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and I went to my first ever Thanksgiving dinner party, cooked and hosted by a lovely American friend. Apparently Thanksgiving is bigger than Christmas in the States and they make as much effort with this meal as we do our Christmas food. Traditional Thanksgiving dinner consists of roast turkey, sprouts with bacon, creamed sweetcorn, mashed sweet potato with lots of cinnamon in it, cranberry sauce, carrots, stuffing and gravy. It’s similar to our Christmas meal but much, much sweeter.  For dessert they have pumpkin pie. More orange puree. I had volunteered to make the dessert for last night’s dinner but I just couldn’t face a traditional pumpkin pie because I can’t stand the taste of pumpkin, so I created this riff on the original. I added chocolate and salt to the crust and filling and chai spices to the filling. The Americans add ginger, cinnamon and cloves to their pie so chai was a good fit (although I did leave out the cardamom). I used Nigella Lawson’s salted Oreo crust (from her new book) instead of pastry because I wanted something with more depth and texture as a foil for the blandness of the pumpkin. And because I was using a biscuit crust I didn’t want to have to cook it, so it’s actually really easy to make and no baking involved.

For maximum wow factor serve it, as I did, with the chocolate sauce (recipe below) and some caramel and chocolate chip ice cream (I’m posting the recipe for that in the near future, but in the meantime you could happily just soften some top quality vanilla ice cream, drizzle in some dulce de Leche or tinned Carnation Caramel and throw in some dark chocolate chopped up into very small pieces, run a fork through it to get a marbled effect from the caramel and freeze until ready to serve).

It was delicious and even my highly sceptical non pumpkin loving friend (not the American I hasten to add) said, in a very surprised voice “I like it!”

Ingredients

For the crust:

  • 2 packets of Oreo biscuits
  • 50g dark chocolate
  • 50g soft unsalted butter
  • 1/2 a teaspoon of smoked sea salt flakes (add them whole, not crumbled; you could happily use regular sea salt flakes, just don’t use table salt)

For the filling:

  • 1 can of Libby’s pumpkin puree (Waitrose stock it)
  • 100 grams dark chocolate  with min. 70% cocoa solids
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste (I’ve recently discovered this. They all use it on Bake Off; you can just use vanilla extract but the paste has a deeper flavour)
  • 4 teaspoons of cocoa powder, sieved
  • 2 tablespoons of caramel (Dulce de Leche or Carnation is fine)
  •  70g dark brown muscovado sugar
  • 2 teaspoons of butter
  • ¾ teaspoon smoked (or regular) sea salt flakes
  • 3 teaspoons or 15g  cornflour
  •  40 ml full fat milk
  •  300 ml double cream
  • 1 chai teabag (I used Tea Pigs; their spices are whole so it was easy to take out the cardamom)
  • 1 sachet of  ‘Drink me chai’ Chai Latte powder

Method (for the crust):

  1. Break up the biscuits and put them into a food processor with the chocolate (also broken up) then blitz them together until you have crumbs.
  2. Add the butter and salt and blitz again until the mixture starts to clump together.
  3. Press the mixture into a large, round fluted tart tin and pat down on the bottom and up the sides of the tin with your hands and the back of a spoon (I used a bit of both), so that the base and sides are evenly lined and smooth. Put into the fridge to chill and harden for at least 1 hour (2 hours if your fridge is full).

For the filling:

  1. Melt the chocolate (broken up into small pieces) in a bain marie or in the microwave.
  2. In a food processor whizz together the pumpkin puree, muscovado sugar, caramel, butter, salt, cocoa powder and vanilla.
  3. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and stir in the melted chocolate.
  4. Slake the cornflour – put it into into a cup and stir in the milk until smooth.
  5. Pour the cream into a heavy-based saucepan, open the chai teabag (take out the cardamom pod) and add the spices to the pan, along with 3 teaspoons of the Chai Latte powder. Heat the cream and spices gently for a few minutes.
  6. Add the cornflour and milk mixture to the cream and stir until the liquid is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (if you run your finger down it, the two sides of the parting stay put).
  7. Take the thickened cream off the heat and sieve it directly into the pumpkin and chocolate mixture. Stir gently to combine. Taste it and add more Chai Latte or cocoa powder if desired.
  8. You want the mixture cool enough so it won’t melt the biscuit base when poured in so you could put a piece of damp baking parchment over the top of it to stop a skin forming and cool it down in the fridge if necessary. Otherwise just pour or spoon it into the set biscuit crust.
  9. Put pie into the fridge overnight to set.
  10. Take the pie out of the fridge about 5 minutes before you want to serve it – un-mould it by pushing the bottom up and out of the fluted ring (or stand it on something sturdy but smaller in circumference and gently push the fluted ring down and leave the base on).
  11. You can serve it as is, or with a dusting of sieved icing sugar, or as I did, with a squiggle of chocolate sauce over the top and lots more chocolate sauce over the ice cream. To make the chocolate sauce, melt 100g plain chocolate with 50ml whipping cream, add a very generous squeeze of golden syrup, a tablespoon of condensed milk, a scant tablespoon of butter and a pinch of salt and stir together. Taste and add more syrup/condensed milk if desired. To achieve the perfect consistency for drizzling/squeezing over your pie you may need to add some milk to thin it – use your judgement.

