Recipes — Page 6 of 6 — Foodies Heaven | home cooking

Chocolate Cake

This is one of the most requested recipes I have done, by far the easiest chocolate cake I have ever made. I first made this getting on for 10 years ago with Ffion. We have made it a number of times over the years and still can not get over how simple it is to make, how moist it is and how good it tastes. Try it for yourself and see how good this cake is. What else have you got to do with your time, this is a great recipe to get the children involved with.

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 12

Ingredients

1.1lb self-raising flour.
1lb caster sugar.
1½ tsp vanilla extract.
4oz cocoa powder.
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda, sifted.
7oz unsalted butter, softened.
250 ml milk, or unsweetened yoghurt.
3 large free range eggs.
250 ml hot coffee.
Decoration.
1lb high quality chocolate preferably dark with at least 70% cocoa content, chopped.
500ml double cream

Instructions

Preheat oven to 170c, 150c fan assisted or gas mark 3.
Grease and line the base with the greaseproof paper of a 12″ cake tin or two 6-7″ tins.
Weigh out all the ingredients and place into a large mixing bowl or food mixer.
Mix until all the ingredients are fully combined including the butter.
Pour into prepared tins and bake in preheated oven for about one hour until a skewer leaves the centre of the cake cleanly.
For the decoration of the cake, place the cream in a saucepan and heat until bubbling at the edges but not boiling. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate, stand for 2-3 minutes then mix well. Whisk until smooth and silky then place in the fridge to chill.
When both the cake and the chocolate and cream mix has cool, dress the cake with the cream mix and serve.

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Huevos Rancheros

A rich spicy Mexican breakfast dish, huevos rancheros. Mix up your breakfast or brunch with this simple but flavourful recipe.

Spicy egg breakfast dish.

Ingredients

2 tbsp Oil, I use rapeseed oil.
4 eggs (free-range)
1 onion finely diced.
1 red chilli finely chopped.
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped.
100g chorizo finely chopped
1 tsp dried oregano
1tin chopped tomatoes
1 large red pepper

Instructions

Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the onions, chorizo, chilli, garlic and oregano.
Fry gently until the onions soften and the rich oil of the chorizo is released.
Add the tomatoes and peppers and cook until the sauce has thickened and the peppers softened.
In the sauce make some little wells and break the eggs into them. Cover the pan and cook until the egg whites are firm.
The dish is ready and can be eaten as is or served on tortillas garnished with chopped corriander.

Notes

Roasted peppers bought in jars can be used or char your peppers for a roast pepper taste, to spice further add half a teaspoon of hot smoked paprika.

The basic dish consists of fried eggs served on lightly fried charred corn or flour tortillas topped with a Salsa Fresca, Pico de gallo, also called Salsa Fresca or salsa cruda, is a type of salsa commonly used in Mexican cuisine. It is traditionally made from chopped tomato, onion, Serrano peppers, with salt, cumin, lime juice, and coriander. Common accompaniments include refried beans, Mexican-style rice, and guacamole or slices of avocado, with coriander as a garnish

Variations using wheat flour tortillas instead of corn, and pureed chilli or enchilada sauce instead of tomato-chilli salsa Fresca, have appeared. Non-Mexican additions such as cheese, sour cream, and lettuce also have become common additions beyond the dish’s native range.

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Thai Red Curry

All my life I have been a lover of curry mainly I admit Indian and the odd Chinese. I have made my own curries from scratch for many years but have never made Thai red curry. Come that Thai food in general. Growing up there was an abundance of Indian and Chinese restaurants where I lived but no Thai. Maybe this was the reason I never ventured into the world of lemongrass, galangal, fish pastes and sauces. So after 30 years of cooking, I thought it was time I had a go. The start of the journey was the purchase of David Thompson Thai Food, this book adds to my main vice in life cookbooks, it is a fantastic addition to my growing collection.

Armed with the ultimate shopping list I ventured out to collect the makings of a Thai Red curry. Two hours later and a lighter wallet all except a kaffir lime was purchased. Back to the kitchen and the preparation work started.

First task was to slice and dice the various ingredients for the red paste.

Ingredients

2 tbsp lemongrass finely sliced
1 tbsp galangal cut finely
1 tbsp lime rind cut finely
2 tbsp red shallot diced
1 tbsp roasted red shallot
2 tbsp garlic purée
1 tsp shrimp paste
10 white peppercorns
¼ grated nutmeg
5 cloves
5 long dry red chillies
1.5 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 star anise

Starting in the pestle and mortar with the driest and hardest begin to make your paste, I started with a good pinch of sea salt, galangal, and the seeds which had been lightly roasted to release their oils, pound until the ingredients are well combined then add the finely sliced lemongrass and repeat the process, continue adding the ingredients from driest to wettest. The long red chillies had been soaked in a little boiling water for 20 minutes before starting, keep the liquid as it can be added if the paste is a little dry.

