Category: Food

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Guest Recipe: Vodka and Tonic Battered Fish & Wedges

Todays Guest Post is from theperfectbadmummy.wordpress.com, who is @mrsaimeehorton on Twitter.  Her recipe for vodka and tonic battered fish & wedges is not something I would have ever thought to try, but it sounds very tempting to give a go.

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Food for 2

I get a little bit excited when I learn a new kitchen “skill”. Probably more then is normal. Then, I love to make it a bit different, especially if it involves alcohol.

For the Fish:

2 chunky white fish fillets

4oz/110g Self Raising Flour

175ml of Tonic

Double shot of Vodka

Salt & Pepper

Extra Flour for dusting

1 pint of Vegetable Oil

For the Wedges

4 or 5 large potatoes – peeled and cut into wedge shapes

Cajun Spice

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C – pour the oil into a roasting dish and pop in the oven to heat

2. Sprinkle Cajun spice over the potatoes and put them into the hot oil and allow them to fry gently for about 10 minutes, until they are soft but still pale.

3. Lift out of the pan and leave to cool slightly on greaseproof paper.

4. Mix the Flour, Vodka, Tonic, Salt & Pepper in a bowl until it becomes a thick batter

5. Dip the cod in the batter until it is thickly coated

6. Place in the oil and cook for a few minutes until the batter is crispy and golden

7. Leave to drain on greaseproof paper

8. Add the potatoes back in the oil to finish off and crisp up

9. Serve with Mushy Peas or Salad and a vodka and tonic with a slice of lime.

YUM.

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Guest Recipe: Mutta Roast (Egg Roast) by Sheba Promod from Absolute Indian, Cooker School and Spice Boutique

The recipe attached is provided by Sheba Promod of the Absolute Indian, Cooker School and Spice Boutique.   The website has a lovely little shop for Indian spices and I was quite surprised to learn that Turmeric is actually known for it’s antiseptic properties.

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Egg Roast (Mutta Roast)

Ingredients

(serves 2-3)

 3 hard-boiled eggs, halved

3-4 tbsp. vegetable oil

½ tsp. mustard seeds

2 medium onions, finely chopped

8-10 curry leaves

1 tsp. fresh ginger, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

75 grams chopped tomatoes

¼ tsp. turmeric

½ tsp. chilli powder

½ tsp. coarsely ground black pepper

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. garam masala

This dish is normally served as a breakfast dish in Kerala alongside Appam (similar to a thick pancake and made from ground rice and coconut) However, it can also be served as an accompaniment to other Kerala curries. I must admit though, I find it truly heavenly just on its own or perhaps with some bread to help mop up the extra onions. It happens to be one of those meals that I craved when pregnant but wished my mum had been around to make then for me! She made them slightly differently, with luscious mounds of the onion masala served on top of the clean, cut eggs and then warmed through in the oven. Just as delicious!

 What makes the dish so mouth-watering is the abundance of onions. You may be rather alarmed with the quantity of sliced onions you have prepped for just 3 eggs but believe me, the sweetness of the slow cooked onions and the sharpness of the tomatoes (with of course, a kick of chilli) make this a delectable way to eat those simple little eggs. Perhaps try this as a variation to scrambled eggs one Sunday morning? You’ll want to make them again and again!

Heat the oil in a shallow non-stick pan. When hot, add the mustard seeds and fry for 2- seconds (they should sizzle immediately on contact with the oil). Reduce to a medium/low heat and fry the onions for 5 minutes to soften. (Bear in mind you do not want to brown them) Add the ginger, garlic and curry leaves and fry for a further 3-4 minutes.

Combine the tomatoes, turmeric, chilli and black pepper into the pan and cook for 5-6 minutes until the oil begins to separate from the masala. Season with salt and garam masala and then gently add the eggs. Mix well to warm through the eggs, being careful not to crush them.

Serve with fresh, warm pooris and pickle.

Notes

A simple way to split boiled eggs in half is to use a piece of thread lengthways across he egg – this gives you a clean cut without crumbling any part of the yolk or white.

 This dish can also be served as a starter or canapé. Simply top the warm, halved eggs with small mounds of the onion masala and serve. I promise you, totally mouth-watering. However, no more than 1 egg per person or you may find your guests stuffed before dinner!

 

 

 

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Making Stock Recipes for Slow Cookers Begins With Experimenting

How we make our stock is the difference between good and ok food from our slow cooker recipes.

