'Whatever I had in my fridge' Calzone.

 

Today I got home from work, opened the fridge and let my culinary instinct take over.

It pretty much went like this: *sees left over pizza dough* - "hmm don't fancy pizza. What could I do instead? Flat breads? Nah. Hmm. Not sure. Err…CALZONE." (yes I talk to my fridge).

I stuck it in Google for inspiration and ended up taking Jamie Oliver's advice that anything could go in one very seriously. This is literally a once around my fridge concoction.

If your not a ridiculous food enthusiast and don't have a bread maker a pizza dough recipe can be found here - http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/uncategorised-recipes/pizza-dough.

Makes 4 Calzone.

1 Pizza Dough recipe
Either shop bought or homemade tomato sauce
1/2 a butternut squash, cubed
1 bulb of fennel
4 rashers of bacon
2 cloves of garlic
small bunch of parsley
1/2 a red chill
1/2 a bag of rocket
pinch of dried oregano
Cream Cheese
Parmesan

In a deep frying pan fry off the bacon and then throw in the squash.

After another few minutes sweat the garlic, oregano and chill in until fragrant, add the tomato sauce and a good glug of water.

While the squash softens roll out balls of dough into circles and spread the cream cheese on the dough leaving a 2 cm cheese free zone around the perimeter.

When the squash is soft  and the water has evaporated in the pan add the fennel (added late to retain crunch) parsley, rocket and season. Let the rocket wilt and then allow the mixture to cool.

 Spoon the mixture into your rolled out circles of dough and top with a healthy dose of Parmesan. Try and resist the temptation to over fill them.

 

Fold the dough over into semi circles and then crimp the edges (probably with more talent than I demonstrate here), sprinkle with Parmesan again and bake until golden and crisp (about 15 minutes). 

Salted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am one of those people who has a real thing for salt and sweet flavour combinations. Whether it is cheese and fruit, honey and soy, or my personal favourite guilty pleasure; salted popcorn with a packet of minstrels at the cinema, I'm pretty much a mega fan. I'm aware of the fact that when you are already indulging in something which perhaps isn't the healthiest it makes little sense to pair it with something else that doesn't do your body any good. However, I'm of the opinion that if your going to eat something bad you might as well eat something really bad to make it worth while.

I must say, it does seem these types of flavour combinations are becoming rather trendy at the moment, the various chocolate brands creating salted varieties of their milk chocolate and Heston Blumenthal's Salted caramel popcorn Ice cream to name a few examples.

If you are similarly partial to this idea I implore you to bake these cookies. The brown sugar in them gives them that classic American Cookie style bendy/gooey factor and since making them between my Dad, Sister and Colleagues I think they get mentioned at least once a week making me feel they are definitely worth undertaking again and again.

 

Makes 36-40 Depending on Size.

225g butter
200g soft brown sugar
175g caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
250g chocolate chips
sea salt flakes.

Preheat Oven to 180 Degrees.

Cream the butter, add the sugars and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg a bit at a time and the vanilla extract.

Mix in the dry ingredients together and fold them in, finally adding the chocolate chips.

Divide mixture into balls on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper allowing plenty of space for spreading.

Bake for 4 minutes, sprinkle with the sea salt and bake for a further 4-6 minutes.

You want to finish cooking them before they colour too much, they might seem too gooey but once the sugars in them have cooled down they will firm up at which point you can transfer them from the baking tray. 

White Chocolate and Raspberry Muffins.

Upon reaching this weekend all I really wanted to do was curl up with the latest episode of MasterChef. Seriously, work had been crazy and I was feeling rather under the weather. However I must say, when I do finally reach the weekend after a busy week I often find it hard to turn off and just allow myself to laze around. 

To keep myself entertained and housebound in an attempt to give my body the quiet weekend it obviously needed I decided to bake. It ended up being quite an elaborate affair.  

Amongst the homemade pizza, shortbread and various other culinary adventures I embarked on over this weekend these muffins were the stars. The tart raspberries marry wonderfully with the sweet white chocolate and the buttermilk keeps the muffins fabulously moist. The seal of approval for me was my dad eating 2 in one 4pm sitting.

Adapted from Lorraine Pascale’s ‘Home Cooking Made Easy’,

Makes 12 muffins.

350g self-raising flour

1tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

Pinch of Salt

250g Soft brown sugar, plus extra for topping

350ml buttermilk

2 eggs

150g butter, melted and cooled

200g raspberries

150g white chocolate in small-ish chunks.

