Prawns and Red Lentils with Rice

This dish came about because I had defrosted a bunch of prawns for a salad… and then the weather changed.  It was horrible!  So I wanted a nice, warming, filling dish to warm me up and bring some sunshine back into my life! This prawn and red lentil dish hit the spot nicely!

It was nice and simple to throw together and just half an hour of simmering works wonders on the depth of flavour you get from a dish like this.  The ingredient list might seem a bit long but I promise you, it doesn’t take that long to throw it all in a pan and the combination of flavours really works!  I also managed to get my workout in while it was simmering so that was a nice bonus!

Serves 4

1/2 onion, finely diced
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp nigella seeds
1 tsp dried coriander leaves
1 sweet red pepper, sliced
400g tin chopped tomatoes
+ 1 tin boiling water
3 tbsp coconut milk powder ( or 1 sachet coconut cream)
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp garlic puree ( 1-2 cloves, crushed)
1 vegetable stock cube
8 tbsp red lentils
~ 150g prawns, defrosted (I used a mix of king prawns and coldwater prawns)

– Heat a splash of oil in a large heavy frying pan (I adore my enamel cast iron pan for this kind of dish!)
– Add the onion and spices and gently cook for a few minutes until the onion in soft and the spices are fragrant.
– Add the pepper and cook for another two minutes, stirring occasionally.
– Add the tinned tomato, rinsing out the tin with the hot water, to coconut milk powder, the tomato puree, garlic puree and the stock cube. Give it a good stir to mix.
– Add the lentils and stir in.
– Leave to simmer on a low heat for 30 minutes until the lentils are soft and the liquid reduced by half.
– Add the prawns and heat through until piping hot.
– Serve with rice, or without as a nice Fast Day option.  You can sprinkle a little fresh chopped coriander on top for a little more panache!

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Salmon and Veggies in Foil Packets

A simple dish to throw together these salmon and veggies in foil packets are an easy, tasty and very low mess way of prepping a nice fillet of salmon and some beautiful fresh veggies.  Use whatever veggies float your boat.  Here I’ve used baby courgettes, sweet red peppers and asparagus but you could use bok choi, tomatoes, aubergine.  Lemon slices are a really nice addition too but sadly I didn’t have any in! You can prep them in advance and then store them in the fridge so they’re great for a weeknight supper.

 

Serves 2

2 salmon fillets
1 baby courgette, split lengthways
1 sweet red pepper, split lengthways and deseeded
a handful of asparagus spears

– Heat the oven to gas mark 5.
– Lay all of your veggies out on a large sheet of foil.
– Place the salmon on top.
– Fold in the edges of your foil to make a sealed parcel.
– Place in the oven and cook for 45 minutes until the veggies are tender and the salmon cooked through.

Roast Beef

I have eaten many many roast dinners in my time but it is actually quite rare that I get to cook one myself.  So it was with great joy that an alignment of a bargain joint of beef and a free Sunday evening coincided to allow me to do my own roast beef for the first time!

Now the roasting of a joint of meat is pretty simple.  It just involves a bit of maths!

You heat the oven to gas mark 5 / 190C and you work out how much your joint weighs in lbs.  (Take the kg weight and times it by 2.2)

Basic rules for cooking:

Rare: 20 minutes per lb + 20 minutes extra
Medium: 25 minutes per lb + 25 minutes extra
Well Done: 30 minutes per lb + 30 minutes extra

So, say you have a 1.5kg joint and you want it done medium.

1.5 x 2.2= 3.3 x 25 minute = 82.5 minutes + 25 minutes extra = 107.5 minutes

Therefore you cook your beef for 1 hour 45-50 minutes and Boom! Roast Beef!

Let your beef rest for 15 minutes or so before carving.

If you use a roasting dish that you can then apply direct heat to you can add boiling water, a beef stock cube and a few tsp cornflour mixed with a tiny splash of water and mix it all together on the heat for gravy. Stir it well scraping up all the meaty juices and allow to thicken over a medium heat.

 

In The Garden: Tiny Wildlife Pond

I try to keep my garden as organic as possible. I may in dire circumstances use insecticide but only as a last resort.  I refuse to use slug pellets in particular because they are terrible things… Which leaves me with the problem of what to do with the £&@!ing slugs! They eat EVERYTHING!!! I have managed to get the birds used to the idea that there is food available to encourage them to come to my garden and snack but I want to encourage the toads and frogs to take on the ground assault! 