It doesn’t matter if we are making soups or casseroles, the basis of good stock makes our meals perfect.  Cooking with a slow cooker is easy, but not satisfied with the results I was cajoled and encouraged by my mother on many occasions for the use of stock cubes in my recipes.  I still do use them for some recipes, for where speed is needed, or I haven’t got time to make or buy stock.

Using stock cubes works out where we are using herbs and spices to flavour meals, as they can often disguise the lack of real stock, but this post is to show you how to make stock that can also be frozen for the future.

Myth

All stock has to be meat based.

Types of Stock

The world is your oyster.  We can make stock out of almost anything ingredient wise.  When we are making slow cooker stock, we can put our ingredients in, and then just forget about them.

Bones, meat, poultry, vegetables and even fruits can be used to make our stocks with.

The key to good stock is to allow it to simmer slowly and absorb the aromas and flavours.   Don’t allow your stock to boil, or it will change colour.

Method

If you want lovely white stock, place bones, vegetables or fruits into slow cooker, add water to cover your ingredients and simply put on the lid and simmer on low for 8 hours.  Leave the stock alone to simmer, no stirring.

If you want brown stock, roast your ingredients first, or add some colouring.

Using Stock in Meals

Skim off the fat when it’s cool.  I put mine into the freezer for half an hour so that the fat rises to the top and is easy to skim off.  You could use a muslin or cheesecloth to strain it if you don’t have a handly sieve, or at a push, wait until the fat hardens into white lumps and just lift it out using a spoon.  You’ll find a way that works for you.

Freezing Stock

  • Remove as much of the fat as you can.
  • We don’t have to reduce the stock to freeze it, but if space is an issue, you might have to.
  • The best way to reduce stock is simply to put it onto the cooker, and let it boil away most of the water, but keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t burn.

 

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Caravan Cooking with Scotty Brand Kestrel Potatoes – Slow Cooked Meatball Casserole

 

We received our package of potatoes from Scotty Brand just before we headed up to the top of Scotland with our caravan.  Sending a pack by way of my brother and his wife, I took 3 bags of their lovely potatoes with us.  We had a couple of baked potato meals, that I didn’t manage to get pictures of before my 3 strapping lads tucked into them.

On the days I made slow cooked soup and meatball casserole, I was much quicker off the mark.  For casseroles and soups, I rarely measure out ingredients unless it is to add spices and strong flavours.  At home, my slow cooker is a huge 6.5L pot, and there is always some left over to freeze for another day, but the pot for caravan cooking is 3L and makes just enough to feed the family for one meal.

For slow cooked meatball casserole done where space is limited.

Ingredients

  • 2kg potatoes, peeled and sliced
  • couple of carrots, sliced
  • onion, chopped
  • teaspoon of ginger paste
  • garlic clove
  • few cumin seeds
  • pinch salt
  • pinch pepper
  • meatballs
  • 2 x stock cubes
  • thickener

Method

I would usually pan fry the meatballs and onions, but being short of space in the van, I just threw them in the pot with the potatoes, carrots, ginger paste, cumin seeds and clove of garlic.   Sprinkle in the stock cubes with a dash of salt and pepper.

Add enough boiling water to read almost up to the top of your ingredients, turn the slow cooker on, 4 hours on high, or 8 hours on slow.

I had no cornflour with me, so some gravy granules it had to be for a thickener, a little more salt and pepper to taste, and then it was simply served up to hungry children.

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A cake worth the calories……..the sweetie cake

It’s mums birthday today.  If you didn’t know, you do now.

I tend not to make too big a fuss when it’s my birthday and I actually never tell anyone in real life as I don’t want them to feel as if they “have” to buy me something, which they don’t.   I’ll have popped out this morning to buy myself a top and some cards for the kids to give me later, and then I’ll let them have the surprise.

A sweets cake is something that my boys have often longed to get, but I haven’t got round to making.

I spotted one on a Tweeters timeline last week and that gave me the idea to make one for my own birthday instead of getting the usual hurriedly bought birthday cake for mum that tends to be too sweet, too sickly and nobody can eat it.  I can’t remember who it was who had made something similar (but did look better than mine) and if you know, let me know so I can link up to her.

I know you really only want to know how to make a sweetie cake, don’t you?  I made a rather large cake, but you could make a smaller one.  I use a basic sponge mix, but we can add some variations if we want to.  Sorry, I work in ounces, but it’s easily changed to grammes by working at approx 28g per ounce.