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C and lines your muffin tins with squares of baking parchment.

Put the flour, bicarb, salt and sugar in a big bowl and stir to combine. Add the buttermilk, eggs and butter and stir everything to get a smooth thick batter.

Fold in the raspberries and chocolate and spoon evenly into your tin.

Bake for 15 minutes until lightly golden then give each muffin a sprinkling of the sugar and put back in the oven for 10 minutes more to finish baking until a deep golden color.

Serve hot or cold. 

***For anyone who reads this far down this post - I now have around a dozen muffins for my dad and I to work our way through. If anyone wants to stop by and contribute to the eating effort it would be greatly appreciated. Well done for reading to the end.***

Baked Rhubarb and Ginger Cheesecake.

This is the third and final post from the meal I cooked my Mum for her birthday the other week. This is the dessert element. Mum had a vast amount of rhubarb growing in the jungle that is her veggie patch so we wanted to use that up. 

Coincidentally my mum is also completely obsessed with ginger (seriously, she must spend an absolute fortune on the ginger cordial she is hooked on) therefore I thought a rubarby-gingery dessert would be just the ticket and a perfect marriage of flavors. 

I decided on a cheesecake, having made a few over the last few months for various events, I’m a bit of a baked cheesecake wiz currently and therefore thought considering how much food prep I had to do that day it would be a safe bet.

I used the recipe I found here - http://www.waitrose.com/home/recipes/recipe_directory/b/baked_rhubarb_and_ginger_cheesecake.html

It was really refreshing to use the mascarpone instead of cream cheese as a change. I found it really gave a lightness and fluffyness to the cake.  I also chose to reduce the syrup created through poaching the rhubarb down much further than the recipe suggests to. This created a very intense, sticky syrup that I drizzled over the cake before serving it which really gave a zingy-spicy tang to cut through the creamy rich cake. 

It was all around just awesome if I say so myself, and potentially one of the most grown up deserts I’ve made in a long time. Definitely recommended.

Roasted Vegetable Tart.

Amongst the final weeks of my degree I am really struggling to find time to cook, well more accurately, the time to go to the supermarket. After 2 weeks (don’t ask, I have no idea how I survived) I FINALLY went and turned to a family favorite for my evening meal along with a LARGE glass of wine.

I like to think that this dish has a lot of the satisfaction factor of a pizza, but is crunchier, quicker to make from scratch and somehow fools you into thinking it's healthier. In truth, I’m not sure it actually is given the butter laden pasty but I tend to choose to just not think about that. What ever it is, it's yummy.

Its also hugely flexible, the ‘sauce’ you use on the base could be anything from cream cheese, to tomato puree, to ricotta, to pesto and the topping can comprise of anything really - veg, meat, cheese, the options are endless.

I made individual tarts because I think they’re cuter, however the recipe below is for one big one for convenience factor.

  

Serves 4 (if very hungry)

2 tbsp Olive oli

1 sheet pre-rolled puff pastry.

½ tub cream cheese or ricotta

2 tbsp pesto

2 large sweet potatos, peeled and cubed

2 courgettes, cubed

handful asparagus spears, chopped

2 onions, wedged

2 cloves of garlic, whole

1 large aubergine, cubed

Freshly grated parmesan

Firstly get your veg on. Throw it all in a roasting tin with some olive oil and seasoning, roast until soft and you can easily push a knife through the potato.

While this happens get your pastry ready, score the pastry about 2 cm in from the edge to outline the edge of your filled section. Spread the cream cheese and then the pesto on top inside of these lines, leaving the 2cm boarder clear.

When the veg is ready pile it on top of the cream cheese and pesto then top with the parmesan.

Bake the tart until the edges of the pastry rises and turns golden. 

Mother's Day Chocolate Fondants.

I’ll freely confess I am not much of a pudding person but give me a chocolate fondant and there is literally no stopping me.

The outside, with a crunch of sugar, then the soft sponge and the silky oozy middle, so intensely rich but still more-ish at the same time, served with some berries and cool cream, or even better ice-cream, so you get the hot/cold contrast and it all just melts together on your tongue ….. Ok. I’ll stop now. You get the idea. Chocolate fondants are MEGA yum.

I made these for mother’s day, my little sister suggested the menu, a prawn, pea and herb risotto (apparently one of mum’s favorites) followed by chocolate fondants with ice cream (again apparently one of mum’s favorites). I’m still suspicious that she just asked me to cook what she wanted to eat rather than it having anything to do with mother’s day, but mum loved it none the less.

