Category: Cooking

Bonfire Night Treats

Chocolate Toffee Popcorn

200g milk chocolate

200g white chocolate

2 x 30g bags toffee popcorn

Line a 20 x 30cm baking tray with parchment. Melt the milk chocolate and white chocolate separately, then allow to cool slightly. Pour most of the chocolate onto the tray, roughly swirling together. Sprinkle over the toffee popcorn, then drizzle over the remaining milk and white chocolate, and chill until set. Break into big chunks before serving.

Mini – Tiny Toads

2 – 3 tbsp. sunflower oil

85ml milk

1 large egg

50g plain flour, sifted

12 mini cocktail sausages

Preheat oven to fan 180C. Put a generous half-teaspoon of sunflower oil in the bottom of each cup of a deep 12-hole mini muffin tin set on a baking tray. Pour the milk into a jug, add the egg, flour and a good pinch of salt and whisk everything together with a hand blender or wire whisk until a smooth batter forms. Put the muf-fin pan in the oven for a minute or two until the oil becomes very hot. Remove from the oven and quickly fill the cups just under two- thirds full. Drop a sausage into each cup and bake for 20 – 25 minutes until golden brown, well risen and crisp. Serve with a dipping bowl of tomato ketchup.

Chocolate Fingers

125g plain chocolate

175g butter

4 tbsp. cocoa powder

1 tbsp. golden syrup

1 x 200g packet ginger nut biscuits, crushed

75g glace cherries, chopped

125g muesli

75g chopped walnuts

Break chocolate into pieces and melt in a bowl with the butter over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir in co-coa, syrup, biscuits, cherries, muesli and walnuts. Mix well to combine. Pour into a prepared loose bottomed tin 20 x 28cm tray. Smooth and leave in the fridge for about 6 hours until set. Remove mixture about 15 mins before eating. Mark into 3 x 1in fingers. Remove from tray with a plastic fish knife

 

 

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EVE’S PUDDING

(Use windfalls if you can get them)

6 med/ large Bramley apples, peeled, cored and finely sliced

200g unsalted butter, softened

150g raisins

100g soft brown sugar

4 large eggs

200g SR flour

Heat the oven to fan 180C. Prepare apples as above. Grease a large baking/serving dish, about 2.5/3.0 ltr with 25g of the butter. Tip the apples into the dish (sprinkle with sugar if required). Scatter the raisins over the top. In a separate dish/ bowl beat the remaining butter and sugar together until the butter turns pale and the sugar starts to dissolve, about 8 – 10 minutes. Beat in the eggs, then carefully fold in the flour with a large spoon. Spread the batter over the apples, then bake for about 45 minutes until golden. Serve with custard or double cream.

 

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COLCANNON FISH PIE

600g Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and diced

4 large Savoy cabbage leaves (about 100g), finely sliced

500g pack leeks, sliced

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

1 large onion, finely sliced

1 chicken stock cube, made up to 300ml

300ml milk

3 tbsp. cornflour, mixed with 4 tbsp. of the milk

200g frozen peas

390g pack of fish pie mix

75g mature Cheddar, grated

Preheat oven to 180C fan. Boil the potatoes until almost tender, then add the cabbage and one leek. Boil for a further 3-4 minutes, drain and set aside. Heat the oil over a med heat in a large pan. Fry the onion and remaining leeks for 5 minutes, then add the stock and milk. Add the cornflour paste, stir to combine and simmer for about 5 – 8 minutes until thickens and comes to the boil. Add the peas and fish, season and pour into a 1.5ltr pie dish. Mash the potato and veg together and season. Spoon over the fish mix, top with the grated cheese and bake for about 30 mins until golden and bubbling

 

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Sticky Toffee Pear and Ginger Pud

150g dates, chopped small

125g butter, softened

125g caster sugar

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

175g SR flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground ginger

for the sauce

50g butter

75g soft brown sugar

5 tbsp. double cream

4 pears, peeled and chopped

3 balls of stem ginger in syrup, chopped

Butter a 20.5 cm [ 8inch] non stick baking tin. Pre-heat oven fan 160C. In a bowl add dates and cover with 75ml boiling water and leave to soak for about 10 mins, then drain and set aside. In a large bowl, mix butter and sugar with a whisk until creamy. Gradually mix in the eggs, then the flour, baking powder and ground ginger with a whisk until creamy, set aside. Make the sauce. In a sauce pan melt the butter [don’t let it burn] and sugar till sug-ar dissolves. Remove from heat and stir in the cream. Add pears and stem ginger, stir to coat and tip into the prepared tin. Spoon pudding mixture over pears and bake for about 1 hr, covering with foil half way through. Check with a skewer to check it’s cooked. When cooled turn out onto a serving plate, let the sauce filter through the pudding. Serve with either extra double cream or vanilla ice cream. ENJOY.

Apology for my mistake on last month’s recipe – it should have been entitled Pasta Shells with Tuna and Peas not Pears

 

Mr Greedy

 

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Maple-Bacon Buttermilk Scones

300g pack smoked streaky bacon, diced

2 tbsp. maple syrup

430g SR flour, Plus extra for dusting

½ tsp salt

4 spring onions, finely chopped

170g butter, cut into cubes

240ml buttermilk

1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven fan 180C. Line a large baking tray with non stick baking paper. Fry the bacon for about 5 mins until golden and crisp. Stir in the maple syrup and fry for a further 1 min. Transfer to a plate lined with kitchen paper, set aside to cool completely, Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl, stir in the spring onions. Add the butter and rub with finger tips until mixture resembles large bread crumbs, stir in the cooled bacon. Gradually mix in the butter milk with the blade of a table knife to form a slightly sticky dough. Lightly dust a work surface with flour and tip out the dough and roll out to a rough 22cm square, about 2.5 cm thick. Cut the dough into 9 squares, then cut each square into 2 triangles and place on the baking tray. Lightly brush the tops of the scones with the egg and bake for about 18 – 20 mins until golden. When slightly cooled, slice in half, butter and enjoy.

 

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CURRIED PRAWN KEDGEREE WITH DILL SOURED CREAM

good knob of butter

1 large white onion, finely chopped

2 rounded tsp. PATAK’S medium curry paste

250g good quality brown rice

500g tub fish stock

20g pack of fresh dill, chopped

4 tbsp. half fat soured cream

2-3tsps. Capers, rinsed and chopped

260g cooked and peeled king prawns

25g fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

3 large fresh eggs, hard boiled and quartered

Pre-heat oven to 180C. Melt the butter in a large non-stick pan and add the onion. Cook gently for about 5 minutes until soft but not golden. Add the curry paste and cook for a further minute. Add the rice, stirring to coat in the paste, then add the stock. Bring to the boil then transfer to a large casserole dish, cover and bake for about 20-25 minutes until the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is tender. Stir from time to time. In a separate bowl, mix together the dill, soured cream and capers and set aside. Once cooked remove the casserole dish from the oven, gently stir in the prawns and return to the oven for about 5 minutes to heat through. Once cooked stir through the parsley, top with the eggs.

Serve with the sour cream and enjoy.

 

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