Let's see how this works then.

Test post!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:In my kitchen.

So, I'm still here...

What a long time it's been!

Having a long weekend off work at the moment has me returning to kitchenlaptop.com to lament on my inability to blog as much as I originally wanted to.

In a way it's because I always find myself flitting from one thing to another and getting caught up in the moment. Realistically it's because I'm lazy and indecisive!

Hopefully I should be able to get some thoughts on here more often as I treated myself to a shiny new iphone and can post directly. My poor trusty laptop is feeling sorry for itself though as it's been gathering dust of late, so I decided I'd let him out today for a while!

Hopefully I'll be here more. Sometimes cooking, sometimes out and about, sometimes just wittering on as usual.

Speak soon!

Back with a bang!

I apologise about the lack of posts of late. Life gets in the way and the school summer holidays are here.
I'm busy marinading some tuna at the moment and will post the results a little later today, with any luck. Wasabi, soy sauce, chilli, brown sugar, lemon and sesame oil....pan-seared tuna me thinks!


MMMMMMMM!!!!!

Here's another creation from a couple of weeks ago for you to feast your eyes on:

Oven baked Butternut Squash wedges with Rocket, Pastrami, Cucumber and Parmesan cheese. And a HUGE dollop of Sun dried Tomato and Basil Hummus! I could eat this everyday!

Plumtastic pud.

I recently bought 2 punnets of plums that needed eating up pretty quick. They were reduced in price as they were already ripe so being the bargain hunter that I am, I figured I could find a recipe to use them up and grabbed them off the shelf at the supermarket. Each punnet had about 9 plums in and was reduced to 49p! That's less than 6p per plum!I had 18 plums to squeeze into a recipe and I had to do it quick before the plums went bad.

I found a basic cake recipe and amended it as always. The results were pretty good and the plums didn't go to waste. Result!

I'd definitely say it's a "pudding" type of cake rather than an "afternoon tea" type of cake. You eat it with a spoon and a smile, not dainty fingers and a napkin. It's heavy and filling and would go great with hot custard on a cool Autumn evening. Since it's not Autumn yet and the weather's still nice I paired it with chilled lavender cream.

Honey and Almond Plum Cake with Lavender Cream

Ingredients

For the cake

90g butter
80g soft brown sugar
4 Tbs of your favourite honey. I used Eucalyptus honey
1 tsp of baking powder
35g toasted flaked almonds (bake some plain flaked almonds until nicely toasted whilst preheating the oven)
135g of plain flour
2 large eggs (beaten)
2 Tbs milk
Loads of plums! I used about 12 I think. Maybe more. I might have eaten a couple whilst baking though ;) Half and stone them.
Pinch of salt

For the topping

45g butter
75g sugar
3/4 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs (beaten)

For the Lavender Cream

600ml double cream
1 1/2 Tbs of fresh lavender flowers
2 Tbs honey (again I used Eucalyptus honey)

First of all mix the ingredients together for the Lavender cream in a bowl. You can use a wooden spoon to bruise the lavender flowers whilst in the cream to release more flavour. Place cream mixture in the fridge to chill then get on with the cake!



In a mixing bowl cream together the butter with the sugar until light and creamy.


Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.

Whisk the eggs and the milk together.

Add a little of the sifted flour and the egg mixture into the creamed butter at a time, mixing well between each addition, until it is all thoroughly mixed. I used my electric hand mixer.


Add the toasted almonds and stir well.

Spoon the cake mixture into a cake tin. I use a 9"/24cm spring form cake tin. Butter the insides and line the base with baking paper if you like.
Smooth the mixture down gently then arrange the plum halves cut side up on top of it. I squeezed in a few extra pieces in between the halves.



To make the topping, melt the butter, stir in the sugar and cinnamon and when cooled a little mix in the eggs. I have to admit, I didn't want to put the topping on as the plums looked so nice but I figured I better to try it out. I'm sorry plums! I feel like I've drowned you!



Spoon the topping over and around the plums on the cake and bake in the middle of your oven on gas mark 4 for 1 hour until set.

This cake makes your kitchen smell gorgeous!

Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for a while before removing tin.





Remove the cream mixture from the fridge and strain through a fine sieve to remove flower pieces. Slice cake, pour on cream and enjoy! Any extra Lavender flowers can be used for decoration.

Do you Lovefoodhatewaste???