Makes 4

100g 70% cocoa solids, dark chocolate

100g unsalted butter, plus more for lining the ramekins

55g plain flour

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

55g caster sugar

Pre-heat oven to 190 degrees

Firstly, sort out your ramekins, brush their insides liberally with melted butter, stick them in the fridge and after that sets, brush them with another layer of melted butter and dust the inside with sugar, tapping out any extra, refrigerate.

Next melt the butter and sugar over a ban marie.

While that melts, whisk the sugar and eggs with an electric mixture until it reaches ribbon stage (basically until it thickens and holds its shape slightly) then sieve in the flour.

Fold in the chocolate mixture and pour into your moulds:

Bake for 8 - 10minutes until set enough to hold their shape but still runny in the middle.

Turn out onto plates and serve with ice cream and strawberries.

YUMYUM:

Aaand, OHHH HIIYAAA:

Olive Focaccia.

MMMmmm. Carbs. MMMmmm. Carb-y carb-y goodness.

I must say, I could live without meat, I could live without sugar but a life without carbs would not be a good one in my book.

If you hadn’t worked it out I’m definitely not one of those girls who comes out with the constant refrain of ‘oh, sorry, I’m on a carb free diet’ or ‘I’m just trying to not eat carbs at the moment’. Ohhh no.

Don’t get me wrong, those who do it are welcome to. Just means there is more for ME.

NOM.

Aaannyywaayyy…

I loooveee foccacia bread. Love love love love. It’s definitely my favorite type of bread. Throw in some olives and some nice oil and vinegar to dip in and I’m a gonner.

You’ll be likely to find me a few hours later, twice the size and covered in tell-tale crumbs.

So this is officially one of my favorite things. EVER. (I’m quite enthusiastic about it if you hadn’t noticed…)

4 cups Strong bread flour

1 tsp Sea salt

½ tsp Sugar

2/3 cup Tepid water

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp easy bake yeast

½ cup olives, roughly chopped.

Pre heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Combine the water and yeast and leave to stand until a head forms.

In a large bowl combine the flour, salt and sugar. Add the liquids (it will be sticky).

Knead it until it forms a smooth dough which springs back if you poke it.

Leave in an oiled bowl to rise covered in clingfilm until its doubled in size.

Knock back briefly and mix in the olives then push flat into a well oiled tray (Like this:)

Leave to rise a bit again for around 20 minutes then dimple, sprinkle with some more salt and olive oil.

Bake until it develops a golden crust and sounds hollow when tapped on the base.

Devour (in one sitting if you're me).

Birthday Coca-Cola Cake.

Personally I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, I’d take a starter over a dessert in a restaurant any day but when birthdays come around, cake is obviously a necessity. In the past we’ve always been a plain cupcake type household for birthdays. This is probably down to the fact that we don’t own scales, or even a cake tin for that matter. For my friend/housemate/live-in landlord’s birthday, however, I endeavored to raise the stakes.

I borrowed two cake tins and some scales and turned to a recipe that evokes many a childhood memory, Nigella Lawson’s coca-cola cake. I somewhat re-jiggled the construction of it, making two shallower cakes and sandwiching them together with some extra frosting but I was still very happy with the results, it went down a treat and was devoured in one sitting. The coca-cola makes it light, incredibly moist and somehow less filling. A definite winner of a cake.

From Nigella Lawson’s ‘How to be a Domestic Goddess’.

For the cakes:

400g Plain Flour

500g Caster Sugar

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp salt

2 large eggs

60g yoghurt mixed with 200ml of milk

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

250g unsalted butter

4 tablespoons coca powder

350ml coca-cola.

For the icing:

225g icing sugar

2 tbsp butter

3tbso coca-cola

1tbsp coca powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180 Degrees, grease and line two cake tins.

Combined dry ingredients in a large bowl,

Melt the butter in a small pan, with the coco and coca-cola and add this to the dry ingredients.

Add the rest of the wet ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon, pour into cake tins and bake for half an hour or until a metal skewer stuck into them comes out clean.

When cooked, leave to cool then combine the ingredients for the frosting.

Turn one of the cakes on its top so as to have a flat surface and spread a fair amount on, then sandwich the other cake the right way up on top and ice the cake, the sides of it too if you have enough icing. 

Nom.