As mentioned above, it goes exceedingly well with choc chip caramel ice cream too and makes for an utterly divine pud! Very yummy indeed.

slice of pie 1

Gluten free white chocolate blondies with dark chocolate chunks

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Filed under Baking, chocolate, desserts, egg free, Egg free desserts, Gluten free, tea time treats, white chocolate

blondie

It’s late, I’m tired, I’ve been to Manchester and back to today and have only just finished working, but I promised someone I’d blog this very tasty blondie by tomorrow and at ten o’clock tomorrow morning I’m going to deepest, darkest Devon with no wifi or phone signal (the reality of this is just sinking in..) so it’s now or never. As you know the daughter has coeliac disease; she’s a very fussy eater; she likes chocolate (no fussiness with that foodstuff – what a shocker) and she’s also allergic to eggs. I’ve developed a blondie recipe that she can eat and actually doesn’t taste like it’s gluten AND egg free (it’s not crumbly and it has a decent rise) so here it is. (I made it with my new miracle egg replacer discovery – whipped chick pea brine, but I’ll give you directions for using the real thing too). It’s yum. When I left this morning the whole cake was intact as per the photo above; on my return this evening there were a few crumbs left. Mr Arabella Cooks and three lively children had demolished almost all of it (and I’ve just polished the rest off).

blondie 3_edited-1blondie 4

Ingredients:

  • 1 x 150g bar of gluten free white cooking chocolate (I use Green and Blacks) broken up.
  • 200g unsalted butter, cut up into small chunks
  • 150g of caster sugar
  • 1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder
  • 1/4 of a teaspoon of salt
  • 150g of gluten free plain flour (I use Doves)
  • 50g of gluten free BREAD flour (it has xanthan gum added to it which helps to bind your bake)
  • Half a bar of dark gluten free cooking chocolate (I use Green and Blacks)
  • 200 ml of milk (full fat)
  • 9 tablespoons of aquafaba (the liquid left when you drain a can of chickpeas), whipped to stiff peaks OR 3 large eggs

Method:

  1. Pre heat the oven to 180 (160 fan) degrees
  2. Grease and line a square 18cm/7 inch cake tin with baking parchment
  3. Melt the chocolate and the butter together in a large bowl over a small saucepan with a small amount of water in it, on a low heat. White chocolate (which isn’t really chocolate) does not react well to being heated too quickly or too much so watch it.
  4. Whisk your aquafaba to stiff peaks with a hand held or free standing mixer; if using eggs, whisk them to soft peaks then add the sugar and vanilla extract and beat until it looks like mousse.
  5. (With aquafaba): Mix the flours, sugar, salt and baking powder together in another bowl.
  6. Make a well in the centre and add the melted chocolate and butter mixture. Stir to combine.
  7. Fold in the whipped aquafaba using a metal spoon (you want to try and retain as much air as you can; it’s difficult as the aquafaba collapses more easily than real eggs).
  8. You want a nice ‘dropping consistency’ batter, so now add as much of the milk as you need to achieve this.
  9. Add the dark chocolate chips to the batter and stir. Add the batter to the prepared tin.
  10. Bake. In my oven it took 45-50 minutes to cook. All ovens vary so test it with a cake skewer at 25 minutes in and then every 5 minutes until it’s done. It’s OK for this to be a bit gooey in the middle – the best brownie/blondies are; it’s better for them to be under than over baked, but you don’t want too much floury taste left (esp as it’s gluten free flour) so make sure it’s got a good colour on the top and is done sufficiently.
  11. Remove from the oven; allow to cool in the tin then remove very gently and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
  12. If you’re using real eggs to make this:
    1. You’ve melted the butter and white choc; you’ve whisked the eggs and added the sugar.
    2. Add the butter and choc to the eggs and keep whisking.
    3. Add the flours and baking powder directly to the egg and chocolate mixture and fold it in.
    4. You shouldn’t need to use the milk if you’re using eggs, but if your batter is too thick, add a little to loosen it
    5. Stir in the chopped up dark chocolate
    6. Spoon into the prepared tin and bake in the oven. I didn’t use eggs so couldn’t say for sure how long to cook it for but I’d say between 25 and 35 minutes; check it after 25 minutes as above..

