Friday Pie-Day: Simple Strawberry Filo Bites

Something quaint and quick is called for today. No doubt many, many people will be glued to the TV today, or indeed be amongst the masses in London to watch the Royal Wedding.

I'm sure there will be some of you who planned not to participate in the excited frenzy of it all. But come the day, you may well have found yourself swept up in all the joy and thought, 'ah, to hell with it!' and decided to go along to a street party or maybe even just a gathering at someone's house, who is throwing a big party. But what to take at such short notice?

Three simple ingredients is all you need, and nothing more, to put together these Simple Strawberry Filo Bites. So ridiculously easy and quick to make, yet look so elegant to serve.

Simple Strawberry Filo Bites

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Makes 8:

8 filo squares (5" approx)*
100g fresh strawberries, mashed up (retaining a few pieces to decorate)
50g double cream
2 tbsp olive oil

*They are normally sold as large sheets, so use 2 sheets and cut into 4 squares

1) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Use some clingfilm to cover the pastry as you work with each piece.
2) Take a square and cut into 4 smaller squares. Brush one with a bit of oil and drape over the case of an overturned mini-muffin tray. Repeat with the other 3 squares, at a slight angle each time to create a case.
3) Repeat step 2 with the other 7 filo squares.
4) Place the upturned tray into the oven to bake for 10 minutes, then set aside to cool.
5) Whip the cream to soft peaks in a bowl. Mix in the mashed strawberries.
6) Spoon the strawberry cream mixture into each of the cooled cases, adding a small strawberry piece on top to decorate.

Now get partying!

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures. Continue reading this post..

SuperJam Swirl Cake

When I'm not busy cooking, blogging or bouncing around in some fitness class, I spend my weekdays working in the editorial department at the rather hip-and-happening Capstone Publishing, who publishes business books (but not the boring ones).

Case in point, take this recently published book, SuperBusiness, of the young and insanely successful Fraser Doherty. With emphasis on the young. And successful. (He's not insane though).

In a nutshell, he created SuperJam, a range of natural jam, after being taught at the ripe young age of 14 how to make jam by his gran. Millions of jam sales later and still in his early 20s, it seems Fraser is just getting started!

A village fete themed party was held in London last week to celebrate the launch of SuperBusiness, complete with candy floss machine (which I just about managed to set up!), kiss-o-gram, bake-a-cake competition and good old fashioned raffling.

Of course, I couldn't let the opportunity for cake-baking pass me by, so immediately bought myself some SuperJam supplies and got to work...

The beauty of SuperJam is that it's made with fresh fruit and has no added sugar or any other artificial bits lurking about. In keeping with this, I wanted to try and concoct a healthy SuperJam cake - and in my eyes, this meant a butter and sugar free cake (I'm just not equipped to do flour free as well right now!).

Now, I'm sure many of you must be aware of my Hungry-Jenny-Faux-Pas tendancies by now. But thankfully, this wasn't one of them. Erm, because this was the fourth batch! Don't worry, the other batches were smaller sample versions so as not to waste too many ingredients, whilst experimenting!

I won't bore you with the details behind each disaster, but the problems were mainly to do with the absence of sugar, and getting a texture that would set in an ungooey manner. One other issue I was facing was what to actually do with the jam. I didn't want it to just blend into the mix unnoticed. I wanted the SuperJam to be visible and still retain most of its texture.

In the end, I managed to do this by adding spoonfuls of SuperJam to the batter after pouring the batter into the cake tin. Using a knife to gently swirl the jam around, the SuperJam then stays intact and doesn't just disappear into the batter. And of course, giving the SuperJam Swirl effect.

Well, more like Visible Splotches, but SuperJam Visible Splotch Cake doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

SuperJam Swirl Cake (butter and sugar free)

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For a 13 x 8" traybake (21 squares):

100g Raspberry and Cranberry SuperJam
200g apple, peeled and chopped
150g + 1 tbsp honey
1 egg
75ml grapeseed oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
250g plain flour
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp bakin powder
150g fresh or frozen raspberries
150g ripe pears, peeled and diced

1) Put the diced apple with the honey in a saucepan with just enough water to cover. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer for about 10-15 minutes, until soft enough to mash. The water should be pretty much absorbed. Set aside to cool.
2) Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C. Beat the egg with the oil, vanilla and lemon juice. Mix in the mashed apple.
3) In a large mixing bowl, sift in the flour with the cinnamon, nutmeg, soda and powder. Fold in the diced pear and raspberries.
4) Tip the wet mixture into the dry and combine well.
5) Pour into a lined tin and level out. Spoon the jam randomly on top, then use a knife to gently swirl through the batter.
6) Bake for about 40 minutes, then cover with foil and bake for another 15-20 minutes, or until you can pull a toothpick out clean.

