Tag: Entertaining

Categories
Recipes Snacks

Pizza Twists

Heading into the Easter holidays, many of us will be looking for recipe ideas for entertaining friends and family. This one comes from the Batch Lady, Suzanne Mulholland, whose recent series on Channel 4 I’ve been enjoying.

These pizza twists are relatively quick and easy to make, and go well as a snack alongside drinks, as part of a starter or as an accompaniment to a bowl of salad – see below.

What’s more, they can be fully prepared in advance, then frozen and lifted out of the freezer when required. Once thawed, they are ready to eat, and be warned – they are very tasty!

Servings

Makes 12 twists.

Timings

Prep time 10 mins, baking time 20 mins at 190C in a fan oven.

You Will Need:

  • 375g sheet of ready rolled puff pastry
  • 2 tbsp tomato passata
  • 140g grated cheddar cheese
  • 15g fresh basil
  • 1 large egg
  • sprinkling of Italian dried herb seasoning

Method

  1. Heat a fan oven to 190C.
  2. Unroll the pastry sheet and cut into 2 halves.
  3. Spread one of the halves with the passata. Cover with the grated cheese and the basil – see my photo above.
  4. Put the other half of the pastry on top. Cut into 12 strips, each about 1cm wide.
  5. Gently hold each strip between the fingers of both hands and twist into shape.
  6. Brush all 12 twists with the beaten egg and sprinkle the Italian herb seasoning over. Place on a baking tray and put in the oven at 190C for 20 mins.
  7. Remove and place on a wire rack to cool. Once cooled, they can be frozen if required – simply remove from the freezer and thaw to room temperature to eat.

Customise It!

Replace the passata with pesto, and/or the cheddar with parmesan. Once you brush with the egg, sprinkle over some poppy seeds or sesame seeds.

Here’s a timeless classic that I never tire of and always enjoying hearing when it comes on over the speaker. Elvis Costello and the Attractions with (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Firecracker Salmon

Here’s a fairly quick and easy way to zing up some salmon fillets, using a fiery topping sauce made mainly from ingredients you might find stowed away in a kitchen cupboard or fridge.

I served the firecracker salmon over a bed of veg and beansprouts, flash cooked in the wok using the remainder of the fiery topping as a spicy and fruity stir fry sauce. The veg consisted of crushed garlic and chopped root ginger, with fine batons of carrot, celery and red pepper, a few sliced mushrooms and a chopped red onion. I also chopped in a bunch of coriander/cilantro leaves and wilted in some pak choi.

No carb accompaniments required, but see Customise It! below for another suggestion to accompany the salmon.

The stir fry was made in the time it took the salmon to cook in the oven, so no additional time is required. The finished meal you can see in my photo at the top of the post.

Servings

2 adult portions.

Timings

5 mins to prepare, 20 mins to cook.

You Will Need:

  • 2 salmon fillets

    For the fiery topping
  • 2 tbsp red chilli paste
  • 100g tomato passata
  • 2 tbsp fruit jam
  • 2 tbsp rice or white wine vinegar
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce

    To sprinkle
  • a handful of sesame seeds

Method

  1. Turn a fan oven on to 180C.
  2. Take a roasting dish and line it with a rectangle of tin foil. Drizzle a little of the oil on the foil and lay the two salmon portions down on it, side by side. Then lift up the edges of the tin foil and pinch them at the corners to form a little fence tightly around the sides of the salmon.
  3. Put the fiery topping ingredients in a clean screw top jar and close with the lid. Give it a really good shake to mix.
  4. Unscrew the jar and, using a basting brush, smear the topping over the tops and sides of the salmon. The tin foil parcel will help it stay on the fish while it cooks, and stop it dripping off.
  5. Place the tray in the oven when it is up to temp. After 10 mins, remove it and baste the tops and sides again with another layer of fiery topping. Place back in the oven for a further 10 mins.
  6. Remove and use a spatula to lift each portion of salmon on to a warm plate. Sprinkle over the sesame seeds to serve.

Customise It!

An alternative to the stir fry accompaniment would be to place some small potatoes with chopped onion and peppers on the roasting tray alongside the salmon parcel, then serve it all together. This way there is only one cooking pan involved, and the wok can stay in the drawer.

Here’s a cracker of a track I’ve been playing this week in the ADK Kitchen. I heard it by chance recently and it reminded me how good this band were in their day. I have always liked the guitar sound of Andy Gill in particular. This is What We All Want from Gang of Four.

Categories
Bakes Recipes

Dorset Apple Squares

Having invited friends over this week for coffee and cake in the garden, I was keen to bake something tasty and seasonal for us all to enjoy. The previous few days had been spent down in Dorset (home of the famous Dorset Apple Cake), which started me thinking, as the apple trees in the ADK garden are now laden with fruit (see below). With a bit of help from a recipe on BBC Good Food, the idea for this traybake slowly came together.

Servings

Makes at least 16 squares.

Timings

15 mins to prepare, 45 mins in a fan oven at 160C.

You Will Need

  • 400g apple
  • half a lemon
  • 220g butter, softened
  • 250g caster sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 350g self-raising flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ground cinnamon and dark brown sugar, to sprinkle

Method

  1. Grease a baking tray and line with baking paper. The one I used is 22cm square. Switch the oven on to 160C.
  2. Peel and finely chop the apple. Place in a bowl and squeeze the lemon over. Stir so that the apple is coated in the lemony juice.
  3. Place the butter and caster sugar in a separate bowl and cream with an electric mixer. Crack in the eggs and mix.
  4. Sieve in the flour and baking powder, and fold in with a spatula, so that there are no dry ingredients.
  5. Tip in about 75% of the chopped apple and stir to incorporate.
  6. Spoon the mixture into the prepared baking tray and level with the back of a metal spoon. Sprinkle over a dusting of ground cinnamon, and then crumble over the dark brown sugar. Gently press in the remaining pieces of apple.
  7. Place in the oven at 160C for 45 mins, by which time a skewer inserted in the middle should come out dry.
  8. Remove and leave in the tin for 10 mins, before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Cut into 16 squares.

Customise It!

Use mixed spice or grated nutmeg in place of the cinnamon if you wish. Enjoy a square on its own to accompany a tea or coffee, or with a few dollops of cream or natural yoghurt alongside.

I heard this track on the radio recently, and was impressed by its fresh and distinctive sound. This is Sub Focus with Off the Ground.