I like tea and I like gin. I particularly like earl grey and gin based cocktails so I thought it was about time that I got creative with my cocktail shaker and tried these two tastes together. Not for my own benefit of course, all in the name of experimenting. Whenever I make a cocktail I am always amazed at how the slight slip of a hand can affect the end taste of the drink; too sweet, too acidic, too much alcohol. Then again, you can add a bit more of this and a bit less of that depending on your tastes.
Wild Garlic Bread
If you fancy going out and trying your hand at foraging there isn’t much of a better time to start than now. Wild garlic is one of the best things to look for as it’s so distinctive; you smell it before you see it, the leaf is fairly specific and if you’re still not sure you can tear the leaves and do an additional sniff test before you start taking it home. I fancied my hand at baking some Wild Garlic Bread, sort of tear and share style, so off I sauntered to my favourite wild garlic spot to get picking.
Lentil and Black Bean Chilli
I’ve never much been a fan of chilli cone carne; I’ll eat it but usually it’s a bit harsh and acidic for me because of the tinned tomatoes and I’m not that keen on kidney beans. However, I love the principal of it; plenty of chilli, spice and flavour and I’ve been working on my own version for a while. I think I’ve cracked it. My Lentil and Black Bean Chilli has all the same flavour but none of the meat; I promise, you won’t miss the minced beef at all. I’ve said this is enough for four but actually it’s probably enough for six and it’s amazing with homemade guacamole and plenty of rice.
White Chocolate Easter Egg Nests
I don’t think a bit of accuracy does anyone any harm and I find myself slightly troubled each Easter as I see many chocolate nests filled with standard size chocolate mini eggs. Not only does it look like an ostrich has laid several eggs in a blackbird’s nest you can only fit three maximum in each nest which doesn’t feel very generous. Now I know these aren’t used for educational purposes and are purely for chocolate enjoyment but I couldn’t bring myself to make something that was so proportionally incorrect. Thank heavens, then, that I found some micro chocolate eggs.
Quick Vegetable Box Recipes
I regularly get a vegetable box delivered for a few reasons: I like that I have to use what I receive which means I get more variety than I probably would otherwise and there’s only so many times you can make mushroom risotto so I find myself trying out new recipes to use the vegetables. Grown With Love got in touch to see if I would like to try out some of their veg so I was looking forward to getting stuck in.
The vegetables that came from Grown With Love were very nice, they were all prepared which is something that I never buy normally. Considering they were prepared I was impressed with the shelf life of the veg and that the texture remained good. I received: butternut squash and sweet potato mix (chopped 50:50), butternut squash (peeled and deseeded), tenderstem broccoli (in bags and some that came with asparagus too), sweetcorn (some with garlic butter, some without) and sweet potato wedges.
My Perfectly Imperfect Chocolate Cake
I have a secret and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who keeps this quiet. I love baking, but, most of the time it never turns out quite how I envisaged it would. Getting all of a huff in the kitchen when the butter is still too cold, spilling the ingredients even when I’m being extra careful and being super paranoid checking the oven temperature is an awful lot of hard work for something that turns out too flat, not quite right or sinks in the middle. Cakes, I’m looking at you. Frankly, I’ve had enough of aiming for perfection and frowning at anything that dares to come out of the oven less than 100% correct, and if it tastes good who cares if it looks a bit skewiff? Enter my Perfectly Imperfect Chocolate Cake.
Duck Lettuce Wraps with Gressingham Duck
- 2 Gressingham duck breasts
- 1 pack of Gressingham Duck Mini Fillets
- Oil for frying
- Salt and pepper
- 2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
- Wraps
- Whole lettuce leaves
- Cucumber
- Carrot
- Spring onions
- Coriander
- Chillies
- Sesame seeds
- Chilli sauce(s)
- Soy sauce
- Hoisin sauce
- Plum sauce
- First of all, get the table laid and ready then as you get things prepped you can get them straight to the table.
Pea, Carrot and Paneer Pilaf
I hadn’t done a vegetarian option for my Feed 4 for £6 series for a little while so I thought it was about time I did. I am a big fan of recipes which involve putting ingredients into a pan, putting a lid on and leaving it to its own devices and this is one of those. If you can’t find paneer for this recipe you can use halloumi but it’s saltier. All you need otherwise is onions, carrots, peas, curry powder and rice. Sorted.
Ingredients
| You will need (for 4): | |
| Rapeseed oil for frying | £0.02 |
| 1 medium onion, diced | £0.10 |
| 2 medium carrots, diced | £0.18 |
| 200g frozen peas | £0.25 |
| 250g basmati rice | £0.45 |
| 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped | £0.05 |
| 2 heaped tsp curry powder | £0.05 |
| 700ml hot vegetable stock | £0.10 |
| Salt and pepper | £0.02 |
| 225g paneer, cubed | £1.54 |
| Total | £2.76 |
Method
Heat around 1 tbsp of the oil in a large frying pan on a medium heat and add the onion, carrot and garlic. Fry for around 10 minutes or until softened. Add the curry powder and rice and cook for a further minute. Add the frozen peas and pour in the hot stock. Bring the pan to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer, put on a loose fitting lid. Simmer the rice for 15-20 minutes or until the rice is tender and the stock has been absorbed. Check on the level of stock while it’s cooking and top up a little if needed. While the pilaf cooks heat a pan up on a medium heat and add a little bit of oil. Season the paneer all over with salt and plenty of pepper before adding it to the pan. Fry the paneer until golden brown. Check the seasoning before dishing up the pilaf and divide the cheese between the plates.Rice is always welcome on my table in whatever form it comes. In this it’s got a lovely curried flavour along with the sweet carrot, peas and onion and the peppery slightly salted cheese. My favourite bits are the golden edges of the paneer. I have to say that this has to be one of the most filling things I have ever made, I almost couldn’t eat it all (but I had just had some cake!). This costs less than £3 for four, is very satisfying and is easy to make. Ideal weeknight grub.
Wild Garlic Gnocchi with Mozzarella and Wild Garlic Oil
Ingredients
You will need (for two):
- 300g waxy potatoes
- Small handful (roughly 20-30 leaves) wild garlic, blended or very finely chopped
- 100g plain flour
- Salt and pepper
- 25g Parmesan, grated
- 125g mozzarella
- 2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
If you’re not sure where to find some take a look at this to find places where wild garlic grows near you.
Method
Peel and dice the potatoes to roughly the same size then boil them in salted water until tender.
Drain the potatoes then leave them to cool (take the lid off the pan to allow steam to escape).
Mash the potatoes well then add the flour, most of the wild garlic, plenty of salt and pepper and the Parmesan. Mix together until you have a dough.
Knead the dough lightly then roll into sausage shapes and cut into roughly inch sized pieces. I pressed the top of each gnocchi with a fork, for looks more than anything.
Chorizo, Pepper and Potato Hash
I’ve always liked the idea of a hash; various bits of food all chopped up and cooked together. I tried to make a corned beef hash once which was somewhat eventful. I was at University in my student house with two of my friends. The can of corned beef was being somewhat stubborn so I used my intuition and tried to open the can with a can opener. Suffice to say there was some slippage and some slicing and next thing I know I’m running around the kitchen with all of us pretending to be braver than we are trying to wrap my hand in kitchen roll. Luckily we lived near the hospital so off we trudged, in the ice and snow, to sit in A&E with all the people who had dislocated something slipping on the ice. I ended up with four stitches and my two fingers bandaged up which provided much amusement for the following week. In my haste to leave the house I had left a pan of water on the hob; this was also the night I learned you can burn water.
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