So how did it go down? Er, I don't know to be honest, because I had to run for my train back to Chichester before the cake-tasting started! Well I didn't win the competition anyway, but was told that it got rave reviews, so guess I'll just have to take their word for it!

More Hungry Jenny cakes here.

Other butter free and sugar free baking recipes that might take your fancy. Continue reading this post..

Say NO to Takeaway: Stir Fry Up Some Oyster Beef and Mushrooms Instead!

Stir fried beef and mushrooms in oyster sauce must surely rank up high on any list of Chinese takeaway favourites.

You should definitely get a bottle of oyster sauce to keep in your cupboard, as it is a really simple way to bring a stir fry to life.

Oyster sauce is definitely a favourite of mine. It reminds me of my mum's cooking - she often uses it as a simple meat marinade, or to finish off stir fried greens by tossing them in the sauce.

The beauty of oyster sauce is that it somehow brings out the flavour of whatever it's coating, without overpowering it.

It doesn't taste overly 'fishy' or seafood-like, so don't knock it for that reason if you haven't tried it before! It's kinda salty, but has quite a sweet taste to it too. So if you didn't have a bottle to hand, you could perhaps try a mix of soy sauce, honey and cornflour. It won't beat the real stuff though, I'm telling you that now!

Oyster Beef and Mushroom Stir Fry

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Serves 2:

150g beef rump, cut into thin strips
75g mushrooms, chopped
50g iceberg lettuce, shredded
2 spring onions, chopped
Handful of fresh coriander, chopped
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp honey
1 tsp garlic, finely chopped
2 'blocks' of thick egg noodles
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp vegetable oil

1) Mix together the oyster, soy sauce, honey and garlic in a bowl. Add the beef strips and leave to marinate for at least 15 minutes.
2) Gently boil the noodles for about 5 minutes (or until done). Drain and rinse in cold water, then toss with the sesame oil and leave to cool.
3) Add the veggie oil to a hot wok, then stir fry the beef strips for about 5 minutes.
4) Toss in the mushrooms, lettuce and spring onions, stir frying for another few minutes.
5) Add the cooked noodles, tossing well for a couple of minutes, before gently stirring through the coriander to serve.

If you liked this, you might want to try making these other takeaway alternatives too.

Other beefy recipes you might enjoy. Continue reading this post..

Friday Pie-Day: Teriyaki Rolls

You'd find it hard to believe, but it's actually starting to feel like summer over here in the UK - plus it's a bank holiday weekend and shock, horror - it's NOT raining! My goodness, it's picnic weather!

No picnic or indeed any outdoor munch trip is complete without sausage rolls (in my eyes anyway). But instead of just buying a multipack of those cute yet insufficent party sausage rolls, you could try making these Teriyaki Rolls instead.

They don't require much more effort than making your average batch of sausage rolls, but this simple Teriyaki twist helps to turn a normal sausage roll into something rather special.

I must admit though, I hadn't intended them to turn out so big - they came out about double the size of those party sausage rolls you get. It's just that I'm just not particularly good at creating bite-sized rolls. I made 18 of them, but you may well be able to create more, depending on your sausage-roll-making skills!

Teriyaki Rolls

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Makes 18 rolls:

4 pork sausages, deskinned (or 225g minced meat)
50g celery, finely chopped
1 spring onion, chopped
Small handful fresh coriander, finely chopped
2 tbsp sake (or sherry, rice vinegar or white wine vinegar)
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp mirin (or honey)
1/2 tbsp honey
1 tsp grated ginger
1 beaten egg

200g plain flour
200g unsalted butter, diced, at room temperature
Pinch of salt
Some cold water
OR 425g shop bought puff pastry

If using shop bought pastry, skip to step 4

1) Sift the flour into a large bowl with the salt. Rub in the butter to a breadcrumb mixture. Pour in a few tablespoons of cold water and start to bring the mixture together. Add a tablespoon of water at a time as needed as you work the mixture into a soft dough. Wrap and freeze for 10 minutes.
2) Roll the pastry out into a long rectangle. Fold the top third down, then fold the bottom third back up over the top.
3) Turn the dough 90 degrees, then repeat step 2. Wrap and freeze again for 10 minutes.
4) Mix together the sake, soy sauce, mirin, honey and ginger in a large bowl.
5) Add in the sausage meat, celery, spring onion and coriander. Leave to marinade for at least 20 minutes.
6) Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Cut the pastry in half. Roll out one half onto a floured surface into a long thin rectangle. Spoon half of the sausage mixture along the length of one side. Brush some egg wash along the edge of the pastry.
7) Fold the pastry over to close, using a fork to crimp the edges together. Repeat with the other pastry half and remaining sausage mix.
8) Slice each pastry into 9 rolls and transfer to a baking tray. Brush the tops with more egg, and prick with a fork.
9) Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 180 degrees C to bake for another 15 minutes until golden.

