Sweet But Savoury, Perfect Parsnip Soup

Well, I've found my new favourite thing and it's soup-a parsnip-y. Sorry, christ, that was terrible. But funny. There's definitely a time and a place for a soup-d up pun (wow, another...really?) rarely, granted. But there's a time and place nonetheless.

This soup is a little sweet, but mainly savoury and very, very consumable. Perfect with a little seedy bagel, smothered in a lashing of Dairylea. Just yum-all-over-everything.

Here's how it's done. Do it. It needs to be done, etc etc etc.

This recipe makes enough for 6 good-sized servings.

Ingredients:

1500g parsnips, chopped
2272ml semi-skimmed milk
5 tbsp of clear honey
2 large knobs (mwa-ha-ha) of butter

Method:

1.) Put your butter and honey into a large pan and melt. Once melted place your chopped parsnips into the pan (they don't need to be peeled, huzzah, peeling veg is the bane of my life and I love for it to be avoided wherever possible.)
2.) Leave cooking on a relatively low heat, stirring every five minutes, for approximately 30 minutes. Perhaps slightly less if you use less parsnips, but cook until your parsnips have softened to touch.
3.) Entirely cover your parsnips with the milk and stir until butter, honey and milk are well combined with the parsnips.
4.) Leave to cook, stirring occasionally, for approximately 40 minutes, until the parsnips have almost perished.
5.) Blend all ingredients together (I used my treasured NutriBullet) before putting the liquid back into the pan and adding more milk, until it has reached that desired soupy consistency.
6.) Add salt and pepper and perhaps more honey, to taste. Serve and enjoy.

Dinner Party Triumph

In the midst of my house smelling like an authentic Italian home (picture one of those picturesque little places, nestled deep in the lush hills of Tuscany) home to an Italian mumma who looks strangely like me, only slightly more harassed and more-than-a-little sweaty...it is here that some truly wonderful dinner party creations have been born over the last fortnight; through blood, sweat and tears.

For the past two weeks my boyfriend I have been having a Come-Dine-With-Me-Off with my brother and his girlfriend, with some memorably wonderful and unforgettably bad outcomes, and today I'm going to share the peaks and troughs with you. 

As you know, I'm always in the market for stress-free and taste-full, so this was a perfect opportunity to stretch my kitchen-legs, to flex those admirable cooking biceps, if you will; it could have all gone horribly wrong, especially with such feigned self-belief as that.

This wondrous cook-off idea was mine…after I had cooked a distinctly average spaghetti bolognese accompanied by garlic bread and a little vin rouge (okay, more than a little vin rouge) and a rather-better fruit-bowl crumble, the recipe for which can be found by clicking here. However, this idea led to rather more exciting times than my first and best attempt at feeding everyone, on a rather fragile and slow-moving Sunday. While not particularly exciting, the best advice I can offer you when cooking a spaghetti bolognese is that ketchup, HP Sauce, Lea & Perrins and red wine (one for the dish, two for you, naturally) are the key to worldwide fame in the spag bol department. Not particularly like-a-mumma-used-to-make, but a serious goody nonetheless.

Following this was the first week's trials which firstly saw my (irritatingly lazy/good at cooking when he bothers, instead of ordering a chicken chow mein) brother cook up and absolute storm, with one of the best soup's I've ever tried, later deemed Max's Marvellous Mushroom Soup. To make this truly marvellous creation (I urge you to do this) here's the recipe and method for you, it's enough to serve 4:

Ingredients:

800g button mushrooms
4 spring onions, finely chopped
2g of chive stalks, chopped
2g basil leaves, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
600ml of double cream
1 vegetable stock cube, made into broth
Chilli flakes, optional

Method:

1.) Put your spring onions, chives and basil in butter for a couple of minutes on a high heat, before placing all your mushrooms into the mix. Be sure to add olive oil to ensure you don't burn your mushrooms, cook until reduced a little, then add more butter.
2.) Once reduced, add your prepared stock, then cover and reduce the mixture by half (approximately 10 minutes.)
3.) Blend the mixture, place back into the pan, add your cream, chilli flakes and salt and pepper to taste and cook for a further five minutes, with the lid back on until reduced further.
4.) Blitz for a final time to ensure it is completely smooth and place back on the heat, until suitably warmed before serving.

As you can imagine this simple, rustic but smooth, luxurious soup went down an absolute storm and has been requested/created again since, I have a feeling it will be a firm household favourite in years to come, much to the annoyance of the part of me that still suffers from the curse of lifelong sibling rivalry on an almost daily basis.

