Pancakes–albeit a little late!

Ok, I admit it: my pancake day was a disaster. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever had a successful one. It’s not the pancakes, they seem to turn out well every time. It’s just the combination of being in a rush, never having quite the right ingredients for the topping and not thinking ahead. It sort of creeps up on me every year and I ‘make do’. This year, we happened to have some ready-made ones in the fridge, so I thought I’d top them with tartiflette for main course, then we could have Nutella for pudding. Quick and easy. Wrong.
For a start, I didn’t have any cream, or anything resembling yummy stuff, so used yoghurt – the no-fat, very healthy one – which, or course, I knew would curdle, and did. Ignoring that, I continued, heating the pancakes and spooning the mixture on top. However, once I had taken the first bite, I realised that the ready-made, oh-so-quick pancakes I had used were of the sweet, rather than savoury, variety. Not a good combination.
I skipped mains and went straight to dessert. Surely I couldn’t go wrong? Well, no, not technically. Mine were delicious, but the LO just didn’t like the pancakes, opting instead to simply lick the Nutella from the top.

So today, I had promised myself I would give things another go, if only to use my new Oxo ‘Flip and Fold’ omelette turner I had been sent to try for this purpose! Keeping things simple, I wanted to see if my LO would actually eat homemade pancakes, rather than shop-bought, and not simply scoff the chocolate! I always use Delia’s simple recipe.

After pouring the mixture into the small frying pan, I swirled it around a bit to spread it evenly, then when the edges began to crispen, used the thin edge of the flipper to loosen. Being quite a big flipper and quite a small pan, it worked really well to get under the pancake itself, and turned it easily without losing any of the mixture or crumpling the pancake. I had to wipe it clean if any mixture did get caught, as it then continued to stick, but this happened rarely. It was also brilliant for scraping all the mixture from the bowl so I wouldn’t waste any.
And the result? Perfect pancakes that even my LO approved of and ate! Hurrah!

Disclaimer: Although I was sent products to try for the purpose of this post, all views and opinions are entirely my own, truthful and honest.

Ella’s Kitchen Beef Stew – t.t.t. (tasty toddler teatimes)

For Christmas, the LO received a cooking set including all the things she might need in the kitchen! It wasn’t a shop bought one, but one put together from various places that combined baking equipment, such as bun cases and mixing bowls, with savoury meal needs, like a chopping board or small saucepan. It is something we use together at least once a week, whether to make Mini-slider burgers, tiffin, or something more adventurous, like this Ella’s Kitchen cookbook Beef stew. It appeals to the LOs as it’s filled with sweet fruit and vegetables, but makes a brilliant family meal everyone can enjoy. We served ours with Yorkshire puddings, greens, and mustard mash.

For very little ones, it does involve much chopping of hard vegetables, but I still involved Frankie by asking her to find the right vegetables, count out the carrots, pop the pieces into the bowl after chopping, etc. And she enjoyed stirring everything together too. You could even put aside a little of everything for the LOs to ‘play’ with while you’re doing all the hard work, and if they munch on a little piece of raw carrot, so much the better! When it comes to spooning out the plum jam, I used jelly as we had some leftover from the last batch, it’s easy to get them involved again.

Ella’s Kitchen – Wonderfully Warming Fruit Beef Stew

Ingredients:

2 tbs olive oil

750g diced stewing beef

1 onion

300g carrots, sliced

2 plums or apricots, stoned nad sliced

1 clove garlic

1tbs tomato puree

2 tbs plain flour

finely grated rind of 1 lemon, plus 1tbs of the juice

750ml beef stock

150g plum or damson jam

ground black pepper

Method:

Preheat oven to 160 degrees. In a large casserole, batch fry the beef in the oil until browned on all sides. Remove.

Cook onion in the same casserole for 2 minutes until softened. Add carrots, plums or apricots, garlic, tomato puree and flour, and cook for a further 2 minutes.

Return the beef and juices to the casserole, add the lemon rind and juice, beef stock, and jam. Season with the pepper and simmer.

Cover and cook in the oven for 2 hours until the beef is tender.

I used a ‘pre-chopped’ pack of stewing beef, but it was still dry when cooked because it had no fat on it. Next time, I will definitely buy a cheap cut of beef and chop it myself and it’s the melting fat that helps keep the beef pieces moist and fall apart wen cooked.

I apologise for the pictures on this post, but we’d already dug in to the meal before I remembered!

This recipe is taken from ‘Ella’s Kitchen. The Cook Book, The Red One.