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures.

You might also enjoy my other Porky recipes. Continue reading this post..

Guilt Free Lemon Oat Cookies

After my recent disastrous attempt at a butter, sugar and flour free cake, I thought I'd try it out with cookies instead...

And I was very, very surprised that it worked! So you can eat these without feeling guilty :-)

I haven't made alot of cookies in general - I think mainly because I find it a bit of a faff to shape or dollop individual bits of batter onto the baking tray. I like to just pour the mixture into a cake tin and be done with it!

This recipe is just for 10-12 cookies though so doesn't take long at all to make. Although they are butter-free, they are still lovely and soft, from the use of banana, apple and oil. These are not the kind of cookies that spread whilst baking, so shape them into the size you want.

Although I didn't consciously add anything in to compensate for the absence of sugar (other than the lemon zest and a tablespoon of honey), they came out with quite a nice sweetness to them.

Going flour free is probably what I'm least confident about. I have only managed to pull off flour free baking a few times. I think that in most cases, I've still used butter or sugar in the mix so as not to risk messing up the structure of the cake entirely. In this case, I figured that it couldn't go too badly, what with them being cookies and perhaps not so suspicious-looking with a lack of flour.

Finally, to add a bit of colour and extra zang, I grated a bit of lemon rind onto the top of each cookie. As you might be able to tell, this was a last minute thought, so I didn't have much lemon rind left to work with for these ones!

Guilt Free Lemon Oat Cookies
(butter, sugar and flour free)

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Makes 10-12 cookies (2")

1 apple, deskinned and diced (100g)
1 banana (75g)
75g rolled oats
150g ground almonds
25ml grapeseed oil
Juice and zest of half a lemon, plus some grated lemon rind to top if desired
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp honey

1) Put the diced apple with the honey in a saucepan with just enough water to cover. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer for about 10-15 minutes, until soft enough to mash and the water is absorbed. Set aside to cool.
2) Mix the oats, almonds and baking powder in a bowl.
3) In another bowl, mash the banana, then mix in the mashed apple, oil, lemon juice and zest.
4) Pour into the dry mixture and combine well. Create 10-12 two-inch cookie shapes from the mixture, placing them on a lined baking tray. Top each cookie with the grated lemon rind if desired.
5) Bake at 180 degrees C for 15 minutes. They should still be slightly soft when done.

More Hungry Jenny cakes and cookies!

Other healthy baking recipes you might enjoy. Continue reading this post..

Cookery School: Raspberry Clafoutis and Orange Cream

No, I'm not about to teach you how to cook something I can't even pronounce.

Oh er, the cream did turn out right, I just forgot that it would melt away atop the warm cake as you can see!

The following recipe is taken from the Cookery School TV series tie-in book. The concept behind the programme is pretty straightforward - a bunch of 'ordinary' people taught by a couple of professionals how to cook - from the basic through to the more advanced dishes.

Whether the format of the show works, it's difficult to say. It's probably one of the longest cooking series ever, what with it being an hour long, every week day for 10 weeks - so if you really want to go through the 'course' with them, you'd have to be in it for the long haul! I only managed 20 minutes of one episode before switching off, hoping that the cookbook might work better instead.

The contents listing seems confused at first glance. There are five main sections, with the first four headed up under Starters, Fish, Meat and Puddings. These are each broken down into subsections of Basic, Intermediate and Advanced dishes. But then this structure seems to turn back on itself with the fifth main section headed as Super Advanced, and broken down into subsections of Starters, Mains and Puddings. Still following?

There is then a separate listing for all the various skills and techniques taught throughout the book. The step-by-step photos and instructions themselves are well laid out, but the actual skills covered is a frustrating list as a whole. They are confined by the recipes chosen for the book, and although that sounds logical, the list itself is not as comprehensive as you'd expect from a book with a title like this.  Learning to peel prawns, joint a chicken and make fresh pasta, yes. Making a smoker with tea and sugar? Perhaps not such a core skill to learn.

Having said that, the how-to steps and recipes themselves are very easy to follow. Even in the Super Advanced section, where you are told in a whopping number of 18 steps how to make a trifle (ok, so it's a fancy-looking trifle, but still), I doubt you would get lost and confused in the process. But you'd definitely need the time and patience to see yourself through it.

