Gingerbread with Guinness & chocolate

The Guinness in this spicy gingerbread adds a real depth to the recipe and brings out the flavour of the ginger. The pieces of chocolate provide a little luxurious treat.

Ingredients:

• 110g softened butter, plus a little extra for greasing
• 250g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 3 tbsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 50g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
• 225g black treacle
• 125ml Guinness or other stout
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 eggs
• 200g caster sugar

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c (gas mark 4)
2. Grease a 23cm10cm loaf tin and line with baking parchment
3. Sift the flour, baking powder and spices together into a bowl and set aside
4. Heat the Guinness and black treacle in a medium saucepan until it reaches boiling point then turn off the heat and carefully stir in the bicarbonate of soda. (Be careful as it with foam up!)
5. In a medium bowl whisk the eggs and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the butter and whisk to combine.
6. Whisk the Guinness mixture into the eggs
7. Finally sift the flour mixture into the rest of the ingredients and add the chocolate pieces then gently fold together until combined.
8. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for an hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out. Great served warm with ice cream or allowed to cool completely.

Authentic spaghetti alla carbonara

Despite what is served up in most Italian restaurants in the UK, a true carbonara contains no cream. The consistency comes simply from the beaten egg and finely grated cheese which is cooked through in seconds by the heat of the pasta.

Recipe (Serves 2)

Ingredients:

• 200g good spaghetti
• 4 eggs (2 whole and two yolks only)
• 140g diced pancetta
• 40g parmesan or pecorino, finely grated
• 1 clove garlic, halved
• glug olive oil
• good handful of finely chopped parsley
• salt and plenty of freshly milled black pepper

Method:

1. Boil the spaghetti in plenty of salted boiling water as per the pack instructions
2. Turn the heat on a pan and warm the garlic and olive oil to infuse
3. Remove the garlic and discard, add the pancetta and fry until crisp
4. Beat the eggs and yolks together in a large bowl then whisk in the cheese, half the parsley and add a little salt (Not too much as the pancetta is quite salty) and plenty of black pepper
5. When the pasta is cooked, drain it but reserve a few tablespoons of the cooking water
6. Tip the pasta and a little water into the pancetta and heat through
7. Tip the pasta and pancetta into the egg mixture and stir through thoroughly (Never subject the egg mixture to direct heat i.e. in the pan as it will over cook and you'll find yourself with scrambled eggs)
8. Top with more black pepper and the rest of the parsley 

Even without the cream this is still quite a rich dish so serve with a simple tomato and rocket salad and a chilled glass of crisp Italian white such as pinot grigio. Delicious.

Luxurious fish pie

Tender chunks of delicate fish, juicy prawns, and quail's eggs in a creamy sauce with a cheesy mash topping. This has it all...

Recipe (Serves 2-3)


Ingredients:

• 350g mixed fish (I used salmon, haddock and smoked Alaskan pollock)
• 8 raw prawns
• 6 quail's eggs, boiled, shelled and halved lengthways
• 1 leek, finely sliced
• 25g fresh spinach, roughly chopped
• 700g potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 50g cheddar, grated 
• 2 tbsp crème fraîche
• 2 tbsp vermouth
• 1 tsp wholegrain mustard
• 1 tsp stock powder (I used Marigold Swiss vegetable bouillon)
• 1 tsp dried tarragon
• 300ml milk, plus a little extra for the potatoes
• 3 tsp cornflower, mixed with a little milk
• 2 good knobs, butter

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200c
2. Boil the potatoes in salted water until soft
3. Soften the leeks in a knob of butter for 5 minutes, then add the spinach and tarragon and stir until the spinach has just wilted
4. Remove from the pan and put into a small baking dish
5. Heat the milk, vermouth and stock powder then add the cornflour paste and stir until bubbling
6. Lightly drop in the fish and poach for two minutes
7. Return the leeks and spinach to the pan and stir in the crème fraîche, season to taste.
8. Pour the mixture into the baking dish and add the raw prawns and quail's eggs
9. Drain the potatoes, and mash with the milk and the second knob of butter
10. Drop the mash in pieces on top of the fish mixture but do it as loosely as possible to achieve lots of rough edges that will crisp up in the oven.
11. Top with the grated cheddar and bake for 20 minutes until golden and bubbling.

