Baby Bean & Mum

Ingredients

• 2 Eggs and 1 extra yolk
• 150ml Milk (I used semi skimmed)
• 150ml Double cream
• Ready made shortcrust pastry sheet
• 100g or more of cheese (i only had cheddar but normally would use gruyere cheese)
• 1 head of broccoli
• 6 slices smoked bacon
• 1 small chopped onion

Roll out the pastry to fit in your dish. I dont bother blind baking it as it doesnt seem to make much of a difference to me.  The last time i tried, some of the edges broke of and it didnt taste much different anyway!

Beat the 2 eggs and one extra yolk in a bowl and add the milk and cream. Set aside.
Fry the onion, broccoli and bacon. I fryed the bacon seperatly as it didnt all quite fit into my frying pan!
Add the fryed ingredients to your pastry lined dish, then grate on your cheese. Pour over the eggy milk mixture and then i like to sprinkle some grated nutmeg on top.
Put in the oven at 180 degrees c for about 25 minutes.

Its one of those meals you can cook during the day when you find the time and then leave to cool and eat later. I think that might be why it gets cooked so often in our house. Its stress free and easy. Usually we'll always have the ingredients in the house too so its always available! I've also made it with asparagus spears too, and the favourite version is onion, bacon and sliced tomatos ontop.

We had ours with a baked potato, and some naughty full fat mayo, YUM.

I forgot to take a picture once they were cooked, I didnt think they were going to taste as good they did so they were never really going to come on here, but oh my, they were delicious!

• 500g minced beef, i used lean beef but apparently the fattier the better for bonding the burgers.
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 2 crushed closes of garlic
• 1 chopped chilli
• 1 beaten egg
• 1 pack of blue cheese, or whatever cheese you'd like!
• 1 pair of clean hands, ready to get messy!

Put all the ingredients bar the cheese into a big bowl and mash together with your hands, grab a bit in your hand, place a cube of cheese in the centre and add some more mixture and form into a lovely smooth round patty, or square, or whatever shape you fancy! I cooked these on our lovely new Le Creuset grillit pan and served with a salad and mini roast potatoes roasted in chilli oil mmmmmm...

mmmmm, sugar free and baby friendly! I came across this on the BLW forum and thought i'd better practice (!) for when baby bean can have some, wouldn't be right to give her something i'd never had myself! I've slightly adapted this, you could do so much!

MMMMMMMMMMM YUMMMY!


Ingredients

• 1 Egg
• 2oz Butter
• 4oz SR Flour (i only had plain so added 2 tsp of baking powder)
• 8oz Banana
• Tsp ground cinnamon
• 3oz Dried Fruits, I used cranberries.

In a bowl mix the cinnamon in with the flour and rub in the butter. In a seperate bowl whisk the egg and add the banana and mash together, i tried to use a fork but ended up using the potato masher, much better!
Mix it all together and put in a greased tin or one lined with baking paper. I couldn't find a loaf tin so used the one above... put in the oven, pre-heated to about 170 degrees c for 30 mins. If in a loaf tin i'd up the time by 10 mins to make sure its cooked through, and voila! sugar free goodness, i suppose if you ate half the cake then it would be 1 of your 5 a day! good excuse for another slice!

...if you could call it a snack! Hopefully its also something I can share with baby bean soon, minus the pesto of course (the salt content in this posh m&s one is through the roof!).


Mmmmm, so, toast a slice of bread (only one, we're being good). Whilst its in the toaster mix 2 eggs in a bowl and pour into a hot baby pan (by baby i mean about 7 inches wide), grab a tomato and the pesto from the fridge and chop as much tomato as you like, spread some pesto on the toast, pile on the chopped toms and then your cooked omelette, and VOILA! Nom Noms....

You could also scramble your eggs, i've been known to boil 2 eggs then decide i want them on my toast as above and peel them, still hot OUCH, poach, add a slice of ham, or bacon... naughty

oh my, i made this a good few hours before dinner and i'm not sure i can resist!
Ingredients

Eggs x 8
Potatoes x 6
Chorizo 60g sausage x 2
Fresh Rosemary

• Cut potatoes in to quite small chunks and boil.