Enjoy x

blondie 2

Chocolate cake in a cup

Posted
Filed under Baking, cake, chocolate, dessert, Dinner party pudding, easy puddings, Easy recipes, mug cake

mug cake 1

I love making mug cakes. I love how easy they are – no weighing, melting or creaming, just measuring and adding spoonfuls into a cup. Last night Mr Arabella Cooks and I fancied a quick dessert after our evening roast so I knocked one of these up. We stood with our noses pressed against the microwave door oohing and ahhhing at the magic of the rapidly rising pud and it’s gorgeously thick, intensely chocolatey smell. When they work these are as good as any fancy restaurant or dinner party fondant.  Overcook them however and they are disgusting – like rubbery cardboard. Every microwave oven (bizarrely) cooks differently, so you might have to make a couple before you discover the exact time it takes to achieve mug cake perfection in your own oven. My first attempt last night didn’t work.  The recipe I used called for far too long in the oven. The second one, though, after a few tweaks, was utterly gorgeous.

They don’t photograph terribly well. The feature picture here is essentially just a mug. Sorry about that. But cooked perfectly they taste divine. So get a dozen or so eggs in, find someone to sample the ones that don’t work (our two year old is very handy in that regard) and enjoy the research.

Serves two (or 1 greedy person)

Equipment:

  • A mug
  • Some measuring spoons (these are a really useful thing to have in your kitchen; dessert spoons all differ in size so to be really accurate you need these)

Ingredients:

  • 4 tablespoons of plain flour
  • 4 tablespoons of sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 3 tablespoons of milk
  • 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil or melted butter (I use oil)
  • 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla essence
  • a  handful of dark chocolate pieces (I used Dr. Oetker dark chocolate chunks; chop up a small bar of chocolate if you don’t have any chips or chunks to hand)
  • Optional – a teaspoonful of peanut butter

Method

  1. Put the dry ingredients into the mug and stir with a fork
  2. Add the milk, oil or butter and vanilla. Stir to combine
  3. Add the egg and stir until you have a smooth, glossy batter with no pockets of flour
  4. Stir in the chocolate pieces and if you’re going to use it put the teaspoon of peanut butter into the middle of the batter and scrape in the peanut butter using another teaspoon
  5. Put the mug into the microwave. In mine, which is 900W, it takes exactly 1 minutes and 30 seconds to achieve fondant nirvana.
  6. Let it cool slightly, then either eat it straight from the mug or run a palette knife around the edge and tip it out gently onto two plates. There should be a natural break in the middle where it’s still gooey, giving you two perfect melting middle chocolate fondant puddings. It’s delicious with ice cream, especially my raspberry ripple. Yum!

Chicken Soup

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Filed under Chicken, Soup, Starters, Winter warmers

chicken soup

Mr Arabella Cooks doesn’t consider soup to be substantial enough for his evening meal. He makes an exception however, when I make this chicken soup. I hate wasted food and when we’ve had a roast chicken at the weekend I always make stock from the carcass, and with the leftover meat either sandwiches, fajitas, or this delicious chicken soup. What makes it substantial enough to meet Mr AC’s needs is a large amount of veg and some teeny weeny pasta stars from the Heinz baby weaning range. They add texture and bulk but their teeniness means they’re still delicate and don’t overpower the soup as I find anything larger pasta-wise is apt to do. I’ve tried to find another brand of pasta that’s as small as the Heinz baby stuff but so far without success, so whenever I see it in a supermarket I tend to bulk buy it.