The following day saw my boyfriend cook-up a heart attack for each of us, including chicken burgers in cheesy rolls with what we like to call 'fake cheese', we all know what we mean, those perfectly shiny squares of bright orange 'cheese'. I'd hate to see what kind of crazy cow it's made from.
His dish was finished off with mozzarella dippers and sweet potato fries, you know, just in case we hadn't all had enough carbs. Alas, his final dinner more than compensated for this slight oversight and temporary lapse in judgment. Oh the indigestion. Oh the meat sweats.

The next night my brother's girlfriend cooked up a healthy delight (thank goodness) including cooked peppers with overflowing spicy rice, chicken in a garlic and herb sauce and some homemade sweet potato fries. This was finished by the last triumph-of-other-people dish I will mention, before moving on to a well-kept family secret recipe. 

She made adorable puff pastry hearts, packed full of crème fraîche and topped with drizzly chocolate, with gorgeous little chocolatey strawberries served chilled, to the side. 

Adorable, girly and not completely awful for the waistline. Bravo.

Here's how she did it, again, it's enough to make 4:

Ingredients:

Ready-to-roll puff pastry (it's not lazy, it's efficient)
1 egg, beaten
1 pot of crème fraîche 
300g of milk chocolate
250g fresh strawberries
A sprinkle of sugar

Method:

1.) Cut your puff pastry into hearts and use a pastry brush to brush the beaten egg over each heart, before dusting with a little sugar and placing into the oven, on greaseproof paper for 10-15 minutes at 180 degrees, based on a fan assisted oven.
2.) Once cooked through, remove and leave to cool, before slicing each heart in half.
3.) Once sliced, add your crème fraîche and then, when ready place the two halves back together before drizzling yummy chocolate over them.
4.) Lastly, heat up your remaining chocolate and dip the whole strawberries into it, before leaving to one side to cool on some baking parchment.
5.) Serve together and enjoy.

Lastly, on the final and closing night, the fun and frolics fell to me and I decided to do a three course-er, no pressure whatsoever was put on oneself as, of course, one doesn't like to put pressure on oneself at all, does one? Sod that, the pressure was sodding high. Sod, sod, sod.

Growing up my favourite thing in the world, which I genuinely believed God created just for my pleasure (I'm not even religious, but feelings such as that would wash over me like a heavenly cloud with each spoonful) was my Grandma's Lemon Syllabub. Or, as I like to think of it, my Grandma's soaked-in-sherry, oh yeh, right up to the top, it's-lemon-but-that-doesn't-make-you-healthy-it-still-makes-you-a-total-lush-because-it-is-so-full-of-sherry syllabub. 

For my dessert, guess what, my interpretation happened - an interpretation that left everyone hiccuping naughtily and with satisfied, lemon-fuelled, smug looks on their faces.

Begrudgingly, I share the recipe with you now. I say begrudgingly because I fear we will now have a mass exodus of the following items listed in supermarkets all over the world this summer, once you mix all the ingredients together and experience something I suggest you all do, sooner rather than later. 

This recipe offers enough to serve eight people (who have a normal sized appetite for such dishes) or one person (for those, such as myself, who can be utterly dangerous with a large bowl of such yumminess and only one spoon.)

Ingredients:

One pint of double cream
175g caster sugar
Juice and rind of three large, unwaxed lemons
10 tbsp of medium dry sherry (I used Harveys Bristol Cream)

Method:

1.) Firstly grate the rinds of your lemons and place into a large mixing bowl, before squeezing all the juice you can out of the lemons and into the same bowl. 
2.) Then add your sugar, cream and sherry and beat with an electric whisk until thick. Don't over-beat this mixture or it will spoil. You want it like a thick, almost mousse-type consistency.
3.) Place in the fridge for approximately two hours, until set, and serve. I served mine with shortbread rounds which worked perfectly.

After all was eaten and drunk and I felt like I had just completed the London Marathon, I opted to force everyone to have a shot of Schnapps (a-la-after a meal on a European summer holiday style) and we all had the best sleep of our lives. THE END.

PS - if you do take me up on any of these dinner party highlights, then I salute you. Good luck. Go forth and make/break friendships, sweats and crockery. It's a whole lot of fun, if nothing else.

Healthy Choccy Muffins

I don't know about you, but my week's been a super busy one and, generally when that happens, I begin to look forward to the simple pleasures offered by the weekend and, for me, the main one of those simple pleasures is a'baking an' a'blogging and here I am, having now done both, with an easily recognisable combination of happiness/smugness lashed about ALL over my face. And breathe. Happy Sunday.

