Soap for Christmas

Prawns in Pernod

With two little ones sucking a lot of time but still wanting to spoil hubby with tasty meals, i am looking for fast dinners with a big impact of flavour and are healthy too.  Using the Pernod with the prawns works perfectly and i found marinated the tomatoes too which were divine.  Using Pernod leaves a lasting aromatic taste in the mouth. Ottolenghi has once again come through with these full of flavours dishes.   I love how effortless fresh and tasty all the recipes are turning out and i am a huge fan of herbs and i think i may need to extend the herb plot next year to keep up with the cooking. 

Ingredients 

4 big red tomatoes skinned, deseeded and chopped.

Prawns enough for 2 deveined

knob of butter

20g chopped chiritzo

1/2 dried chilli flakes

50g kalamata olives stoned

3 cloves of garlic

handful of chopped parsley

20ml Pernod

  

Melt the butter add the chiritzo, prawns and cook for 2 mins shaking the pan.
Add the tomatoes, chilli and olives cook for 2 more mins.
Add Pernod carefully so not to flame and cook off the alchole for 1 min then toss in the garlic and herbs serve right away.

I served the prawns with butter beans in sweet chilli soy sauce, again fast and full of flavour.

Ingredients
1 tin of butter beans
3 cloves of garlic
1 red pepper chopped
4 spring onions chopped
40ml sweet chilli sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp lemon juice
good handful of coriander chopped
good handful of mint chopped
salt and pepper

place the beans, spring onions, pepper and herbs in a bowl and toss together
smash up the garlic with pestle and morta add the salt and pepper sweet chilli, soy, lemon and sesame and pour over the beans and re toss, easy peasy.


 

Sweetcorn salad

 Mid week meals and i am run off my feet and need something fresh fast and healthy to fix for dinner and i am loving my veg ottolenghi style, we normally eat fennel and sweetcorn but this has been pimped up with beautiful fresh flavours from all the added herbs.

Ingredients
2 fresh corn on the cobs
15g lemon thyme
1 1/2tbsp lime juice
1/2 tsp maple syrup
2tbsp olive oil
1 green chilli
10g coriander, mint, flat leaf parsley
2 spring onions
sauteed red peppers and put this in as great addition for colour

As it was just Ali and i eating this i used 2 fresh corn on the cobs to make the dish, which i cut off the husks and gently brought the just to the point of boiling and then drained and left to come to room temperature.

in a bowl mix lime juice, maple syrup olive oil, chilli salt and pepper and mix then add the herbs and spring onions followed by the corn and peppers.

Squishy Gelly Glitter bag

Hedgehog hotel

We are so lucky we have hedgehogs visit us each year and as they have babies they teach their babies that it is safe to hibernate in our garage and we have had up to 3 living in the garage one year i have a feeling they might have been a family as there was a large one and a mummy one with her baby.  They are supposed to be solitary but there are always a few knocking about in the our logs.

This year i don't think baby got the idea as he made his hibernation nest right in the middle of the walkway of our garage and had dragged loads of plastic bags and a huge amount of muddy leaves from the garden and we have been tentatively stepping about him as he snuffles around us helping himself to the cats biscuits.

Sophie and i decided that he needed to be moved before he was squashed so made him a new safer luxury home.  Using an OJ cardboard box for warmth that was surrounded with plastic to keep the wet and damp and wind off him.  We blocked up the hole in the back with daddies car sponge (sshhh dont tell him) and then filled the box with an old towel and completed his new pad with a good handful of his smelly leaves, as hedgehogs don't have great eye sight but excellent sense of smell.

Sophie wanted to make the hedgehog feel welcome so made him a sign and looking at it now i realise i put it upside down text wise as i placed it up with the happy hedgehog but Sophie didn't mind and we cant wait to see if the hedgehog is there tomorrow, but with a free supply of cat food and water why would he want to leave.

Children in Need of PJ's for school

Finding it a bit odd tonight reflecting back on the supermarket trip as i saw parents buying up PJ's at £10 - £20 depending on how many kids they have all ready for tomorrows PJ day at school all for fun in support of Children in need and thinking how the supermarkets must be rubbing their hands each year at the sore sales of PJ'S.  With the commercial supporters each year im thinking the supermarkets really should step up and do more maybe doing a Pudsey onesy or a Blush PJ top, bottom and tutu and proceeds going to the charity.

I question sanity of both school and parent, why the school do this event ever year for the token 50p or £1 that gets slung in the bucket at the school gates rather than the £10 parents shelled out the night before at the super markets so their kids are not left out from the event or turning up in grubby PJ's and thought surly it would have been better for that £10 to head to Pudsey way rather than some fat happy shareholder.

Where do babies come from

Sophie was really interested in the pregnancy of her sister Ella and came to all of my scans and midwife appointments, to a point that she was telling the midwives what to measure and the Sonography where and what they should scan.

Well today Sophie asked how do the babies start so we found these useful videos.

