Garlic and Rosemary Potato Wedges

 I have an abundance of potatoes to use up that I bought for the Christmas meal.  I wanted something moreish and simple.  I had cooked garlic and rosemary roast potatoes for Christmas and still had that fresh (or not quite as fresh) rosemary to use up.  I took out all the possible potato wedges seasonings from my cupboard.  These included: garlic salt, Cajun seasoning, oregano, rosemary, celery salt and chilli powder.  In the end, I settled on fresh rosemary and fresh garlic with salt & pepper.

The only bit of research I needed was the oven temperature and how long to bake them for.  Jamie Oliver came up first but he /gasp par boils them first!  Wedges are supposed to be simple and oven cooked.  You might as well make roasties if you're going to parboil them.  Then I stumbled upon a student recipe website: http://studentrecipes.com/recipes/party-foods/potato-wedges/

Makes...loads!

Ingredients:

Potatoes (I happened to have King Edwards and they worked well)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (this was the only Olive oil in my house)

4 sprigs of fresh Rosemary, stalks removed

8 cloves of fresh Garlic, squashed, deskinned and roughly chopped

Plenty of Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper

Method:

1. Wash the potatoes and cut into wedges.  I do this by halving them lengthways (biggest surface area as possible) then quartering each half lengthways (8 wedges per large potato).  The potatoes were extremely starchy so I soaked them in cold water.

Cold bath

2. Drain the potatoes.  Meanwhile get a large baking tray/roasting tin and drizzle oil on the base.  Apply half the rosemary and garlic bits.  Place the potato wedges evenly in one layer as possible.  Liberally apply salt and pepper.  Sprinkle the rest of the rosemary and garlic and slug more oil on top.

3. Cook at 200C for 40 mins.  I turned them over halfway.

Serve with lemon mayonnaise.

Review:
Hmmm, these were really good!  I ate waaaaay too many.  Minor improvements would be more even cooking which would require uniform potatoes.  I did have some parts of the tray with more oil than other parts.  I think the wedges would benefit from a proper tossing in the oil and seasonings!
Note to self:  Make these instead of roast potatoes for Christmas because they were so much more simpler to make and tastier too!

Orange Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

My good friend Takeshi bought some Orange Extract for my birthday!  I thought it was about time I used it so what better occasion then for his birthday!
I think Chocolate and Orange is a perfect combination.  I had baked Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream the week before so was a bit chocolated out.  I had read on the Orange Extract bottle that Vanilla goes well with Orange.

The bonus about these cakes is that not only do they taste great but they are dairy-free!  It does contain egg so aren't Vegan.

I looked up fairy cake recipes and used this one as my basic recipe.  I bought some Billington's Natural Golden Icing Sugar but it had no recipe on the back.  It did mention a site called http://www.bakingmad.com so I had a look through the buttercream recipes and settled on this one: Basic Buttercream because it was simple and used the smallest quantity of the fat compared to the other recipes.

Makes 12 Cakes

Ingredients:

125g Pure Sunflower Spread
125g caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsp orange extract
125g self raising flour
2 tbsp Alpro Soy Milk (I happened to use the UHT red, any will do)
A pinch of salt

1.  In a bowl, beat the spread and sugar until fluffy.  I used a wooden spoon.

2.  Pour the beaten egg slowly from a measuring jug and beat in.  Add the orange extract and pinch of salt.

3.  Sift in half the flour and fold into the mixture.

4.  Add the soymilk (put in the eggless measuring jug for easy pouring, you might need more or less depending on the consistency).

5.  Put your fan oven on now!  180 - 190.

6.  Line your cake tin with cases.  Spoon mixture into tin and whack the tin downwards so the mix settles into the cases.  (Don't be overzealous, you want the cake mixture IN the cake tin/cases not on the ceiling.)

7.  Bake for 10-15 mins until risen and golden.

8.  Allow to cool for ten minutes before removing from the tin.  Allow to fully cool before any attempt on icing.

I took this out about 12 mins.  Light and fluffy!