I don’t know if chicken soup can cure colds, but winter is nearly upon us and this version will nevertheless fill you with warmth and cheer you up enormously upon eating. I like it best with several slices of cheap, sliced white bread, spread thick with salty butter. Yum!

pickerimage

Recipe (makes roughly enough to serve 3 or 4 people):

For the stock:

  • A chicken carcass (leftover from your Sunday roast)
  • 2 or 3 carrots (I often bung in the ones that have gone a bit flabby to use them up)
  • 2 onions
  • 10 black peppercorns
  • 2 fresh bay leaves
  • 2 parsnips
  • A leek
  • One Kallo organic chicken stock cube

For the soup:

  • The meat from the chicken carcass, chopped into chunks. (If there was hardly anything left use a fresh free range chicken breast)
  • A packet of Heinz baby pasta stars
  • A carrot, peeled and diced into small squares
  • A leek, finely sliced

Method:

  1. Make the stock:
    1. Place the chicken carcass, roughly chopped carrots and parsnips (John Torode recommends peeling the carrots and parsnips as the skin makes the stock bitter but I don’t usually bother), the leek (cut into thirds), onion (leave the skin on as long as it’s clean, but cut it into quarters), peppercorns and bay leaves into a large stockpot.
    2. Cover with cold water.
    3. Bring to the boil; skim off any scum that forms on the surface (this is necessary as the scum definitely will make your soup taste bitter).
    4. Add the Kallo stock cube.
    5. Boil for about an hour or until reduced slightly and cloudy in colour with a good flavour of chicken when tasted.
    6. Strain the stock into a large clean pan (don’t empty it over the sink as I have done in the past. This is liquid you need to keep!
  2. Place the pan of stock on the hob. Add the veg and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the pasta stars [I haven’t given a quantity here as I usually do it by eye; I would say about 2 tablespoonfuls is plenty] and chicken and simmer for another 3-5 minutes until the pasta is soft. [If using a fresh chicken breast, chop it into chunks and add it before the veg; once it’s opaque and cooked through add the veg and then the pasta].
  3. Add a few twists of black pepper then taste and add salt if it needs it. Serve with bread and butter. Delish!

chicken soup 2_edited-1

Muhammara (red pepper and walnut dip)

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Filed under Dips, Middle Eastern, Starters, vegan, vegetarian

muhummara 2_edited-1

Last week a lovely friend came to stay for the night. For supper I prepared harissa grilled salmon, cumin roasted root vegetables (aubergines, purple carrots, sweet potatoes) and some freekeh (a nutty flavoured Middle Eastern grain). I also made, for the first time, some muhammara – a Syrian dip made from red peppers and walnuts. The main dish didn’t turn out quite as I’d envisaged. The purple veggies and dark green freekeh looked a bit murky and could have really done with some onions mixed in; Mr Arabella Cooks was not at all keen, although both he and the friend said the salmon was lovely. I had the leftover veggies and salmon the next day as a salad with some spinach and toasted seeds and it was absolutely heavenly. Much nicer than it had been as a hot dish the night before (sorry to my lovely friend). I’ll definitely make it again, but as a salad.

salad 2

I also made some blackberry clafloutis for dessert (actually as I didn’t use cherries it can’t be called a clafloutis, but a flaugnarde) and had thought I’d blog about that. But that wasn’t as amazing as I’d hoped either and I carelessly blobbed some blackberry ice cream on top of it before I could take its photo so it looked a bit of a mess:

clafloutis

[Also if I’m really honest I think a traditional clafloutis is a bit too ‘eggy’ for me. I made a chocolate cherry clafloutis at New Year’s Eve which was gorgeous and I think I shall stick with that version in the future; recipe up soon]. It wasn’t my finest meal, but a pleasant evening was had nonetheless. The lovely friend swears the clafloutis and ice cream were delicious so at least she had something nice to eat. The standout element of the meal for me though, was the muhammara. It was yummy! Both the lovely friend and Mr Arabella Cooks agree. I can’t believe I’ve never come across it before but I’m going to make it all the time from now on. It is dead easy and has a really deep, tangy flavour which is quite addictive. I added some to the dressing I used on the main course and it really livened it up. Make it, I urge you. You’ll love it!

Recipe:

  • 2 or 3 red peppers (I used a mixture of the long ones and bell but most recipes call for bell)
  • 1 clove of garlic (unpeeled)
  • 100g of toasted walnuts (you want them quite dark; dry fry them in a frying pan until they’re nearly black but not burnt. Try not to eat too many of them as they’re also delicious on their own and great added to salads)
  • 2 tablespoons of pomegranate molasses
  • 1/2 a teaspoon of smoked sweet paprika
  • 1/4 of a teaspoon of smoked hot paprika (to be truly authentic you should use Aleppo chilli flakes but I didn’t have any and I didn’t want it to be too spicy hot anyway)
  • 1 teaspoon of ground cumin
  • 50g fresh breadcrumbs
  • A squeeze of lemon juice (roughly a tablespoon)
  • Salt (two separate teaspoons)
  • Olive oil (extra virgin; roughly 3 or 4 tablespoons).