Serve with some steamed broccoli and a chilled glass of sauvigion blanc.

Tip: Many supermarkets sell a fish in a fish pie mix which is perfect for this recipe.

Healing soup (v)

Oof. Well I had planned to blog my healing hangover soup today anyway and it turns out that I'm 'method cooking' with a slightly sore head so I certainly need a bowlful of noodley goodness.

This soup is a well known hangover cure amongst my friends and I always ensure that I have the ingredients to hand before a big night out.

It packs a powerful chilli hit to sweat out the demon drink and also has lots of ginger and garlic to help with digestion and combat nausea. It tastes great and cooks in 5 minutes.

Recipe (Serves 2)

Ingredients:

• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 thumb sized pieces of ginger, peeled, half chopped, half matchsticked
• 4 small hot dried chillies (more if you can take it)
• 2 tsp sugar (palm is best)
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp rice wine (or dry sherry)
• 2 tsp corn flour, mixed with a little water
• approx 1 litre of stock (vegetable or chicken)
• approx 250g mixed chopped vegetables (I used broccoli, sugarsnaps, carrot, spring onion, peppers)
• handful of cashew nuts
• 2 portions of medium dried egg noodles

Method:

1. Heat the stock in a pan and add the garlic, ginger, chillies, sugar, soy sauce, rice wine, and cornflour and simmer while you prep the vegetables
2. Add the noodles and cook for 4 minutes
3. Add the vegetables, stir and cook for 1 minute
4. Serve in deep bowls topped with the cashew nuts and extra soy sauce for those that want it.

Tips:

A handful of herbs or spinach are good in this too. Go for fresh mint, basil or coriander and put in the bottom of the bowl to wilt under the hot soup.

I usually make this a vegetarian dish but its good with prawns, or shredded chicken or cooked omlette too.

Delicious, I'm feeling better already! Drink anyone?

Zesty lemon linguine with veal meatballs

A quick satisfying dish to liven up a dull winter evening.

Recipe (Serves 4)


Ingredients:

• 450g pack veal mince
• finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon, and juice of half
• 4tbsp  crème fraîche
• 50g bag wild rocket
• 400g dried linguine
• generous pinch dried thyme
• glug of olive oil

Method:

1. Squeeze together the veal with the thyme, lemon zest and plenty of seasoning
2. Shape into balls roughly the size of a walnut
3. Fry them for 12-15 minutes in the olive oil
4. Meanwhile boil the linguine in plenty of salted water as per the pack instructions
5. Drain and add the lemon juice, crème fraîche and rocket
6. Stir until combined and the rocket leaves have wilted
7. Serve in a bowl topped with the veal meatballs

Serve with a fresh salad and a glass of crisp pinot grigio.

Chorizo & chickpea soup

I spent the afternoon outside mending guttering and gardening so I needed something hearty and satisfying to warm my cockles. This soup is quick and simple to make and really delicious. Most of the flavour comes from the rich paprika infused chorizo sausage.

Recipe (serves 2)

Ingredients:

• 1 400g tin of chickpeas
• 100g chorizo sausage, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 red pepper, chopped
• 1 small potato, peeled and chopped
• 1 small red chilli, chopped (optional)
• 1 tbsp dry sherry
• 1/2 litre stock
• glug of olive oil

Method

1. Soften the chorizo, onion, chilli and pepper on the oil for 5 minutes
2. Add the potato and sherry and cook for a further 2 minutes
3. Add the chickpeas and the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes
4. Add seasoning to taste then using a slotted spoon remove half the chunky mixture
5. Blend the rest until smooth (easiest done with a stick blender in the pan)
6. Return the mixture to the blended soup and heat through
7. Serve topped with freshly chopped parsley and a dusting of paprika

Best eaten with some chunky bread and a cold Spanish lager such as Estrella