I hope when you read my blog I feel like a friend as well as a happy-to-help-recipe-offerer and, for that reason, I offer you these show-stopping chocolate gooey yummy-o muffins that are also one of your five a day (or very nearly anyway) because, hey, that's what friends do.
Sorry about all those hyphenated mashed up phrases in my opening gambit, there's just so many words I want to squeeze in about these casually luxurious muffins and clumsy nouns/superlative adjectives seem to be the only tools at my disposal that nail it.

These gooey muffins, packed full of sweet blueberries and even sweeter white chocolate chips will seriously perk you up during the great sugar crashes of 2015…you know, those ones that ordinarily strike at around 15:00 each day.

They're just perfect with a little unsweetened tea or indeed a fruit tea would no doubt be just yummy too.

Without further a-do, or whatever cliché best expressed that we're moving on from my jibber jabber, here's the yummy recipe. I hope it makes you happy and healthy-ish and feel productive. Feeling productive is the best thing ever isn't it…? I remember this one time…NO. Woman, quit yo jibber jabber, we've been through this.

Recipe (makes 12 muffins)

Ingredients:

2 large eggs
200g caster sugar
130g plain flour
50g white hot chocolate powder (Whittards do a delightful one of these, however, if you can't get your hands on it straight away, a little more vanilla essence into the mix in it's absence will work wonderfully too!)
2 tsp baking powder
160ml semi-skimmed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
160g salted butter
140g white chocolate chips
150g fresh blueberries

Method:

1.) Heat your oven to 170 degrees (based on a fan assisted oven) and lay out 12 muffins cases on a 12 hole muffin tray.
2.) Beat together to eggs, sugar, flour, white hot chocolate powder, baking powder, semi-skimmed milk, vanilla extract and butter until well beaten and light.
3.) Use a wood spoon to fold in the blueberries and white chocolate chips until well combined. This will look like rather a lot of the good stuff…it is…and you're welcome. I haven't mistyped any amounts, theses muffins are just full of stuff you like rather than just sponge. Life's too short to not have a lot of what you fancy.
4.) Evenly place the mixture in the cases (this should work out just perfectly - happiness) and bake for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes skewer to check if they are cooked. If any mixture comes out on the skewer, they may need to be cooked for longer.
5.) Once cooked remove from the oven and leave too cool. A little. Not completely because there's a large amount of fun in eating something you've made, fresh from the oven, when it's still warm.
6.) Make tea, put on an episode of your favourite programme or blow the dust off your favourite book…sit back, feet, up relax…don't move until another muffin is needed. You're welcome.

Fruit Bowl Crumble

Some nights it's all about the tastes of home and something that's super simple to make (that looks like it is more complicated than it is, so you can lie and say it was hard work and look uber talented) Tonight, aka a lazy Sunday, was without a doubt one of those nights and so, my glorious fruit bowl crumble was born. A crumble which enables you to use up some in seasonal fruits, just before they turn bad, because you didn't eat as much fruit as you thought the past week on account of Haribo Starmix being on offer in your local supermarket. Whoops.

Anyway…so you don't feel too bad about that for too long as it doesn't do to dwell on wrongdoings, particularly ones you would repeat in a heartbeat given half the chance, I offer you this wonderful crumble recipe, ready in about an hour from start to finish, to make you feel better about your recent life choices.

In mine, I used pears, apples and a handful of raspberries because I like crumbles that are tart on the bottom and super-sweet on the top (Nigella, pun-your-heart-out) however, the fruits listed in my recipe can of course be substituted for others, just make sure you keep roughly the same quantities over all.



Recipe


Ingredients:


For the filling:


6 pears, peeled and sliced
5 apples peeled, cored and sliced
200g raspberries
4 tbsp water
4 tbsp caster sugar


For the crumble topping:


75g butter, softened
150g plain flour
100g light brown sugar


Method:

1. Firstly prepare your fruit and heat your oven to 180 degrees (based on a fan assisted oven.) The apples will need to be peeled and cored before being sliced, the pear will need to be peeled and sliced and the raspberries can be left whole. 
2. Place your fruit into a large saucepan with the water and sugar and cover. Heat on a low-medium heat. This little concoction will stew away until the fruit almost seems to be a mushy consistency, at these point, remove from the heat and leave to cool a little.
3. Once slightly cooled, place your fruit into a suitable, oven proof dish and leave to one side.
4. Prepare your crumble topping by putting your flour, sugar and softened butter into a bowl and mix by hand until it reaches a breadcrumb-type consistency. 
5. Once done, sprinkle evenly over your filling and, when ready, pop into the oven for 30 minutes.
6. If you don't wish to put this mixture in the oven straight away, that's no problem, simply cover and cook when desired. 
7. Serve as you wish. I had takers with vanilla ice cream, some completely on it's own and some went for custard. IT'S ALL GOOD. Promise.