Method:

  1. Grill the unpeeled clove of garlic and the three red peppers until black all over (roughly 15 mins). You could roast them in the oven but I’ve made it a few times now and definitely prefer the smokiness you get from grilling.
  2. Put the garlic and peppers into a bowl and cover with clingfilm for at least 20 minutes.
  3. When the time is up (and the veg is cool enough to touch) remove the stalk, skin and seeds from the peppers and peel the garlic clove.
  4. Put the peppers, garlic, lemon juice, breadcrumbs, olive oil, cumin, paprika (both kinds), pomegranate molasses and walnuts into the small bowl of a food processor (or use a hand blender if you don’t have one) and blend to a thick paste.
  5. Taste it and add the other teaspoon of salt if it needs it. Also add more molasses or olive oil as you like. You want it tangy. Less oil makes it good for dipping; more oil makes it a fab dressing. It works with pretty much anything you might want to dip into it (breadsticks, crisps, pitta bread) or eat it with – fish, meat, cheese, chips, salad..you could dress some new potatoes in it for a refreshingly different potato salad and it works very well too as a spread for a bruschetta. The potential is endless. And yummy! (Just don’t serve it cold from the fridge. It’s better at room temp. It also keeps well and the flavours intensify. Most recipes use a raw garlic clove. Feel free to add one if you are OK with raw garlic. Having made it both ways I prefer it with the grilled garlic only. It also can work without the breadcrumbs, if you need it to be gluten free).

muhummara 1

Hot chocolate mousse and raspberry ripple ice cream

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Filed under chocolate, desserts, easy puddings, hot choclate mousse, Ice cream, raspberries

hot choc mousse fiddled twice

It’s dessert week on Bake Off tonight and in honour of that I’m posting my hot chocolate mousse recipe. And because it’s so utterly delicious it will knock your socks off. And because it’s really REALLY easy to make.

Ingredients for chocolate mousse (serves 4):

  • 125g plain cooking chocolate
  • 35g unsalted butter (softened)
  • 3 eggs (separated)
  • 40g caster sugar

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180 c (fan).

  1. Break chocolate up into small pieces and put into a mixing bowl with the butter and melt over the pan of barely simmering water.
  2. Remove from the heat, add the egg yolks and stir well.
  3. Whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks, then gradually whisk in the sugar until glossy and stiff (like a meringue).
  4. Fold the meringue gently into the chocolate mixture and pour into oven-proof tea cups or ramekins. Chill in the fridge until time to cook (at least 20 minutes).
  5. When ready take the mousses out of the fridge and place them on a baking tray. Bake them at 180c for 8 minutes until the mousse has risen to the brim of the moulds and is beginning to firm up on the sides but still gooey in the middle. Serve immediately before they collapse.

Ingredients for raspberry ripple ice cream:

  • 200g raspberries
  • 3 tablespoons of icing sugar
  • 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
  • Ice cream in an ice cream maker:
    • 200g double cream
    • 200g full cream milk
    • 150g caster sugar
    • Pinch salt
  • Ice cream without an ice cream maker:
    • 600ml double cream
    • Half a 397ml can of condensed milk
    • 1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

  1. Make the coulis – put the raspberries, icing sugar and lemon juice into a blender and whizz to a smooth sauce consistency. Pass through a sieve to remove the pips.
  2. Make the ice cream:
    1. In an ice cream maker: mix together the milk, cream, salt and sugar in a jug. Pour into a cooled down ice cream maker bowl and churn for 30 minutes or until thick.
    2. Without an ice cream maker: whisk the 600ml of double cream, tsp of vanilla and condensed milk until it’s very stiff. Line a loaf tin with cling film.
    3. For both methods once cream is churned/thick:  In either your loaf tin or a shallow plastic tub, add a layer of the cream, add a layer of the coulis, add another layer of cream and another layer of coulis, then a final layer of cream and the rest of the coulis on top. Use a knife or metal pronged stick to ripple the coulis around and through the cream, leaving a lovely swirly pattern on the top (this photo is of some blackcurrant ripple I made recently but you get the idea).

rippled ice cream

Serve the mousses straight away with a scoop or slice of raspberry ripple, which is nice with some chopped pistachios and honeycomb on top (you can make your own or just chop up a Crunchie bar if you can’t be bothered). I made this in the second round of Masterchef for the past winners (without the pistachios and honeycomb) and they and Greg all declared it yum!

hot chocolate mousse with rasp ripple iced cream

(Wonderful photo by Blanche Hughes, who has many more brilliant photos and recipes on her blog: Blanched. Check it out. x)