Ingredients

  • 12 oz castor sugar
  • 12 oz butter
  • 2 oz chopped hazelnuts / almonds
  • 6 medium eggs
  • golden syrup or honey
  • food colouring
  • filling
  • icing
  • 12 oz self-raising flour
  • 1 x large bag of jelly babies & jelly beans (substitute for any sweets you like)

Method

I use a mixer, so it does take the hard work out of mixing for a cake, but it also produces a much lighter sponge than I have ever achieved by hand.

Cream the eggs and sugar together.  I microwave the butter to make it really soft so that it creams quickly and fully.

Break the eggs into a bowl.  I rarely do anything with them, but I know some people like to whisk eggs before they add them to a mix.  I don’t.  I just break, check there are no rotten ones, then simply add them in.  Once the mix with eggs added has mixed until it is a smooth paste, I then add my flour and three tablespoons of golden syrup.

Mix for a good three minutes in the mixer to make a uber smooth mix.  After that, I hand stirred in the hazelnuts and a couple of drops of food colouring.  I used red to give a nice pink sponge.

Pour into greased baking tray and bake at 140 degrees.  It takes about an hour to cook in my oven, and you will probably know your own oven well enough to be able to judge the heat to use.

When cooked, turn out on to wire rack to cool and allow you to shape it.  I cut the sponge to get two halves, then I slice the top off the uneven part and take the outside edge off the sponge, to leave the soft inner sponge.  I used to think that cakes which turned out of the oven like this were disasters.  I now know better and that some artwork with a knife can rescue some very unattractive looking sponges.

Adding a filling to the bottom part is simple, and for the benefit of the kids, I used a mix of chocolate and toffee icing with Nutella (their favourite).

I turn the topped sponge upside down to place on top of the filled bottom section and then cut around the crusts to make sure it looks even.

The next step is the easiest.  I cheated and bought pre-made icing which was ready to roll.   Spreading a little icing sugar on my counter, I rolled it out until it was large enough to cover the whole cake.   With a pastry brush, I painted a very thin layer of golden syrup on one side of the icing to help it to stick to the cake.  The syrup does make picking up the icing and putting it over the cake tricky, but if you roll the icing out to bigger than you need, it is doable.

I lifted the cake up and trimmed off the excess icing, wrapped a ribbon around the bottom of the cake and placed the sweeties on the top, aided by a drop of gelatine to make them stick.  Hey presto, the “sweety cake” my youngest asked for.

sweetiecake6

 

 

 

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The Cheats Strawberry & Raspberry Pavlova (made in Aberdeen by kids)

Made in Aberdeen by the Scottish Mum kids.

Want a speedy dessert that will make kids fall over themselves with delight at having made?  One they can share with family and friends, or just to eat themselves?

There is nothing difficult about creating such a spectacular tower of indulgency for a sweet dessert to die for, nor does it take any time at all to put together.  Using bits and bobs left lying around the house, it uses up all the fruit and sweetie leftovers.

Ingredients my boys used:

  • mini marshmallows
  • sugar strands
  • a pre-made meringue pavlova case
  • carton of custard (or you could make it yourself)
  • spray Tip Top cream (thoroughly ashamed, but hey, it was speedy)
  • strawberries and raspberries

Pinching a marshmallow is good fun too.

With some custard added to the bottom of the pavlova, spraying on the Tip Top was the next step.

Adding the fruit and veg is the most difficult bit for fingers.

Then simply finish the decoration and eat immediately.  This is not a dessert that can languish in the fridge. If you use fresh cream, you would get away with putting it in the fridge for later.

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COMPETITION : A bloggy chance to win £100 from Appliances Online closes 6th April

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UPDATE:  The winner was @jaxbees with the caramel shortcake that my youngest chose as the winner.

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Coming home from school today, we decided to stop off past the local shop and buy a few treaty things for the boys.  Instead of buying sweeties, we bought some meringue nests, chocolate and fudge icing in a tub, and some mini chocolate Easter eggs.

To say that the boys enjoyed their messy making of things was an understatement and Appliances Online liked the idea so much, that they have offered a £100 prize for a blogger who enters the linkie on this blog and includes a recipe or a foodie picture of their own.   The rules are simple and are at the end of this post.

Back to the meringue nests:  the pictures tell the whole story on their own, with lots of mess to clean up afterwards.