My Sunday Photo Dark clouds

  

Chicken and three rice salad

im in love with my Ottolenghi so im trying another recipe and the flavours are just dancing in my mouth and happy wave spread out over dinner 

there is a gentle heat from chilies and pepper from the rocket balances out with fresh flavours from coriander and and mint 

here is the recipe 

i used 1 pack of chicken thighs

70ml olive oil

200g basmati rice

50g wild rice

50g brown rice

1 onion thin slices

6 spring onions

4 mild chillies ( i used 2 birds eye chillies)

bunch of coriander chopped

20 g mint chopped

20 g rocket ( i used half a pack)

dressing

65ml lemon juice

30ml sesame oil

30ml Thai fish oil

35ml olive oil 

i seasoned my chicken skin in salt ans pepper and browned in a pan before roasting it off which is different to the recipe, as i think chicken with a crispy skin is really nice.  once cooked chop into slices.

cook the basmati in 400ml of water bring to the boil and simmer for 20 mins remove from the the heat and leave for 10 mins.

put the wild and brown rice and cover with three times the amount of water bring to the boil and simmer for 40 mins drain and run under cold water 

fry the onions with some salt till golden leave to cool 

once everything is cool toss all ingredient in a bowl with the dressing and serve 

Green olive bread sticks

I love making bread and i hope to make more as Ella gives me more of a chance to do so,  but today i had a go at making Paul Hollywoods Green olive bread sticks, i have his book and i watched how he did it on the master class before i attempted it.

here is the recipe 

500g strong white flour

10g salt

10g yeast

400ml of water

2 tbsp olive oil 

500g of olives but i only had 300g 

use a dough hook in your mixer and mix the flour salt yeast and water together for 5 mins add the olive oil and mix for 2 more mins then add the olives and mix

leave to rise till tripled in size and once risen tip out into a heavy floured top and gently stretch out into a rectangle and cut up into 20-25cm long but 1 olive width strips.  Place on a tray and cover and leave for 30 mins before putting in the oven at 240c for 15 mins 

I have to say i was a little upset on this bake as the all important snap was not there and i think was down to the 30 min rise at the end and the olive impeding the width of the sticks.  But they look identical to the picture and i followed step by step with the book and the tv show as i made them.

 next time i do this recipe i will chop up the olives and make thinner one, but as a bread type they were delicious with a deep dense flavour to them which came from the olives and  the slow prove, and are great as a lunch snack or over a glass of wine.  I did save half of the recipe and made a focaccia which was really scrummy.

Toffee Apples

Fireworks night and you just have to have a good old fashion bonfire treat of toffee apples.

I made pretty sticks for the apples by cross wrapping ribbon round them before i pushed them into the apples.

First apples have wax on them so when i did my first apple it didn't feel waxy at all but the caramel just slide off the apple making a mess.  So i washed them in hot not boiling water to make sure all the wax was off the apples.

to make the caramel i put in a heavy bottom pan the following

1 cup of corn syrup
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup of dark brown sugar
1 cup of double cream
1/4 tsp of salt

Corn syrup is used a lot in America and i really like it as its not as heavy or as sweet as golden syrup and it has a cleaner purer taste.  I have never found it in the supermarkets but found a store on-line that sells it.

I melted the sugars and cream together over a medium heat and used my sugar thermometer to watch when it the sugars hit 234 degrees this took about 10 - 15 mins and i dropped in

3tablespoons of butter
3/4 tsp of vanilla bean paste but you can use extract

Don't be tempted to get your apples swooshing in the mix as you will hit disaster again as the mix needs to be left to cool for about 5 minuets to thicken and then it will hold better on the apple. Let the excess run off and place on grease proof paper, here i came a cropper again and found i needed to oil the paper as well to stop the apples sticking and ripping off the bottom of the caramel from the apple

also the first time i tried to decorate my apples i found that the caramel set so quickly that i didn't have a chance to get my sprinkles on them so i left them for a bit to set properly and then gently re heated the left over caramel and used a teaspoon to dribble fresh hot wet caramel in the places i wanted to decorate and just try and work quickly.  Be careful thought caramel is very hot and sticky and will hold fast to your skin and burn it.

My last tip for clean the pan don't worry about scrubbing it just fill it with water and put back on the hob to heat up and all the sugar melts away

Hope you have a cracking bonfire night.

Edible Sparklers

Fireworks night another great event in the calendar that we look forward to in our house, unfortunately we are not having the traditional fireworks party this year, so into the kitchen and we have got out all our lovely edible glitters, you can't have a sparkler without a bit of sparkle, and you cant have a sparkler with out so crackle some we Popped out the popping candy too and then some candy stars for good measure.

Using Mikido sticks we drizzled dark chocolate on them and added all the sparkles and crackles and stars and let them set.  We think these are a fun treat for fireworks night and we made so many they will be in the bento boxes this week!  i think Sophie will love opening up her pack lunch and finding 1 of these inside.
you cant have a sparkler with out some crackle so we Popped out the popping candy