10/02/2011 by D.

This is the fantastic Waitrose recipe, with the amount of ginger revved up a little.  In my book this is an unbeatable recipe as it creates crunchy, yet chewy Gingerbread men.  It has a high snaffle factor too!

125g unsalted butter
100g dark muscovado sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
325g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
6 tsp ground ginger

Grease a couple of baking trays or line with parchment. Melt butter, sugar and syrup in a medium saucepan, stirring occasionally, then remove from the heat.

Put the dry ingredients in a bowl, and mix in the saucepan contents.  Mix well to form a stiff dough.  Cover with clingfilm and refridgerate for an hour or more.  It will keep well for a couple of days like this.

When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 170°C and take the dough out of the fridge.   Work it a bit to warm it up.  Roll out and cut into shapes.  The more you work the dough, the better it is, so it’s a great activity to do with children.

Place the shapes onto the lined baking trays and bake, in batches, for 9-10 minutes until light golden brown.  Cool before icing.  They’ll keep for 2 weeks in an airtight tin.

To make an excellent icing, mix 1 tsp lemon juice with a cup of icing sugar.  It should be fairly thick, but glossy and not stiff.  If too stiff add a little more lemon juice.  I give the kids a chop stick and they dip that in the icing, then trail  it on the biscuits, decorating with dried raisins, cranberries and cherries.

Posted in Biscuits, Ginger, Butter, Vegetarian, Recipe | Print | No Comments »

08/02/2011 by D.

These sweet little potato cakes from Saxony in Germany can be eaten as either a filling pudding, supper or brunch.  NB this recipe makes quite a lot, you may want to halve it for the first go!

1kg potatoes
150g flour
1 tsp baking powder
500g quark
2 Eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp grated lemon peel
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g raisins
butter to fry

Peel, chop and boil the potatoes until tender.  Push through a fine sieve, potato ricer, or mash extremely well and leave to cool.

Stir the flour and baking powder into the potatoes, then mix in the quark.  Whisk the eggs with the salt, nutmeg, lemon peel, sugar, vanilla extract and raisins. 

Add the egg mixture to the potato mixture and knead the mixture to ensure everything is thoroughly combined, but don’t overwork it.

Flour your hands and the work surface, then shape the dough into a 6cm thick roll.  Cut off 1.5cm pieces and flatten each one slightly.

Heat a frying pan to a good heat, then turn down a little.  Melt 2 tsp butter in the pan and fry the little cakes for about 2 mins on each side until golden brown.  You will need to do more than one batch.  Adjust the amount of butter accordingly so they don’t stick.

Serve warm with cinnamon sugar and some fruit compote (stewed apples, pears, cranberries, apricots or bottled cherries).

These freeze well and make great quick breakfasts!

Posted in Supper, Butter, Raisins, Flour, Quark, Pudding, Brunch, Potato, Vegetarian, Lemon, Eggs, Recipe | Print | No Comments »

20/09/2010 by D.

This is another one from my World Food Cafe 2 book.  Still quite a favourite!  Serve this with grilled fish or cherry tomato and aubergine kebabs.

2 tbsp butter
zest of 2 lemons
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried)
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 lb basmati rice, washed til water is clear
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp salt

Melt the butter and add lemon, thyme and pepper, and fry for a minute.  Add rice and stir well.

Add salt, lemon juice and enough cold water to cover the rice by 1cm.

Cover and bring to boil.  Simmer until the water is absorbed.  Fluff up the rice and season to taste.

Posted in Butter, Thyme, Rice, Lemon, Vegetarian, Recipe | Print | No Comments »

08/09/2010 by D.

1 chilli
1/2 lime (or lemon), juiced
4 tbsp salted butter

NB, this freezes well so you make it into a sausage shape using clingfilm, then just cut off a slice as and when needed. 

Soften the butter in a pan, a microwave (or by balancing the bowl on a lid of a boiling pot of water containing something like sweetcorn).  Finely chop the chilli and squeeze the lime.  Whisk the lime and chilli into the butter and refrigerate to cool.  You may find not all of the lime juice incorporates; that is fine.

Use as flavouring on boiled or grilled sweetcorn (you can brush the liquid mixture straight onto the corn, then pop in under the grill to brown for a couple on minutes).  It is fantastic when used to pep up plain boiled rice, potatoes, peas, beans…. whatever you have really!

Posted in Garnish, Lime, Butter, Chilli, Recipe | Print | No Comments »