This is a time and labour intensive method of making the paste but the result is far better than just chucking it all in a processor or blender. With the number of ingredients in the recipe it took me around 40-45 minutes to produce a smooth paste with no lumps or strands of dry ingredients still in the paste.

This paste is more than enough for the curry I intend to make so a large part will be frozen in table-spoon portions ready for the next foray into Thai food be it soups or curries.

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Leftover Lamb Hotpot

More leftovers, this time leftover lamb hotpot. I have never been one to waste food and at the moment in dire times, we find ourselves it is good to use the leftovers up. In future posts, I will be doing more with leftovers and trying to ring the changes from the norm. I served this with butter cabbage with bacon and peas. I tend to make enough for a few portions and freeze what’s left after I have eaten.

Ingredients

400g Potatoes
400g lamb (cooked and cut into chunks)
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, sliced
1 leek, sliced
1 sprig of rosemary
1 tbsp Worchestershire sauce
1 tbsp plain flour
400ml lamb stock
2 tbsp olive oil

Method

Preheat the oven to 200oC (fan 180oC).
Place a large pan with one tbsp olive oil on the hob. Once the oil has heated up add the onion, carrot and leek to the pan and fry gently until they start to get a bit of colour.
Add the lamb and keep cooking for a couple more minutes then stir in the flour to absorb the juices.
Add the Worcestershire sauce to the pan to deglaze and then add the stock. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, then season.
Tip the lamb mix into an ovenproof dish. Slice the potatoes and layer them on top. Brush the top with the remaining olive oil and season.
Cook in the oven for around 30 minutes until the potatoes are golden.

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Leftover Lamb Madras

I could possibly live on curry in one form or another, one of my favourites is my leftover lamb madras. You can, of course, use any meat you have from chicken to pork and even fish. So many curries we have bare no resemblance to authentic Indian cooking at all, where possible I like to cook as close to authentic recipes as I can.

Ingredients

1 tbsp	coriander seeds
1 tsp	black peppercorns
1 tsp	fennel seeds
10	fenugreek seeds
4	cloves
4	dried hot red chillies
6 tbsp	olive or groundnut oil
2	onions, very finely chopped
1 tsp	very finely grated fresh ginger
2 tsp	crushed garlic
3–4	fresh hot green chillies, very finely chopped
900g (2lb)	Meat of choice, diced shoulder of lamb here.
2	large tomatoes, very finely chopped
1½ tsp	salt
400ml (14fl oz)	tin coconut milk, well stirred
1 tbsp	finely chopped coriander, to garnish

Instructions

Put the coriander seeds, peppercorns, fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds, cloves and chillies into a small, cast-iron frying pan and set it over medium heat. Stir the spices over the heat until they are a shade darker and give off a roasted aroma. Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool, then grind in a clean spice grinder or coffee grinder.

Pour the oil into a wide, non-stick pan, and set it over medium–high heat.When the oil is hot, add the onions and cook, stirring, until they turn brown at the edges. Add the ginger, garlic and green chillies and stir-fry for 20 seconds. Add the meat and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, ground roasted spices, salt and coconut milk and bring to the boil.

Cover the pan, turn the heat to low and simmer gently for 1 hour or until the meat is tender. Uncover the pan and boil away a lot of the liquid, until a thick sauce clings to the meat. Garnish with finely chopped coriander to serve.

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Lamb Wraps

More use of the leftover Lamb from Sunday’s slow roast shoulder. Lamb wraps, to go with the lamb I mad a simple slaw and added fresh mint and candied jalapenos. For the wraps I used the recipe below, I always have bread flour here so going to the shops for just a few wraps was hardly essential.

Ingredients

500g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
10g salt
30g caster sugar
10g instant yeast
30g unsalted butter softened
320ml cool water
A little olive oil for cooking

