Birthday cupcakes

Bit of a boast-post, this one, and a little late in coming... I was lucky enough to be joined by some really awesome friends on my birthday a couple of months ago, so I'm glad I pulled out all the stops to feed them!


I made three different types of cupcake: peaches and cream, triple chocolate fudge, and miniature chocolate orange.

Peaches and cream:


Triple chocolate fudge:


Miniature chocolate and orange:


Huge thanks to the staff at the Royal George off Charing Cross Road, who were lovely to us, and very complimentary about the cake!

Fake Pot Noodle - with prawns, carrot and courgette

I saw a Hugh F-W cookery show ages back that looked at creating some 'alternatives' to Pot Noodles, but on a similar theme. I wanted to try it at the time but never really got round to it...

... until yesterday morning. Full of cold, I'm craving spicy, soupy broths with plenty of fresh veg and lean protein. I bought some delicious noodles at the weekend - brown rice with wakame - and I knew I had some frozen king prawns in the freezer, so I put myself together a little pot. I didn't take a picture at the time because, frankly, it was 7.21am or some such hour, and I wasn't thinking of the blog... I'll try to get one later this week.

So, to make sure the noodles fitted into the pot. I poured over some boiling water and let them sit for a minute, until they were slightly soft, then refreshed them in cold water and left them to drain. I finely sliced some spring onions and a clove of garlic (soooo good for getting rid of colds), sliced a stick of lemongrass (from a jar, I didn't have any fresh) and sliced half a large carrot and courgette into ribbons.

I chucked all of this, along with a teaspoon of vegetable bouillon, a quarter of a teaspoon of chilli powder (no fresh, thought this would do), a quarter of a teaspoon of chinese spice powder (not five spice - I'll have to dig out what it is) a splash of both fish sauce and mirin, and a half teaspoon of wakame flakes into a 550ml round sealed container, and into my bag. The prawns (12 king prawns, frozen) went in to a separate tub in the bag. Four or five minutes, done.

Once lunchtime rolled around, a opened the fake pot noodle container and filled it with boiling water poured on top of the contents, tipped it all out into a bowl, added another 200ml of boiling water, stirred in the prawns and microwaved it on hot for 2.30 minutes.

It came out like this:


For next time, I'd make a couple of changes: I'd use fresh chilli and lemongrass rather than powder and preserved respectively; I probably wouldn't pre-cook the noodles, as they came out a bit soft. However, in terms of flavour, the heat/spice, and the veggies and protein element, this was delicious - and it took barely any time at all to prepare. I'm also aware that I've probably mashed up a whole host of food cultures in one dish - but I felt great after, it was tasty and it helped to clear my head.

Yum!

Ingredients:

2 spring onions, finely sliced
1 clove garlic, finely sliced
1 stick lemongrass, sliced diagonally
1 tsp vegetable bouillon
1/4 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp chinese spice mix
1/2 large carrot, sliced into ribbons with a vegetable peeler
1/2 large courgette, sliced into ribbons as the carrot
1/2 tsp wakame flakes
1/2 portion of rice noodles
12 king prawns, cooked and frozen

Smart leftovers - chicken bacon muffins

The night after the Southern Grilled Chicken, I wanted to use the leftover chicken to make something fun. We wanted something quick, and using up some of the bits we had in the cupboard... cue the best burger/muffin ever!


I grilled a couple of slices of smoked bacon, warming the chicken up at the same time. This went on to a toasted wholemeal muffin, along with some sliced tomato, some spinach, and a sauce I made from some low fat mayonnaise, a little ketchup and a pinch of smoked pakrika.

Tasty!

Fake takeaway - Southern Grilled Chicken

I love to cook. Some nights, I want to get home, get in the kitchen and make something really tasty and maybe a bit complicated for dinner, and enjoy the making of it. Some nights, however, I'm knackered and I just want takeaway.

Being on a fairly serious economy drive, combined with the effect of inflation and the pretty big increase in food costs in the last nine months or so, has meant that I do question, more than ever, buying food when there is food in the house. Tuesday night was one such night. I wanted something quick and easy - and probably a bit naughty. I knew we had some chicken breasts in the fridge, some bread that was past its best... and on my cycle home I formed a plan.


The chicken, before cooking

I cut the chicken into rough chunks, about four pieces per breast. I blitzed three slices of slightly dry wholemeal bread in my little choppy do-dah, scattered it into the bottom of a tray, shook over some cajun seasoning and some garlic salt, and popped it into the pre-heated oven to toast. It can catch and burn quickly, so you need to keep an eye on it and take it out the shake it every few minutes. Once browned a bit, I took them out and turned them over in my hands for a couple of minutes to cool down and let some of the moisture evaporate.

The chicken is coated in flour (didn't season it as I thought it would be drowned out by the breadcrumbs), then dipped into the egg and finally coated with the breadcrumbs - then laid on a grill tray and put into the middle of the oven (about 200 degrees) for about 20 minutes.

I served them with potato wedges (which I only season with olive oil, a bit of garlic salt and plenty of black pepper, about 45 mins in the oven) and salad and coleslaw. Not quite as crispy as fried chicken, but definitely delicious and not a drop of extra fat to be seen anywhere.

Healthy fake-takeaway win! And all in the time it would take to get one delivered.


Ingredients:

2 medium chicken breasts
3 slices wholemeal bread past its best
2 tbsp cajun seasoning
1 tsp garlic salt
100g plain flour
1 egg, beaten

Oat cookies (with dark chocolate, coconut and cranberry)

I love these cookies - they're simple to make, create very little washing up, and they are so much more satisfying than biscuits you can buy (in my humble opinion).

The other great thing is that you can mix and match the ingredients - dried fruit and nuts in any combination you like.