I feel terrible for not posting for over a week now so I'd like to apologise. I've had some lovely meals and cooked some dishes that were delicious but nothing I've made felt inspired/inspiring enough to post here.
I have yesterday baked up a late-night cake that I want to share with you all but first I found something which I think is pretty important, and I know a lot of you amazing cooks out there will feel the same.

I came across a fantastic, informative site called Lovefoodhatewaste.
It's a UK based site but has some great ideas and tips for you where ever you are in the world.




Now the main reason I love Lovefoodhatewaste is the fact that it doesn't preach how terrible we all are and then tell us to change. It gives us the facts and then gives us a huge amount of ideas on how to change our cooking and eating habits to be kinder to the planet and importantly to save money.

Have a look at the tabs along the right-hand side of the site.
There's some great tips for food storage, a 2 week meal planner, a diary download to track your waste food, loads of recipes for leftovers from other cooks and celeb chefs, and my favourite part: the Perfect Portion planner!

If you're cooking family meals day in, day out, then you'll know how easy it is to overestimate the amount of pasta, rice, veggies etc you need. Sometimes it just feels easier to use a whole bag of pasta or add a few extra florets of broccoli to make sure there's enough. The Perfect Portion Planner takes the guess work out of serving sizes so you no longer have leftover carrots sitting limp and cold after everyone has had their fill. Less waste means more money saved as your food goes further.

As well as showing us how to make some great savings it highlights the alarming problem of food waste and how the impact affects the planet and our purses. Throwing away a little food leftover from a meal doesn't seem such an issue, does it? And that pack of ham in the fridge went out of date yesterday so what's the big deal?

Well, if you think of the resources that went into producing the food you throw away then that's when you realise how much of an impact it has on everyone. Energy and water were used to grow the food and produce the packaging. Fuel was used to ship it to the store you bought it from.

If that still doesn't get the message through then consider this:

If we stopped food waste in the UK then the impact on carbon emissions would be the same as taking 1 in 5 cars off UK roads.

And to make it absolutely clear:

As of 2008 there are 34.2 million registered vehicles in the UK according to the Department for Transport website.
Eradicating food waste would have the same impact as taking approximately 6.84 million cars off the UK roads!


The UK throws away 6.7 million tonnes of food every year. For a population of almost 61 million that's pretty appalling. But consider that the food we throw away costs each family £420 on average per year then this is also completely ludicrous. (That's $690 for you readers across the pond!)
I know I would rather have the money to spend on my home and family than dumping my hard earned cash in a landfill site! I'm sure you all agree.

Lovefoodhatewaste is all about showing us how to be creative cooks and eat great meals without it costing us the Earth!




So go check it out. Add your voice and leave a tip. I love the message it's trying to get across so much that I added one of there buttons to my site here.
It's not all about saving the planet. It's about saving you money too, which I just know you wanna do!

Sweets for my sweet.

I noticed in a local shop recently that they had some large chocolate bars on special (which is always a good thing!) I decided to grab a few a cook up some sweet treats using up some raspberries I had spare. I love kitchen experiments!

Since I usually prefer savoury recipes I figured this would make a nice change and it would keep my kids happy as they get to taste test the results!
Now, don't get me wrong, I like chocolate but I'm not a huge fan. I prefer fruity tastes if a course is gonna be sweet so I knew that the raspberry taste would have to shine through to get my approval.

I decided on making truffles but that idea quickly went out the window as I wasn't following any recipe and the mixture I ended up with was just a teeny bit too soft.
Never-the-less, the results turned out pretty good and I'll definitely try this again with other flavourings to see if it turns out as nice.

So on with the show. Look away now if you're on a calorie controlled diet!

Raspberry and White Chocolate Cream in Dark Chocolate Baskets
(Makes approx 80)

Ingredients

4 x 100g bars of White Chocolate
600ml Double Cream (approx 1 pint!)
200ml fresh Raspberry Puree or enough raspberries to make this much!
2 x 100g Dark Chocolate (I used Lindt Dark with Sea Salt)
Raspberries and cocoa powder for decoration.

See, it's sounding pretty simple already. Just a few ingredients needed.


What to do:

First of all, try not to eat too much of the ingredients whilst making it or you might not have as many finished chocolate baskets.
If you find it too hard to resist just make sure you eat a little of every ingredient so the recipe stay pretty much the same!
Now that's out the way let's get on with it.

Grate or finely chop the white chocolate and place in a large bowl. Don't be alarmed if you grate it and it looks like toenail clippings! It still tastes gorgeous and no one will see it like that. Now is a good time to eat a little bit if you really must.