I was itching to try out a main dish, simply because I tend to bake a lot and wanted the excuse to make something different. However, the recipes tend to err on the showy side so aren't really the kind of dishes that you'd randomly choose to dish up for yourself, and many of them contain ingredients that you wouldn't exactly buy on a whim.

Perhaps I'm just not 'ready' to advance to such recipes, but there was just something a bit too alien about the execution of the whole concept. The title suggests that 'anyone can learn to cook', but simply feels far too thin on the basics, and escalates a little too quickly onto the advanced.

For now though, I'll just enjoy the delight of the 'intermediate' Raspberry Clafoutis and Orange Cream...

Raspberry Clafoutis and Orange Cream

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Serves 4:

For the Raspberry Clafoutis
30g unsalted butter, melted
80g caster sugar
3 eggs
200g creme fraiche
35g plain flour, sifted
1/2 level tsp baking powder
200g raspberries
2 tbsp icing sugar, sifted

For the orange cream
100ml double cream
1 tsp orange liqueur, such as Cointreau
2 tsp orange zest
Seeds from 1 vanilla pod

*Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C

1) Prepare 4 shallow 200ml ovenproof dishes or gratin dishes by brushing the inside of each dish with the melted butter and then dusting with 30g of the caster sugar.
2) Next whisk together the eggs, the remaining 50g of caster sugar and the creme fraiche using a handheld whisk. Then fold in the flour and the baking powder and mix until you have a smooth batter.
3) Scatter the raspberries on the bottom of the prepared oven dishes and gently ladle the batter over. Bake in the preheated oven for 16-20 minutes, or until the mixture has browned slightly on the top and is just cooked in the middle.
4) To make the orange cream, first whip the cream to soft peaks in ta large bowl. Then add the orange liqueur, orange zest and vanilla seeds and mix well.
5) To serve, sprinkle the clafoutis with icing sugar and serve straight away, while warm, with a big dollop of the orange cream.

Recipe extracted from 'Cookery School', brought to you by Channel 4 with recipes by Richard Corrigan. (Penguin HB, £20) Continue reading this post..

Friday Pie-Day: Portable Apple Berry Crumble

Apple crumble that you can eat with your hands?

I'm not suggesting you bake an apple crumble and scoop a portion out with your hand. That would just be messy. And a bit unsociable to be honest.

I'm talking about an apple crumble that you can slice up and eat like a piece of cake.

But no, it's not just a sponge cake with a crumble topping.

As you bite into it, you get the lovely crisp almonds crumbling onto your tongue, followed by the warming chunks of stewed apple underneath - exactly what you'd expect from a comforting apple crumble. Without even having to use a spoon to eat it. And to make it a touch more special, there are sweet berries juiced into the mix as well.

Although best served fresh, you should allow this to cool before slicing, as it is pretty soft when you take it out the oven. The bottom and sides will set, but the inside will remain fantastically apple gluey.

Holy crumble, my mouth is watering right now. Damn me for eating it too fast! (I did share it out a tad, honest)

Portable Apple Berry Crumble

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Made in an 8" shallow baking tray (12 squares):

225g apple, deskinned and diced
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp baking powder
35ml water
75ml + 1/2 tsp grapeseed oil
Juice and zest of half a lemon
50g white sugar
75g plain flour
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
50g ground almonds
100g raspberries

For the crumble topping:
50g ground almonds
25g white sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
Handful of flaked almonds

1) Put the diced apple with the honey in a saucepan with just enough water to cover. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer for about 10-15 minutes, until soft enough to mash. The water should be pretty much absorbed. Set aside to cool.
2) In another bowl, mix half of the baking powder with the half tsp oil and water. Add the mashed apple, lemon, sugar and the rest of the oil.
3) Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl with the bicarb of soda, almonds, plus the remaining half tsp of baking powder. Fold in the raspberries, coating well.
4) Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C.
5) Pour the apple mixture into the flour bowl, folding in well. Tip into a lined baking tray, smoothing out the top.
6) To prepare the topping, mix together the ground almonds, sugar and oil. Spoon the mixture evenly over the pie, then scatter the flaked almonds on top.
7) Bake for about 50 minutes - the crumbled top should be slightly brown and you should be able to pull a toothpick out clean. It will still be quite squidgy inside, so allow to cool before cutting into squares.

Not that you'll need to be told this, but this is best eaten on the day it's baked. The top will be all soggy by the next day. But if you happen to be crazy enough to have leftovers, you can just top it with more ground and flaked almonds and warm through again for about half an hour at 170 degrees. Boom, crumble topped again. Yes.

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures. Continue reading this post..