This is my tiny little Wildlife Pond tucked under the bench in a shady spot. It’s a cat litter tray! Simple and effective! I’ve piled rocks and stones around it and made sure that there is easy access and exits to allow my amphibious friends to come and go as they please. Even though it is sheltered it stays topped up with rainwater and I can easily add more to it in hot weather from the rain barrel. Hopefully the motto “if you build it they will come” will ring true and the frogs and toads will find it a welcome addition to the garden and they will nom the slugs for me! 



Kitchen Crafts – Felt Food

Almost forgot about this labour of love!  For Christmas this year I decided to hand sew all of this felt food for my friend’s kids… I’m not going to lie, it made me so happy making it!  So much fun!

It took forever and, of course, I was right down to the wire stitching until December 23rd!  But I was so happy with the end results and I hope the kids have enjoyed playing with it as much as I know I would have when I was little!

Bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches or even BLT if you fancy!  I hand drew the bread templates then sewed round the edges attaching a strip of darker brown for the crust then turned it inside out and stuffed it and sewed up the gap.  If I were to do this again I think I would keep the stitching on the outside and do a nice blanket stitch so the bread would lie flatter.

Bacon was simple, wiggly pink (couldn’t find a less luminous pink!) with cream strips sewn on top.

Eggs were 2 wiggly white blobs with a stightly stuffed yellow circle appliqued to one before blanket stitching them both together round the outside.

Cheese was 2 squares of yellow, holes cut out and then all of the edges blanket stitched together.

Lettuce was wiggly green circles, folded in half and a stem stitched on just in from the fold then opened back up again.

Tomatoes were 2 circles of dark red with holes cut out and one slightly smaller circle of bright red sandwiched in the middle to show through the holes.  Again, the edges were blanket stitched together.

Little bowls of pasta!  Simply cut a long strip of biscuity felt about 1″ wide and snip every 1 1/2″ with pinking sheers.  Then a few quick running stitches through the centre and pull tight and knot to make a bow.

Tomato Sauce is simple, a wiggly red piece of felt! Can also be used as  Jam or Ketchup in sandwiches.

While looking for inspiration I had read a wild mummy blogger rant about the inherent unhealthiness of all of the felt food she had ever seen in her entire life ever!  So in fear of retribution if I made donuts I made a salad!  Wiggly rocket leaves simple with a line of stitching up the middle of each and tomatoes made of circles of red drawn together at the top and stuffed with a little green cap sewn on to cover the join.

Dim Sum were nice and simple, the Gyoza are circles of biscuit coloured felt folded in half and stitched with one edge crimped (just as you would make proper gyoza).  The others would also pass for Garlic too and were even simpler; circles closed with running stitch and the edges turned out instead of in for a bunched top!  I was going to make Siu Mai too but I ran out of time!

 

 

 

 

 

Asian Ribs

These yummy ribs are based off the recipe my mother has been using for family BBQs since forever!  I gave them a bit more of an Asian twist and I prefer to slow cook my ribs rather than BBQ them… although give it a couple of months and I’ll be more than happy to BBQ!

They’re deliciously sticky and moreish!  Make sure you have napkins on hand!

You start with a nice long soak in a marinade.  I love these Pour and Store bags for things like this, they seal nice and tight and don’t take up too much space in the fridge.

 

700g / ~8 pork ribs
4 tbsp dark soy sauce
4 tbsp mirin
4 tbsp sake
4 tbsp honey
~6 whole cloves
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small mug cold black tea (Yorkshire Teabags are Best!)

– Put everything in a sealable bag or bowl and mix well.
– Leave in the fridge for 24 hours.
– Place in a shallow oven safe dish.
– Cook for 1 1/2 hours at gas mark 5 / 190C.
– Serve with sticky rice and stir fried vegetables.

 

Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese

 

 

Sometimes you just want to throw food in the slow cooker and forget about it for 3 hours.  If that food happens to be deliciously cheesy pasta then you are in luck!  I have a brilliant recipe here for you that will provide sustenance and comfort on even the laziest of days!

25g butter
1tbsp corn flour
1/2 tsp salt
~100g (2 cups) grated cheese
2 cups pasta (macaroni traditional, other pasta works just as well!)
3 cups milk
1 egg, beaten
Crunchy bacon bits

– Throw everything into the slow cooker except the bacon bits.  (Try to do it in the same order as the ingredients list, at the very least keep the butter and the cornflour on the very bottom.)
– Turn the slow cooker on to High.
– Wait 3 hours, stirring it occasionally.
– Serve scattered with crunchy bacon bits!