Homemade Burgers & Mini-Sliders t.t.t. - tasty toddler teatimes

For some reason, we’ve always strayed away from the burger option on children’s menus, but, having thought more about it, surely they’re just the same as lasagne or cottage pie? Healthier in fact as not every little piece of mince is browned in fat first? Ok, so I’m not sure of the science behind that last comment, but it makes sense to me!

When asking Frankie if she wanted to make burgers for tea she, as is her first response to most things, declared that she didn’t like them. That was beside the point, and we began anyway! This is a great way to get the little ones involved in cooking as they can get their hands in to mix, measure out spoonfuls of spices, squash them in the pestle and mortar and help break the eggs and crumble the bread – it’ll keep them occupied for hours!

I’ve always based my mince mix on Jamie Oliver’s ‘Botham Burgers’ as they’re really tasty. If you read my blog regularly, you’ll know I tend not to ‘do’ quantities as, with things like this, you adapt to your own tastes. I’ll try and put a few suggestions in, but it’s really up to you and your family what flavours and spicing you prefer. Here’s my version:

Ingredients:

small pack of lean mince

1 large tablespoons coriander seeds

1 desert spoon cumin seeds

a few grinds of black pepper

1 egg

1 slice of bread, crumbed

1 red onion

1 large dollop Dijon mustard

Dice-sized cubes of Cheddar cheese – or blue cheese if you prefer

Method:

Ask your LO to tip the mince into the bowl and begin pulling it apart. Remind them not to put their fingers in their mouth!

Meanwhile, finely dice the onion. I shove mine in the food processor!

Once the mince is broken up, measure out the coriander, cumin and pepper and grind in a pestle and mortar. Again, the measuring and grinding is something your LO will enjoy helping with. When done, tip into the mince and get your hands in to combine. You could always add a few chilli flakes at this point too.

Use one slice of bread, doesn’t matter which colour, as breadcrumbs. I use a coffee grinder to do mine but your LO will have fun just pulling it apart. Add the crumbs, the egg, the onion and the dollop of mustard to the mix and combine well. Lots of hands in to squash and squeeze the mixture – combine everything well.

Now comes the fun bit! Take a good sized amount of the mixture and squash flat onto the surface. Pop a cube of cheese in the middle and wrap the mixture around it. Use cupped hands to shape it into a ball, then gently flatten to the desired thickness for your burger. Your LO will really enjoy ‘hiding’ the cheese inside when making her own mini burger, or slider.

To cook, simple brown on each side in a frying pan then put into the oven to finish the cooking. You can do it all in the oven if you’d prefer not to fry but you’ll lose some of the flavour from the browning process. It will depend on how thick your burgers are as to their cooking time, but I brown for a couple of minutes on each side, then finish off for about 10 minutes in the oven. You want the beef to be cooked through but still moist.

Now layer up your bun. I used a tiger roll or a soft one with a crisp top. For Frankie, We used small cookie cutters and pushed them through a soft roll to create a mini slider bun just the right size for little hands and tummies.

For the grown ups, I put salad leaves,cheese, tomato and red onion into the bun, then people added their own sauces. For Frankie, I left hers plain with a small squeeze of ketchup as a treat and made a ‘shake-me’ salad instead: chopped tomato, cucumber, pepper and onion in a tub which she can shake to mix, then pour onto her plate.

Frankie wolfed hers down, as did the rest of the family, and it’s perfect to keep your LOs occupied for an hour on a wet day. Don’t forget, there’ll be the extra surprise of the melted cheese too!

Salted Caramel

I’ve been looking for a European salted caramel recipe for a while now, but all seem to be from the other side of the ocean, so it was with excitement that I discovered Rachel Khoo’s version in her book. It was also with excitement that I thought I might be able to pull it off. I’m not good with sugar … many a time has it crystallised or stuck to the pan, but this one looked simple and clear, and I noted that it also kept in the fridge for up to two months, so I could use it in my mini caramel lattes as and when! (Or dollop a spoonful over ice cream if the need arose!)

It’s a case of combining 150g caster sugar melted in a pan until dark golden, then adding 150ml of double cream and a tsp of salt (in future I’d add a little more salt) whilst remembering NOT to stir the caramel, but to swirl the pan instead. You then leave it to bubble for a few minutes and pour into sterilised jars. This I did, and it looked and tasted good.It was only when I came to use it the next day, and couldn’t remove any of it from the jar, that I wished I’d bubbled it for considerably less time after adding the cream. Rookie error, but one I make regularly when attempting plum jelly, often ending up with a very stiff paste.