• While they're cooking whisk the eggs in a bowl and set aside.

• Cut the chorizo into chunks and fry in a little oil with the cooked potato, you wont need much oil as the chorizo releases alot of its own oil.

• When everything is looking a little crispy around the edges take its all out the pan with a slotted spoon leaving as much of the oil in the pan as you can.

• Sprinkle the rosemary leaves into the hot pan only for a minute and then pour in the eggs. Arrange the chorizo and potato on top and cook for about 3-4 minutes.
  
• Pop the pan under a hot grill for about 10 - 15 minutes or until cooked through.
• Enjoy... try not to try until dinner time as you may just nibble it all away!
  

Chocolate Spelt Muffins

My friend Netta is wheat intolerant and when chatting to her about the different foods she can and cannot eat she mentioned a recipe for muffins and i thought I'd give them a go! Who can resist a chocolate muffin? Not me!

I originally bought the spelt flour to make bread rolls with but the muffins got in first.

Ingredients
250g Spelt Flour
110g Caster Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Bicarb of Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
5 tbsp Cocoa
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
240ml Milk
90ml Vegetable Oil
180g bag of Cadburys Chocolate Chunks

Sieve all the dry ingredients together in a bowl and mix.
Mix all the wet ingredients together separately then pour onto the dry and stir till combined but not smooth. Pop into 12 muffin cases into the oven at 190 degrees (fan oven) for 15-20 minutes.

We just had one with a cup of tea, lovely!

Oh No! By the time I'd remembered to take a picture of the cooked salmon for the blog we'd eaten it all!
You might be able to make out the finger marks where i couldn't resist swiping a finger lick... mmmm its such a tasty dish i thought I'd share it on here.

For the marinade:
2 x tbsp of honey
2 x tbsp of soy sauce
Juice of half a lemon
tsp of whole grain mustard

Place 2 salmon fillets in a dish and add all the ingredients for the marinade, making sure to coat both the fillets. Leave for at least 30 minutes. I cooked the fillets in a griddle pan for about 10 - 15 minutes and just before they're done spoon the remaining marinade in the pan and then poor over when served. Its so sweet and gooey and lovely! We had it with steamed potatoes, sprouts and carrots. Lovely!

So, we have leftovers for dinner from last nights Tagine. A perfect excuse to make a pudding... there may not be enough leftovers to satisfy our hunger needs and i feel like i cant go a night without cooking! I will also be trying to make fresh custard for the first time too!

I love making fruit crumble because it seems too good to be true, its easy, and so versatile. I like to stick to apples and berries personally. We have an orchard in the garden (which reminds me, pruning is on my to do list!) so we usually have an abundance of apples in the summer. Being winter, i have some leftover that i bought this week for a pork casserole I'd done earlier in the week.
I like to keep frozen berries in the freezer too, mainly they were for smoothies i had whilst pregnant and I'd forgotten they were there. But there are brambles all over Jersey and so in late summer there are usually loads of fresh blackberries to choose from.

I've written down the amounts of ingredients below but they are just estimates as i just add by eye. If the crumble seems too dry, add more butter. If it seems too fine, add more nuts and oats. This is the first time I've added the bicarb of soda and baking powder as a friend suggested it today to make the crumble "fluffier". We'll see!

You will need:

• 125g Plain flour
• 75g Oats (i use porridge but you can use any you have in the cupboard)
• 75g Crushed or chopped nuts (crush under a tea towel with a rolling pin)
• 50g caster sugar
• 100g unsalted butter
• 1/4 tsp bicarb of soda
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 3 x large bramley apples, cored and chopped
• 150g frozen berries

I like to do things slowly in our kitchen so i had a bowl of water with a squeeze of lemon in it ready for my chopped apples. This will stop them from going brown if your not using them straight away and with a 4 month old baby, things get done slowly as i never like to be in a rush! I think if i had to rush dinner for a certain time every night then it wouldn't be enjoyable anymore. Its also nice to know that the family will try anything once so I'm trying new recipes all the time.