For the icing:

50g Pure Sunflower Spread
200g Billington's Icing Sugar
1tsp Vanilla Extract (or to your taste)

Decorations:

Always check the ingredients each time.  I chose these because they are Vegetarian.  The slices contain egg.

Soft Gold Pearls for the eyes
Orange Slices for the mouth I just ate the lemon ones, yum yum :D

1.  Put the spread into a bowl.  Beat it until soft.  Slowly sift in the icing sugar and stir.  Repeat until the icing sugar is mixed in.  Add your flavouring.

2.  I put some boiled water into a cup and swirled it around to cool it down.  I'm thinking hot water isn't just boiled.  I didn't want my icing sugar to dissolve into a runny liquid.  Add enough for a good consistency.

3.  Put your face on!

Review:

These made me smile!  They tasted really good.  The icing tasted toffee-like.  Probably the best cakes I've made so far :)
If I never told you they didn't contain dairy, you would never know ;)
Smiles all round!

Cherry and Almond Muffins

I've tried the new Almond Milk by Alpro (check out my review here) and wanted to use it up.  I think cherry and almond go well together, think Bakewell Tarts.  I love cherries so I looked up some Cherry and Almond muffin recipes.  This recipe came about using the muffin recipe I use with some inspiration from bbcgoodfood.com and www.pastryaffair.com .  The latter is in cups but they use flaked almonds on top whereas the bbc recipe uses ground almonds and is metric.  I omitted the vanilla flavouring to keep the flavours clean and simple.  You could add some almond extract but I didn't because I don't bake often so wouldn't use much.

The best thing about using the almond milk is that people who don't eat soya can eat these muffins!

Makes 12 Muffins 

Ingredients:

300g self raising flour
100g golden granulated sugar
1tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
50g ground almonds
200g cherries (leave 6 whole or 12 halves to one side) chopped

175ml almond milk
125 corn oil
1 egg
50g flaked almonds
(6 cherries you left to one side)

Don't forget the muffin cases!

Method:

I just bought 100g flaked almonds and had a mini workout with the pestle and mortar.










1. Sieve the flour into a bowl.  Add baking powder, sugar, salt and 50g ground almonds and stir thoroughly.

2. In a mixing jug, pour in the milk and oil.  In a small bowl, break the egg and whisk.  Add egg to jug mixture.

3. Add the chopped cherries to the flour mixture.

4. Preheat fan oven 170.

Pour the liquid into the flour bowl.

5.

Spoon mixture into cases

6.

Top with flaked almonds and a halved cherry.

7.

Bake for 20-25mins.

8.

Delicious!

Review:

These looked amazing!  The cherry on top had baked to a chewy toffee.  It wasn't unpleasant but I might put the cherry on after the muffins have baked.  The toasted almonds had a lovely taste and texture.  The muffin was very crumbly on the bottom.  I think this may be due to the small egg.  I will put more liquid in next time.  They were very delicately flavoured.  My mother really enjoyed these and said they weren't too sweet.  My favourite bits were the chopped cherries and the toasted almond flakes on top.  These are really simple to make but look ever so special.  They also freeze well.

There isn't much washing up to do either!

Baked Sweet Potatoes

Hello.  I am still cooking but I just haven't been blogging as of late.  I've been a bit Lidl happy lately; have a look here

I've had baked sweet potatoes before.  It's amazing how vibrant the soft sweet flesh is concealed within the unassuming skin.  I looked at a few recipes and then added some extra time.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 Sweet Potatoes!

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 190 C.  I would advise that you have lined the bottom of your oven with some tin foil or use a tray/put a tray underneath. 

2.  Pierce each potato all over with a fork.  Wrap each potato with enough tin foil to cover.

All dressed up!

3.  Place in oven for 1hr-1hr 15 mins.  I have a potato rack so I thought I'd test it out.  This is where the tray comes in.  The potatoes will release a lot of sugars and they will burn and it will be a nightmare to clean up. 

4.  Serve

With butter and plenty of black pepper.