Competition rules: A simple food picture or a recipe post will do the job.

  • Post a picture of a meal, or a recipe of your own and link it up to this blog below.
  • Pop the words and link in this sentence into your post.  “My entry for the Bosch Dishwasherlink up”
  • The competition will close on the 6th April 2012.
  • Leave a wee comment please to say how to contact, ie your email address in the comment or your Twitter id.

Good luck everyone, and if you struggle with the in-link, please just send me a message or a tweet.


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Slow Cooked Sausage & Onion Hotpot

Another slow cooker recipe.

Is it showing just how often that I actually use my slow cooker?  The food rarely looks pretty on the plate, unless it is a curry, risotto or a piece of meat for carving, but hotpot style food just never looks right although it tastes fantastic.

Saturdays are manic here with football matches and club sessions, so making a proper meal on a Saturday is a rare occurrence.  I had a pack of sausages in the fridge with a bag of potatoes in the cupboard and that makes for a perfect slow cooker meal.

Ingredients

12 Sausages
2 Onions
2 Tablespoons Caramelised Onions
500 Mixed Veg (I ran out of fresh, so the standby frozen had to do)
1 kg Baby Potatoes (any potatoes would do for this)
1 x Beef Stock Pot or 2 Stock Cubes
Pinch Salt

Method

As usual, my slow cooking is just all thrown in.  I wanted to give the sausages the taste and aroma of the onions so I took the frying pan out and first let the chopped onions cook for a few minutes on low heat.

Turn up the heat a little and fry the onions until they are mixed in with the caramelised ones.

Add the sausages to the pot.

Lightly cook sausages in the pan with the onions.

Then put the sausages and onions into the slow cooker, along with the vegetables and fill with enough boiling water to cover the ingredients.  Add the stock pot or stock cubes and salt.

Place the sliced potatoes on the top of the ingredients in the slow cooker.  Don’t put any more water in the pot.

Put on the lid and cook for 8 hours on low setting, or 4 hours on high setting.  Thicken before serving with cornflour and hey presto.

I really, really wish I could get slow cooked pots of food to look prettier on the plate for photographing, but I don’t seem to be able to.  My sausages crumbled when my mother in her eagerness to help, had decided to take off the lid when I was out, and give the mix a good old brisk stir.

There was enough food in the pot to feed 6 of us.

That was a meal on a budget and a half.

 

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Slow Cooked Mince & Tatties

Two things got made in the Scottish Mum household today and they were complete opposite ends of the spectrum.  I made apple muffins and a hodgepodge of rubbish and odds and sods that were lying around the fridge for supper.

The apple muffins are a pretty standard recipe so I won’t do them.  I did the muffin type recipe that I just substitute different fruit for.  I learned how to make nice muffins when I did the post for Prince’s fruit.

Onto the Slow Cooked Mince & Tatties

Now this is not the Scottish way, and it is probably not anybody’s way of making mince and potatoes, but if we don’t try different ways now and again, we never find out newer and quicker ways to feed our families without slaving over a hot stove.

I do a lot of cooking, but I really dislike it with an enormous passion.   My dislike for cooking is probably the reason I love my slow cooker so much.

So rather than proper mince and tatties, this is more of a  Hodgepodge 

Here we go.

1kg of Mince, browned in a pan with 2 smallish onions.

With the kettle boiled for the slow cooker, I decided that I was going to be lazy today and throw it in the pot for later.

I rustled up about 1 kg of different vegetables and 2 kg of baby potatoes which I cut into halves and some into slices.

Along with a couple of stock cubes, about 25 ml of lemon juice and a pinch or two of salt, I threw it all in the pot and added water – and then proceeded to ignore it for the next 4 hours while it cooked.

When we were ready to eat, some cornflour to thicken and bobs your uncle.

Part of me was slightly worried about how this would turn out, but I have learned that the only thing that ingredients in food have to be precise for is actually everything to do with baking and pastry.  With anything else, pretty much anything goes with trial and error.

Sundays big meal cost me less than £10 with masses of food for everyone and enough left over for tomorrow, so that will be two big meals for £5 each.

Ok, slow cooked mince and tatties doesn’t look fabulous on the plate, but it tasted amazing and no slaving over a hot stove.   There is just something delicious about potatoes cooked hot pot style.

I had forgotten to make a loaf so we used apple muffins to soak up the gravy.  What a combination..