Pour the double cream into a medium saucepan and slowly bring to the boil, stirring gently.
Pour the boiling cream onto the white chocolate and stir until all the chocolate has melted.

Add the raspberry puree and a pinch of salt and whisk until all nicely mixed together. It should be a pinkish colour and smell heavenly!


Pour the mixture into a deep tray and refrigerate for a couple of hours minimum.

When time's up, break up the dark chocolate and place in a ovenproof dish. Place it over a pan of boiling water on a low heat giving it a stir to make sure there's no lumps.

Drop a small amount of the melted cholate into a load of silicone mini-muffin cases and swirl it around until the sides and bottom of the cases are coated in a thin layer of chocolate. Pop these on a plate and chill them in the fridge until set hard. Carefully peel the silicone cases off. You should be left with little chocolate baskets just ready for filling.
You may have to repeat this step a few times if you haven't got a huge stash of silicone cases.


Take the raspberry and white chocolate cream mixture out the fridge and set out your chocolate baskets on a tray.
Carefully spoon some of the raspberry mixture into each basket.
I used a butter knife to add a little extra of the mixture to each basket and gently press it down.

Try and keep everything as cool as possible whilst working with the baskets and don't handle them if you can as they are fragile and are prone to melting!

Once you've filled each basket to your liking. Sprinkle each one with a little cocoa powder and decorate with a few pieces of raspberry. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Eat and enjoy!

Did I mention a made a few baskets in full size silicone muffin cases too!!! All I have to do now is decide if it would be a bad thing to pour cream over the giant chocolate baskets and serve them as a dessert?

Ceviche, capiche?

The internet is a great way to find new ingredients and ideas, I'll admit it. But what makes cooking even more fun for me is to cut loose from the recipe and make some changes every once in a while. Spice things up, ammend the amount, skip a suggestion and do your own thing! Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I hit upon a winner looking to make my first ever ceviche. Well, I think so anyway! I'd browsed for ideas and was forming a plan in my head of what I wanted in it. :)

I had crayfish tails to use up and a load of prawns that I'd been looking forward to. The local fruit and veg shop had the most delicious looking vine tomatoes so I grabbed a few on the way home, along with a huge fresh cucumber, some spring onions and bunch of coriander. I'd forgotten limes but figured lemons would work fine this time. I wasn't planning on "cooking" the seafood with the lime juice this time! I really just wanted to get an idea of the flavours together.
The idea was taking shape! These tomatoes smell divine! I'm not a huge tomato fan but these are amazing. I got home this evening and got started.
He's how it went:

Crayfish and Prawn Ceviche Wraps

Ingredients (makes approx 4 wraps)

180g cooked Crayfish Tails (I used a tub of brined tails)
180g Prawns (shelled and cooked)
1 medium Red Onion
1 Pointed Sweet Red Pepper
4 Spring Onions
1 medium Avocado
2 large Tomatoes
5 inch piece of Cucumber
Juice of 3 Lemons
1 handful of fresh coriander
2 tbsp Tomato Puree
2tsp Easy Chilli (approx 2 small chillis)
Seasoning of your chioce.



Here's what I did:
Roughly dice 1 large tomato and the cumber and place in a large mixing bowl, seeds, juice and all.
Small dice the red onion, spring onions and red pepper.
Put it all in the mixing bowl with the tomato and cucumber then throw in the crayfish and prawns.

Looks great already doesn't it? Yum! After being sorely tempted to just scoff it all there and then, I resisted enough to get on with the recipe. I'm glad I did too!

Next, roughly dice the avocado and leftover tomato.

Blitz the tomato in a blender till really squished. Add the avocado, coriander, tomato puree, lemon juice and chillis (or easy chilli) and pulse until pretty well blended.

Season it at this point as well. I used freshly ground black pepper, a little salt and some ground red chilli flakes.

From this: To this: It doesn't exactly look that great but the smell of coriander is amazing and it tastes fabulous! It has a lovely strong lemon and coriander flavour to it and a real chilli kick.
Let's get it mixed in!

Fold the mixture into the crayfish, prawns and diced veggies carefully so as to keep the seafood from getting broken up.

I stirred in 1 tbsp of mayo and a couple of spoonfuls of sweetcorn at this point but only to hold it together a little better and to add even more colour! Don't use if you don't want to.

Pop it in a suitable container and place in the fridge for 1 hour minimum.

When you're ready to serve it, place some mixed salad leaves on a soft salsa tortilla and top with the ceviche. Roll and enjoy!

Think I might have another one for supper! :P