Darcy’s 1st Birthday Cake

This awesome Birthday Cake was so good even the humans were eating it!  And Darcy’s doggy friends all wolfed it down, no time for table manners here!  It’s a sweet potato sponge with oats and a little bit of maple syrup to sweeten it for Darcy’s insane sweet tooth.  My dog must be the only dog in the world who hates peanut butter so all of the popular recipes for doggy birthday cake were right out!

This recipe made enough for a small 4″ 2 layer Birthday Cake and 24 mini Pupcakes too.  The icing is simply cream cheese and greek yogurt, no sugar here so make sure you refrigerate it!

Makes 1 x 4″ 2 layer cake and 24 mini Pupcakes (You could probably just use 2 normal Victoria sponge tins for a bigger dog’s cake)

2 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup porridge oats
1 small sweet potato, grated
75g butter, melted
3 medium eggs, beaten
3 tbsp maple syrup (or you can use the stuff mixed with carob syrup)
~100ml milk
400g cream cheese
125g greek yogurt
Dog treats to decorate

– Heat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180C.  Grease and line your cake tins and place paper liners in tins for cupcakes.
– Mix the flour, oats and sweet potato in a large mixing bowl.
– Melt the butter in a jug and leave to cool a little.
– Add the eggs and maple syrup to the melted butter and beat together.
– Mix in the egg mixture to the flour mixture.
– Add the milk a little at a time to loosen the batter, you want a soft spongy dropping consistency.
– Divide the mixture between your chosen baking tins.
– Mini Pupcakes bake in 15 minutes, the 4″ mini layer cakes in about 30 minutes.  Test to see if a skewer comes out clean to check the bake.
– Allow to cool completely before icing.
– Trim the domes off the layer cakes to give you two flat, even layers.
– Mix the cream cheese and greek yogurt together in a mixing bowl.
– Spread evenly over your cake and pup cakes.  You can be generous here, don’t worry!
– Add whatever treats your dog likes to decorate it!

 

 

Darcy’s 1st Birthday!

Darcy turned 1 this week!  I can’t believe how the last year has flown by!  I certainly can’t imagine my life without him in it and I am endlessly grateful for the joy he brings to my life.  So I thought he deserved a Birthday Party to show him how much I love and appreciate him!

I made him a special Birthday Cake and mini Pupcakes to share with all of his friends too!  I’ve put the recipe in a separate post here!

The cake is delicious and I say that as a human!  Given the speed that the pups wolfed it down the doggy guests were fans too!  In fact, I took some up to my parent’s dog to have and he ate both his and Darcy’s slice!  (Darcy may have been a bit caked out by that point!)

Cheeks full of cake there!

There were even some ‘Pawesome’ fairy cakes for the humans!

He had so many presents!  And my mum even found him a rawhide Birthday Card!

He certainly embraced the party mood!

 

All in all an excellent 1st Birthday!

 

 

 

Caramel Brownies

Brownies are one of my quickest  and easiest go to recipes.  Not only are they simple to whip up by they satisfy any number of my chocolate and sugar cravings! There are endless variations to play with, my most recent have been these sinfully good Caramel Brownies!

These are sticky and delicious.  The caramel melds nicely with the gooey brownie to give an almost Sticky Toffee like effect.

Makes 16

200g unsalted butter
200g plain chocolate
3 large eggs
250g golden caster sugar
100g plain flour (or ground almonds for gluten free version)
40g cocoa powder
1 packet caramels / toffees (at least 12 sweets)
150ml double cream
– Heat the oven to gas mark 5/190C and line a 7″x11″ brownie tin with baking paper.
– Melt the butter and the chocolate together then leave to cool a little. (Short sharp bursts in the microwave or over a pan of boiling water.)
– In a large jug mix the 3 eggs and the sugar until well combined.
– Add the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture, whisking constantly as you go.  (Make sure the chocolate isn’t too hot or you could cook your eggs!)
– Add the flour (or almonds) and cocoa powder and fold into the chocolate mixture.
– Pour the brownie mixture into the prepared tin.
– In a small saucepan melt the caramels and the cream together over a low heat to get a smooth caramel sauce.
– Pour the caramel mixture over the brownie mixture and swirl about to get ripples of caramel throughout your brownies.
– Bake for 30-45 minutes.
– Leave to cool in the tray then lift out the paper and slice into squares. Bloody brilliant warmed up with vanilla ice cream!