So what can I do with the caramel, or should I say toffee? I’m going to have to heat the jar to loosen it, then use immediately I think: ice cream for 20?

Pea & Ham Soup–Winter Warmer

 

I don't often make soup, but this was one I tried a few months ago to use up some sad looking vegetables and some ham from the roast. A large 'batch' was therefore created and much of it put into pots for the freezer with the ham chopped and stored separately. When we unearthed it some weeks later, it was just as tasty as I had first remembered, but I hadn't any idea how I might have made it in the first place. So today, I attempted the recreation.

A simple case of chopping an onion and softening in some butter. Then adding chopped potato, just one, and stirring around for a bit. After that, pour in stock and simmer until the potato has cooked. Tip in some peas and boil for another few minutes. Season to taste then blend. If it's too thick, add a little more stock or water. Sit some chopped ham / gammon in the middle and grind some black pepper over the top. If you prefer to follow a recipe, this BBC one is the one I glanced at before beginning, and also used the picture above from: I forgot to take any of my own, but then, how different can pea and ham soup look?!

I was amazed that this second time, I had managed to get it right! Just as tasty and just the right texture...perfect for packed lunch in my new bento boxes!

 

Picture from bbc website.

The New London, Chelmsford

We used to live round the corner from The Red Lion on London Road in Chelmsford. We didn’t visit often but sometimes enjoyed a game of darts (in the loosest sense of the phrase) and a quick drink. It was a taxi driver who mentioned, several months ago, that it was being turned into a nice little restaurant, The New London. It’s an odd place for one, on the main road, out of town and with no parking, but somehow, that doesn’t seem to matter. Rumour has it, the owner bought the red phone box outside for £1 and used this as inspiration for the splash of red amongst the, it has to be said, fairly blank and monotonous greys inside. A few large, abstract paintings wouldn’t go amiss.

We booked a table for Sunday Lunch on my dad’s birthday, and although the table was needed back two hours later, we were one of only three tables there at midday. The set menu had enough choice and looked good. I opted for goat’s cheese with honey, beetroot and walnuts, while the others chose a pigeon salad. For mains, it was the pork and crackling that swung it for me, whilst the men had sea bass with a poached egg.

 

The starters were excellent, tried and tested flavour combinations and well executed and presented. The mains were good: not brilliant, but good quality and generally well cooked although the pork was on the dry side (and I’d have liked more crackling, but think that’s just me!)

I’d go again, but having looked through the general brunch and lunch menus, I think next time, we’d try those options rather than a ‘roast-type’ dinner. It is, however, one of only a handful of independent restaurants within walking distance of Chelmsford, so I’d much rather revisit and try different choices than go for the usual pizza / pasta combinations everywhere else offers.

Jamie’s Epic Hot Chocolate

This is is, back to it. I’ve promised myself a little time every Friday to do some exercise, have a short relax, then get writing! I can’t wait, but what to call it? Friday Journal? No, that would suggest a daily write rather than weekly. I’ll keep thinking.



In the meantime, here’s a little something taken from one of the many cooking show on over the festive period. Now, I know people are getting a little fed up with Jamie, but I stand by his recipes, despite the infinite (ok, so not quite infinite, but numerous) ingredients. It’s the flavours, you see: the flavours always work. They’re not ground breaking, but well mixed and combined. So, often, despite the phaff involved, I return time and again to his books and ideas. This was featured on the show between Christmas and New Year as ideas to ‘see in’ 2014.



My little girl simply loves hot chocolate. She is treated to one by daddy every Saturday after swimming, and always returns home with what she calls a ‘choc-stache’. So while watching the programme, it seemed a nice idea to work with her to create our own hot chocolate mix, ready to simply add milk and heat. We stuck to Jamie’s version and combined cocoa, icing sugar, malt drink, cornflour and grated chocolate, then mixed. Simply add a couple of heaped tablespoons* of the mixture to a pint of milk and heat gently. (I would suggest stirring regularly and not cutting corners by heating too rapidly – I ended up with a rather burnt pan bottom due to impatience!) The result is thick, creamy and delicious but feel free to vary the quantities of each, according to taste!
Oh, and just in case you were wondering what my little one looks like with a chocstache, have a look at this little video of her singing in Spanish!

Happy New Year everyone. Have a good one.

*The recipe on Jamie’s site differs from this, the one on the programme. It adds cinnamon and a pinch of salt and also suggests 10 tablespoons for 2 pints of milk. I’d suggest you play around and see which flavours and texture you like best.

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