Method

1. Tip the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the salt and sugar to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other. Add the butter and three-quarters of the water, and turn the mixture round with your fingers.
2. Continue to add water a little at a time until you’ve picked up all the flour from the sides of the bowl. You may not need to add all the water, or you may need to add a little more – you want a dough that is soft, but not soggy. Use the mixture to clean the inside of the bowl, folding the edges into the middle. Keep going until the mixture forms a rough dough.
3. TIP the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead well for 5–10 minutes. Do not add too much flour to your work surface as this will make the dough too dry.
4. When your dough feels smooth and silky, put it into a lightly oiled large bowl. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise until at least doubled in size – at least 1 hour, but it’s fine to leave it for 2 or even 3 hours.
5. Dust a work surface lightly with flour and tip your dough onto it. Fold it inwards repeatedly until all the air is knocked out and the dough is smooth. Divide into 60g pieces.
6. You may find it easier to shape and cook your wraps in batches. Roll each piece into a ball. Using a rolling pin, roll out each ball to a circle, 20cm in diameter, rolling out from the middle up, then from the middle down, and turning the dough regularly to prevent it from sticking to the work surface.
7. Heat a 23–25cm frying pan over high heat and add 1 tbsp vegetable oil. When it starts to smoke, place one of the dough rounds in the pan and fry for 2 minutes. Flip the bread over and cook the other side for 1 minute. Repeat to cook the rest of the dough rounds, adding a little more oil to the pan if you need to. When each one is cooked, place it on top of the last. Stacking the wraps like this traps steam between them and helps to soften them as they cool.
8. Once cool, wrap the bread in cling film. Use within 24 hours, or freeze them interleaved with cling film or baking parchment to keep them separate, otherwise, they will freeze into a solid mass.

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Slow roast shoulder of lamb

Slow Roast Shoulder of Lamb

I think ever since I was a child slow roast shoulder of lamb has been one of my favourites. I am not one for spring or new season lamb I find it tasteless, spring to me is when we first see the lambs bounding about in the fields enjoying the spring sunshine. If I have lamb it will generally be from September onward. What I have cooked here is hogget or lamb that is over a year old, when it gets to two years it is then mutton.

So for this, all you need is a whole shoulder of lamb, hogget or mutton. A few sprigs of rosemary, 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, zest of a lemon, a few anchovy fillets, salt, pepper and a good glug of olive oil. Add all the ingredients to a pestle and mortar and give a good bash. Score the flesh of the meat and massage the marinade all over. You can place into a dish and cover or as I do wrap well in clingfilm and place in the fridge overnight.

Preheat your oven to 150c, gas mark two or 300f. In your roasting tray or like I did in a large casserole pot place onions, carrots, celery all roughly chopped, this is your trivet that the meat will sit on during cooking, to the tray or pot add a glass of white wine, a stockpot, cube or fresh stock about two cups. Place the meat and all the marinating bits and pieces onto the trivet of veg, cover with foil or place the lid on and put into your preheated oven.

Sunday Roast

This really is a joint you can just pop in the oven and get on with whatever else you want or need to.

The picture above is the end result after 6 hours of slow cooking, the bones just pulled out and the meat was tender and juicy. The veg that was the trivet are now basically confit and taste amazing, of course the meat juices make the most amazing gravy,

I served it with minted new potatoes, boulanger potatoes, honey roast parsnips. buttered savoy cabbage, cauliflower and carrots with a rich mint gravy and mint sauce. You can’t have lamb without mint sauce.

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Moules Mariniere

Mussels are at there best at this time of year. This is the classic French dish of Moules Mariniere. Though the best I have had were in Belgium where it is a firm favourite with one of their great beers.

Ingredients

1.75kg/4lb mussels

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

2 shallots, finely chopped

15g/½oz butter

a bouquet garni of parsley, thyme and bay leaves

100ml/3½fl oz dry white wine or cider

120ml/4fl oz double cream

a handful of parsley leaves, coarsely chopped

crusty bread, to serve.

Method

Wash the mussels under plenty of cold, running water. Discard any open ones that won’t close when lightly squeezed.

Pull out the tough, fibrous beards protruding from between the tightly closed shells and then knock off any barnacles with a large knife. Give the mussels another quick rinse to remove any little pieces of shell.

Soften the garlic and shallots in the butter with the bouquet garni, in a large pan big enough to take all the mussels – it should only be half full.

Add the mussels and wine or cider, turn up the heat, then cover and steam them open in their own juices for 3-4 minutes. Give the pan a good shake every now and then.

Remove the bouquet garni, add the cream and chopped parsley and remove from the heat.

Spoon into four large warmed bowls and serve with lots of crusty bread.

Perfect chips

Mussels go great with chips and a good mayo or aioli, this is how i do my perfect chip.

Perfect Chips

My prefered potatoes for perfect chips is the Maris Piper this is the most widely grown potato variety in the UK and a firm favourite of the fish & chip shop. For two people the following will be plenty. If you have no issues with fat then the best fat by far to cook your chips in is beef dripping, this was the favourite of the chip shops for many years before we all became health-conscious, on the odd occasion using beef dripping will give you a treat worth the calories.