The combination below is one I hit upon recently, as we had some dark chocolate in the house for the first time in a while. I always keep dessicated coconut for baking. Other combinations include raisin and walnut (chopped walnuts work better than halves), and cranberry and macadamia. I started using honey instead of half the sugar, which tastes lovely, but you do have to keep an eye on them in the oven as honey can burn easily.

For ten cookies, you will need:

50g butter or baking margarine
50g golden caster sugar
50g runny honey
1 egg
50g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
175g oats - I use whole oats
50g dessicated coconut
50g dark chocolate, chopped into 1/2cm pieces
60g cranberries

Pre-heat your oven to 170 degrees.

Mix the ingredients in order, sieving the flour and baking powder together. The mix at this point will look like a runny cake batter, and not much of it! Don't worry, it will be enough.

You then add the oats and stir in well. It will just about coat the oats, and look very crumbly. You then add your selected ingredients, mix well and sort out your tins.

Use two tins, both lined with baking paper. Divide the mix into five piles on each tray, and flatten them slightly, then bake for about 12 - 15 minutes.

They'll be soft when you take them out; they firm up and become chewy once cool.

Enjoy!

Comforting Roast Chicken Broth

Bit random for mid-week, but given our current remit of low-carb, low-fat (I am so over low fat cottage cheese...) we roasted a large chicken this week, with a simple lemon thyme butter rub. Once done, we pulled all of the meat off the bones (except the wings and drumsticks), and portioned it up. Once clean, we popped the bones back into the oven, along with the reserved meat juices (I poured the fat off the juices) and made a chicken stock in the slow cooker.

If you've never made chicken stock before, I would really urge you to try. You get a depth and character of flavour that I've never been able to recreate with a store-bought stock or a cube. With an electric slow cooker, it's so simple.

Chicken stock: makes 1.5 litres

You will need:

whole large chicken carcass
3 sticks of celery, cut into quarters
1 carrot, cut into large diagonal slices
1 white onion, cut into rough chunks
2 bay leaves
a handful of black peppercorns

Once cleaned of meat, put the carcass back into the oven at 200 degrees for about half an hour. Remove, then place into a small slow cooker with the other ingredients. Pour over about 1.7 litres of hot water, and leave on 'Low' overnight. In the morning, strain the stock and leave the ingredients to drain for twenty minutes or so. It should give you 1.5 litres of stock, which I divide into bags of 0.5 litres for freezing.

The chicken broth is really, really simple! I used up whatever vegetables I've got, plus any we have in the freezer, to make it really vegetable rich.

Serves two

You will need:

0.5 litres fresh chicken stock
teaspoon of butter for frying
1 leek, sliced thinly
1 carrot, cut into ribbons (I do mine with a vegetable peeler, to get it really thin)
1/2 cup frozen broad beans
1/2 cup frozen garden peas
200g leftover roast chicken
salt and pepper to taste

Start by putting the stock into a large saucepan and place it on a low heat, to bring it to the boil slowly. You'll want to do this with a lid on to stop is evaporating along with way. Next, add the butter to a saute pan, followed by the sliced leeks. Cook the leeks gently for five minutes until they soften, then add the carrot ribbons. Cook this for a few minutes, then add the frozen vegetables and continue to cook.

By this time your stock should be boiling gently. Add the leftover roast chicken to the stock to heat through, then add to this the vegetables from the saute pan and cook gently for a few minutes to allow the flavours to mix. You might at this stage need to add some salt - I never add salt to stock - and maybe a twist of black pepper. Divide into two warm bowls and serve.

This broth is also good with pearl barley in, and would no doubt be tasty with sage dumplings (I can't wait to try this once the diet is done!)

Screw low fat: chocolate orange cupcakes

Two weeks of low carb, low fat food can send a girl crazy, so I needed a break. I've been involved with an event through work, and wanted to thank those colleagues of mine who'd also poured heart and soul into the project. What else could I do? I made cupcakes...



Chocolate orange cupcakes...

They went down a storm, I'm pleased to say, though I didn't try one myself, keen to stick to the diet.

Makes 18 cupcakes

You will need:

6 oz butter or baking margarine
6 oz caster sugar
3 medium eggs, beaten
4 oz stoneground wholemeal flour
1 oz cadburys cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate!), sifted
2 oz dessicated coconut
zest of 1 orange

and for the frosting:

100g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
400g icing sugar, sifted
3 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
zest of one orange
1 milk chocolate Terry's chocolate orange

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees. Beat the baking margarine and sugar together until well mixed, then add the eggs and beat well. Add the flour, cocoa powder, coconut and orange zest, and mix thoroughly. The mixture should be the colour of milk chocolate. Here's the magic bit - leave the mixture for ten minutes. The citrus oils will leak out of the orange zest and combine with the cake mixture, giving you that wonderful orange scent.

After ten minutes or so, divide into 18 muffin or large cupcake cases in a muffin tin, and bake for about 15 minutes, or until they're nicely risen and a cake tester can be inserted without leaving any mix on the tester. Place on a cooling rack and leave for at least an hour, or until completely cooled.

For the topping, beat the softened butter with a hand mixer or in a kitchen mixer, and add the icing sugar a bit at a time. After about half the sugar is added, you'll need to add a tbsp of the orange juice; after 3/4 of the sugar, add another, and once all of the sugar is incorporated, add the third and final tbsp. Then add the orange zest and again, leave the mixture to sit for ten minutes or so, so allow the flavours to mix. The orange juice won't add much of a flavour - most of it comes from the zest.

After ten minutes, give it a good mix and spread on the top of the 18 cupcakes (I piped mine with a 1M large star Wilton nozzle). Finish each cupcake with a piece of Terry's chocolate orange. There are 20 pieces per orange, so treat yourself to the last two by way of self-congratulation. Yum!