Tag: Family

Categories
Bakes Recipes

Easter Choc Egg Biscuits

Easter is a special time in the food treats calendar. I always like to explore the array of innovative egg-themed confections that become available in the shops. No excuse is needed to enjoy the satisfying taste of chocolate this time of year (not that I need an excuse any other time of the year, to be fair 🙂 ).

Here’s a fun and fairly simple way to knock out some home-made biscuits for the holidays, incorporating a pack of chocolate mini eggs. Great fun to make and delicious to eat – they make an eggs-cellent addition to your holiday treat cupboard.

Servings

Makes 12 biscuits.

Timings

10 mins to prep, 30 mins to chill the dough, and 15 mins to bake at 160C in a fan oven.

You Will Need:

  • 250g butter, softened at room temperature
  • 140g caster sugar
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 300g plain flour
  • 100g chocolate mini eggs

Method

  1. Beat the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon.
  2. Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract and mix in again.
  3. Sieve over the plain flour.
  4. Roughly chop the chocolate mini eggs with a knife and add to the mix.
  5. Now comes the real fun part – having made sure you’ve washed your hands, roll up your sleeves and get in there with both sets of fingers to squidge it all together into a biscuit dough. Place the dough in the fridge for 30 mins to chill.
  6. Switch on a fan oven to heat up to 160C.
  7. Pull off a piece of the dough and roll between the palms of your hands into a ball. Repeat 12 times to make a dozen biscuits. Place each ball on a metal tray lined with baking paper, flattening the top slightly with the palm of your hand. Space them out on the tray, as they will flatten and spread as they bake.
  8. With the oven up to temp, place the tray in the oven for up to 15 mins. Keep an eye on them and let them bake until they’ve reached your preferred level of doneness, whether that be soft and chewy or a little more toasted and crisped. Everyone is different, so do what works for you.
  9. Remove and transfer the biscuits to a wire rack to cool (as shown in my photo at the top of the post). They will be soft when fresh from the oven, and will firm up gradually as they cool. The biscuits will keep for 2 – 3 days in a sealed container.

Customise It!

Most forms of chocolate can be used in place of the mini eggs if you wish. You could also substitute some chopped nuts for some of the chocolate.

In search of a seasonally named track for the ADK Playlist, I turned to Patti Smith’s Easter album. However, good though it is, I’ve decided to go with my favourite Patti Smith track, which is taken from her Wave album, instead. Here’s Patti with Frederick.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Roasted Cauli Stacks

Inspiration for this delicious vegan dish came from playing a game of Jenga. Just as in the game, it’s essential to check carefully that each layer is securely in place before moving on to the next layer in the stack.

The difference here is that your building blocks are cooked, irregular shaped, seasonal winter veg, rather than geometrically identical little pieces of wood.

The foundation is steamed, shredded Savoy cabbage….

….on top of which is placed a roasted cauliflower steak…

The crowning glory is a rich tomato and black olive sauce, as shown in my main photo at the top of the post. When you’ve built your stack, it’s time to tuck in, before it all comes tumbling down!

Haha, fun and filling, the way fabulous food should be. Here’s your architect’s plan for construction….

Servings

Mains for two adults.

Timings

30 mins to make, including roasting the cauli steaks at 180C.

You Will Need

  • 1 cauliflower
  • half a Savoy cabbage
  • 1 clove of garlic, crushed
  • oil
  • half an onion
  • 2 sticks of celery
  • half a red pepper
  • 500g carton of tomato passata
  • a handful of fresh herbs, torn
  • 12 – 15 black olives

Method

  1. Prepare the cauliflower steaks. Remove all the outer leaves and any woody bits at the base of the cauli, while keeping the stalks and florets intact and held together.
  2. With a large, sharp knife, cut the head of the cauli into 2 halves, or hemispheres. Then take each and, at the largest side, cut a slice, or ‘steak’ about 2cm thick. Keep the remaining, unused florets in a bag in the fridge, to use another time.
  3. Switch the oven on to 180C.
  4. Bring a pan of water to the boil, and immerse the 2 cauli steaks for about 3 mins. Remove, place on a plate or board, and pat dry with kitchen paper. Take care as they will be hot!
  5. Brush both sides of each steak with oil and place on a greased baking tray. Place in the oven for 20 mins, turning each over, half-way through roasting.
  6. Cut the Savoy into shreds and place in a steamer basket. Place on top of the saucepan, still with the cauli water inside, and bring back to the boil. Let the Savoy steam for about 12 mins.
  7. While the Savoy and cauli steaks are cooking, make the sauce. In a new saucepan, sizzle the garlic in oil, and then add in the onion, celery and red pepper, all chopped. After a few mins, tip in the passata and herbs, and stir.
  8. Finally, chop the black olives in half, and chuck in. Leave the sauce to simmer and reduce to a rich consistency. Switch off when the caulis come out of the oven.
  9. Serve up a layer of Savoy, topped with one of the steaks, and finally a few spoonfuls of the sauce.

Customise it!

Ok, here’s a challenge for you: can you add a 4th layer? It doesn’t have to be that hard – perhaps some grated parmesan, a sprinkling of nuts and seeds, or a handful of rocket. Whatever you fancy. Give it a try, but go carefully – or it may all come tumbling down! Just like in this classic track by the Stones, from the album Exile on Main Street: Tumbling Dice.

Categories
Blog

Fresh Strawberries

This time of year, paying a visit to a Pick Your Own (PYO) Strawberry Farm can be a lot of fun for all the family. Just look at this character greeting us on arrival this week at our local PYO – how could one resist?

The previous occasion when I visited a PYO Farm was Christmas Eve. We were in Victoria State, Australia, and had decided to make fresh strawberries the pudding course in the dinner for 9 that we were hosting on Christmas Day. Strawberries for Christmas? It sounds a bit weird to we northern hemisphere types. Even more so when the PYO Farm’s festive musical accompaniment to the strawberry picking includes Shakin’ Stevens belting out Snow is falling, All around us… (What? There was a bright blue sky and it was 30C).

Just to put any concerns at rest, let me make clear that this post will not conclude with me adding Shaky to the ADK Playlist. Phew!

This week’s trip was to Pickwell Farm in Southampton. The coastal area stretching east from the city’s outskirts towards the village of Hamble has been a soft fruit growing area for decades.

As my photos below show, the strawberry plants are plentiful, and the fruit ripe and rich in colour.

Here is the haul from our visit – a kilo and a half of fresh strawberries.

The kilo has been made into jam, by boiling the fruit in water with preserving sugar. The half has been made into fresh ice cream – I used the recipe I posted last summer which you can check out here. Alternatively, you could make Eton Rifles Mess!

Do you have a Pick Your Own Farm near you? If so, why not check it out. With the fruit still on the stalks, you can be assured of optimum freshness, and be your own boss of quality control. You will be doing your bit to support local businesses and reducing food miles. What’s more, the prices should be much less than you’ll pay in the supermarket (hey, there must be some trade-off for providing all that manual labour!) Best of all, it is a really fun activity.

I toyed with adding Strawberry Fields Forever to the ADK Playlist with this post. However, good though the Beatles are, they aren’t really my era, so I’m going instead for a fave Scottish band, Franz Ferdinand. This is Fresh Strawberries.