500g of Maris Piper potatoes

Beef dripping

Peel and cut the potatoes and wash thoroughly.

Boil a pan of salted water and place the chipped potatoes in a bring back to boil then gently simmer for ten minutes.

Strain and cool the chips on a wire rack, once cool place in the fridge to chill.

In a large heavy-bottomed pan or deep fat fryer heat the beef dripping to 130C, in a mesh basket fry the chips for 8-9 minutes until just coloured. Remove and shake well to drain off the oil, cool on the wire rack once cool place in fridge to chill.

When you are ready to eat heat the oil to 190C using the mesh basket fry the chips for 2-3 minutes times can vary depending on the cooker and chip size, once golden brown in colour remove and shake to drain excess oil, place on kitchen paper to absorb any further oil and serve immediately.

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Pork Vindaloo

Where to start with the Vindaloo, the much-maligned curry that is linked to drunks on a Saturday night ordering the hottest curry. This pork Vindaloo bares little resemblance to the mismatch of curry house sauces with added chillies to create the Vindaloo.

Unlike takeaway vindaloo which is just a bastardised curry sauce with extra chillis, authentic Goan vindaloo does have heat but it is the depth of flavour from the spice mix and the vinegar that creates this curry. The word vindaloo is a garbled pronunciation of the popular Portuguese dish Carne de vinha d’alhos (meat marinated in wine vinegar and garlic), which made its way to India in the 15th century along with Portuguese explorers.

INGREDIENTS

1 tsp. cumin seeds.

1 tsp. coriander seeds.

5-10 dried red Kashmiri chillies (or 3–6 hotter dried red chillies).

6 black peppercorns.

3 green cardamom pods.

4 cloves.

2cm cinnamon stick.

Thumb sized piece of ginger.

1 bulb garlic.

1 tsp mustard seeds.

1 tsp fenugreek seeds.

1 tsp fennel seeds.

10 curry leaves.

3 tbsp. good-quality white wine vinegar, or to taste.

400 g pork shoulder with some fat, in 1″ cubes.

Salt to taste.

4 tbsp of ghee.

2 large onions finely chopped.

400g tin chopped tomatoes.

Method

In a heavy-bottomed pan add the dry spices and warmly toast, this releases the oils and intensifies the flavour. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. I use my old cast casserole pot, melt the ghee and add the onions, garlic and ginger and on low heat saute until caramelised, you do not want to burn the onions as this will give an acrid taste to the curry.

Once the dry spices have cooled they need grinding down, either in a pestle and mortar or spice grinder, I use a coffee grinder. Grind to a powder, add to the onions and saute for a further five minutes. Add the diced meat that has been marinating in the vinegar and half the garlic cloves and coat well with the spice and onion mix. Pour in the tomatoes and half a tin of water to cover the meat, stir well cover and place in a preheated oven at 160c for two hours or until the pork is tender. For some, they add potatoes in for the final thirty minutes of cooking.

Serving

Serve with rice or bread, the addition of potatoes to the final cooking time takes away the need for rice. A cold beer goes well with this curry.

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Bhuna Curry

Bhuna Curry
Recipe type: Main Curry
Prep time: 20 minsCook time: 1 hour 30 minsTotal time: 1 hour 50 mins
Serves: 4 – 6

Rich intense flavour curry.

Of all the curries I make this is by the most popular one.

Ingredients.

1kg 2.2lb Meat stewing lamb or pork, even beef can be used as Kerala is the only state where the sale of beef is legal.
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
4 whole dried chillies
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
2 teaspoons fenugreek seeds
5 Tablespoons oil
3 Large Shallots very finely diced
1.5″ ginger peeled and diced
6 cloves Garlic finely chopped
12 curry leaves fresh if possible
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1.5 teaspoons salt.

Instructions

In a small heavy-based pan place the spice seeds and heat until a slightly darker shade, this increases the flavour. Empty into a spice mixer or pestle and mortar once cooled grind to a fine powder and set to one side.
Place the oil into a wide-based heavy saucepan and place over medium heat, once the oil is hot place the shallots, garlic and ginger fry and stir at the same time until golden brown roughly 5 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and curry leaves and fry until the tomatoes reduce to a thick paste.
Next, the roast spice mix and stir for 1-2 minutes.
Add the salt and meat and cook for 5 minutes.
Pour in 250ml of water and bring to a simmer, cover tightly with a lid and reduce to low heat and cook until the meat is tender. Depending on the meat used roughly one and a half hours.
Once the meat is cooked increase the heat and stir continuously until the sauce reduces and just clings to the meat.
Serve with rice or flatbreads.

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