Measure out your four, sugar, bicarb, baking powder, oats & nuts. Mix them well together then add your butter. It will be easier to rub it all together if your butter is cubed. Get messy with your hands and rub it all together till its nice and crumbly.

Get a pan on the hob and pop your apples in with a little of the water they've been resting in. Let them cook on a medium heat for about 10 minutes till they go a bit mushy round the edges but not too much so they turn into apple sauce! You can sprinkle on a bit of sugar if you like but i don't like to put too much in because i like the fruit to be quite tart. The custard will sweeten it all up!
Add the berries to the pan but not for too long, maybe 2 minutes to soften them up. Pile the fruit into the dish and pour over the crumble mix.

Put the dish into your oven at about 160 degrees for a fan oven for 30 minutes, check at this time and then leave in for a bit longer if its not golden enough!

YUM!
I'm so chuffed the custard worked too. I'd heard so many custard horror stories of eggs separating and ending up with sweetened scrambled eggs that I'd been putting it off for a long time but this recipe works a treat!



First ever fresh custard DONE.

... even if a little late!

I've always wanted to start a blog, if anything so i can look back and read things to jog my memory.
I'm a huge fan of cooking so i thoughts I'd write down the recipe for the dish I'll be cooking for this evenings menu!

Lamb tagine (ish, its kind of made up!)
This recipe was given to me by my MIL (mother in law).
Preheat your oven to 150 degrees c.

You will need:

• Lamb, I've used a leg of lamb, or chops, or 4 lamb steaks chopped into bite size chunks ANY LAMB!
• Onions x 2 diced
• Garlic x 2 cloves crushed
• Dried apricots, a handful chopped (optional)
• Ground almonds x 100g (i wont be using this tonight as i ran out!)
• Ground Cumin, about 1 tbsp
• Ground Coriander seeds, about 1 tbsp
• Tomato puree, about 1 tbsp
• Vegetables. This is up to you really, i just use whatever i have around.
• Butternut squash or sweet potato x 1 chopped
• Courgettes x 2 chopped
• Carrots x 2 chopped
• Cous Cous
• Glug of red wine
• Lamb stock cube

So, lets start!

Brown the meat in your casserole dish in a little oil. With the leg of lamb i made sure I'd browned all sides. Take it out once done and pop on a plate. This shouldn't take longer than 5 minutes.

Then, soften the onions with the crushed garlic in the same casserole dish, you might need to add a little more oil so it doesn't stick, this is only for a couple of minutes then add your spices with a little more oil, cook this off for a little bit as i think that cooking the spices really releases all their loveliness!

Add the ground almonds (if you remembered to buy them unlike me!) and the apricots with a good glug of red wine. This is a great excuse to open a bottle and poor yourself a glass once you've added the glug! By "glug" i mean about 100ml or so, maybe a little extra or a little less if your not a wine person (shame on you!).
Add the stock cube crumbled up, the tomato puree and a splash of hot water from the kettle, again about 100ml or so. I never measure and I'm pretty sure it would be difficult to mess it up by adding too much or too little. If you want a lot of sauce then add more, if you want a think coating of sauce add less! Pop the meat back in the pot and simmer on the hob on a relatively medium/low heat for about 10 minutes to make sure its all mixed well.

Now, pop it in the oven on a low heat for an hour and half. Whilst its in the oven, bubbling away, you have the chance to peel and chop your veggies.

These need to be added after and hour and a half and will be in the oven for an hour. In total this pot will be in the oven for 2 & 1/2 hours. Give it a good stir when you get it out to add the veggies, and again after half an hour, its always good to check it in case it needs topping up with a bit more water or the edges are burning! Its also a good excuse to have a taste too. Mmmm Yum.

When its ready, take it out the oven and pop it on the side to rest. Make up your cous cous according to the packet instructions. A cous cous tip from me here is to use vegetable stock instead of plain hot water. It gives it a nice flavour. A little squeeze of lemon makes it a bit more refreshing too, but its up to you!

Plate up and enjoy!
I know i will!