Review:

These were very soft and sweet.  I think freshly ground black pepper is the perfect accompaniment with it.  You can also have it with cheese or butter as well.  They really fill you up and they are far from mundane.

New Toy!

Impulse buy alert!  It was a very modest silicone flower shaped mould from Lidl.  This is great for eggs and pancakes!  I shall chronicle my journey for the perfect flower egg with a perfectly centred pollen yolk.  This is much harder than it sounds!

My first attempt was so pathetic that I didn't bother to take a picture.  This is my second attempt which was slightly better but the yolk was off centre so I broke it.  It produced a rather lovely marbling effect and looked pretty with my ketchup splodge.  The mould isn't perfect, liquid does leak outside the shape so I need to press it down more or just trim them off.

Fried Egg

Voila!

Quorn Mince

I wanted to make a mince that would go well with mashed potatoes and lashings of gravy.  It was important for me to make it more brown and not red so I avoided using tinned tomatoes in case it was too bolognaisey.  I had to use my arsenal of herbs and spices to make it tasty.  You can make this mix into a Sheepless Pie by putting the mash on top and topping with cheese and sticking it in the oven until bubbly.

I got the idea of using Marmite in cooking from Fiona Beckett.  I remember borrowing her book a few years ago and recently borrowed this one.  Sadly, it didn't inspire me to cook anything new but it did remind me about the Marmite thing.  Beyond Baked Beans Budget Cookbook

Makes 4-5 portions

Ingredients:

2tbsp corn oil
1/2 large white Spanish onion, finely chopped
2 stalks of celery, destringed, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
3-4 thick slices of root ginger
1/2 pt hot water with 2tsp gravy granules
1 peeled carrot, finely chopped
2 peeled and deseeded tomatoes, finely chopped
1/2 pt hot water with 1/2 tsp Marmite
300g Quorn Mince
1 bay leaf

(season to your taste)
1tsp rosemary
1tsp salt
plenty of black pepper
1 level tsp kalonji seeds
2 tsp Maggi liquid seasoning

Method:

1. Heat a large saucepan/cooking vessel.  Put in the oil and fry the onions until soft and translucent.  Then add the celery, garlic and ginger.  Fry until celery is softening.

2. Put the kettle on and make the gravy.  Add this liquid to the pan and add carrots.

3. Add the tomatoes and the marmite mixture.

4. Add the Quorn mince and a bay leaf.

5. Cook for about 20mins.  Season with the herbs and spices to your taste.

Review:

I ate a portion from just tasting it to see if it was seasoned enough.  I've got some instant mash and Bisto to go with it for those lazy days.  I will report back after the brother test.  I was really pleased with how it looks though.  I refrained from adding Worcestershire sauce in order to keep it truly vegetarian.

Celery Slaw

Cheese and celery dressed generously in mayonnaise and black pepper inside a buttered crusty baguette.  I didn't have any bread so I decided to make a sort of coleslaw with celery.  I have heard of celery slaw but have never made it before so here is something I made.

I just want to thank Sue, my childhood best friend's mum.  She helped inspire me to cook.  Sue put sultanas in her homemade coleslaw and that is the magic ingredient that sets her coleslaw apart from the shop bought kind.

Makes 2 portions

Ingredients:

2 stalks of celery, destringed and chopped
1 large carrot, grated
50g extra mature cheddar, chopped small
A handful of sultanas
A squeeze of lemon juice
3 tbsp mayonnaise (I like my full fat Hellmann's)
A few shakes of kalonji seeds
Black pepper

Method:

Just add ingredients into a bowl and mix.  I was probably too generous with the mayonnaise but adjust to your taste.

Review:

A traditional coleslaw has some onion in it.  I didn't want to faff around crying and chopping an onion so I put in my new fancy ingredient; kalonji seeds instead and it added a nice savoury onioniness to the salad.  I ate this for two lunches in a row served with some Choice Grain crackers.  The carrots made the mayonnaise go an orangy colour which makes it look like you made the dressing yourself :)