Peach and Raspberry Yogurt Cake (butter free)

I tend to use a mix of yogurt and grapeseed (or sometimes olive) oil when trying to create a butter-free cake. When I get it right, out comes a lovely fluffy cake (like my Lemon Drizzle Cake or this Orange and Rosemary Cake), where you wouldn't be able to guess at all from the spongy texture that it's butter-free.

Then there are instances where the cake comes out a bit too gooey. For instance, I attempted some orange marmalade yogurt muffins at the weekend, which came out so wrong that I couldn't even be bothered to take a photo of them! Because not only were they ridiculously sticky, they sank as well! (They still got eaten though.)

Now the texture of this peach and raspberry yogurt cake...

...was sort of inbetween.

As you can probably tell from the picture, the texture was still a little 'stodgier' than I would have liked.  It had the potential to be a lot spongier.  But it at least won't stick to your fingers or leave suspicious oily patches about your person. This one is still clean and super tasty.

Peach and Raspberry Yogurt Cake (butter free)

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Made in an 8" square tin:

100g tinned peach, diced
75g raspberries
1 apple (100g), deskinned, decored and diced
250g greek yogurt
150ml grapeseed oil
50ml peach juice
1 egg
175g self raising flour
75g sugar

1) Put the apple in a pan with just enough water to cover and slowly bring to the boil. Squeeze in some lemon juice, then turn down to simmer until the water is absorbed, and you get an applesauce texture. Leave to cool.
2) Beat the yogurt, oil, peach juice and egg in a bowl.
3) In a larger bowl, sift in the flour with the sugar.
4) Add in the wet mixture, followed by the peach and raspberries to combine.
5) Add into a lined tin, then bake at 180 degrees C for 40-45 minutes until lightly brown.

Other butter free baking recipes that might take your fancy. Continue reading this post..

Gluttony Comes Before a Fall

I can be so juvenile sometimes.

When Nick aka Peanut Butter Boy tweeted about a manly breakfast that he was unable to finish by himself, I clicked on this link to the pic, expecting to see a big beast of a breakfast. But it was just a couple of slices of bread covered in peanut butter and banana slices.

Eh?

I immediately poo-pahed Nick's efforts, boasting how easily I myself could have finished it. He tweeted back in defence and challenged me to prove it - mentioning that the bread slices were at least 4 x 6" and that 1/4 cup peanut butter and a full banana was used...

And thus what followed was quite unexpected.

First off, I should remind you that I'm a bit of a bread junkie. I managed to wean myself of the stuff for (most of) last year, to stop myself eating it like popcorn. Since then, I never buy bread to eat at home and very rarely buy sandwiches.

I should have heard the alarm bells ringing when I went off to buy a loaf of bread just to prove I could finish a peanut butter banana sandwich.

The alarm bells should have rung louder when I noticed that my bread slices were slightly smaller than the ones Peanut Butter Boy had, and decided to add an extra half slice into the mix to make up for it.

The alarm bells continued to ring out unheard until -

- I finished it all.

Was I supposed to be proud of myself for being able to finish this? Well no, not really.

Am I nervous about being left alone with the remainder of the loaf.*

What remainder?

Oh dear.

*Ok, so I'm exaggerating a bit and still have just under half of the loaf left I bought yesterday morning. Which I'm still feeling pretty bad about right now.

Continue reading this post..

Friday Pie-Day: Baked Bean Puff Pot

Once I've made something, I very rarely make it again - not because I've put myself off my own cooking or anything like that (well, maybe sometimes), but just so I can constantly create and test new recipes.

In this case though, I had to make this week's pie again - my Baked Bean Puff Pot is essentially my favourite components of an English brekkie, topped with a puff pastry hat.

Er, I know the yellow pepper seems a bit odd but this wasn't part of the original plan.

The first version had baked beans, sausage, bacon and mushroom and at the time, I was working on my Quick Puff Pastry post. Ah, I'll just use the pastry from this to top my brekkie pot, I thought.

Then I got carried away whilst making the pastry, folding it more times than necessary to ensure it was fully puffed for the photo for that post:

Of course, it only occured to me once I started on the baked bean puff pot itself that I realised how stupid this immensely puffed pastry would look!

Sure enough, it turned out looking so ridiculously that I deleted the photo out of shame, and decided to just do the recipe again another time. With sensible size puff pastry (and er, pepper instead of mushrooms because I didn't have any).

Baked Bean Puff Pot

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Serves 4:

Two 400g cans of baked beans
8 pork sausages, chopped
8 bacon rashers, chopped
1 large yellow pepper, chopped
1 small red onion, chopped
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp mixed herbs
A little milk to glaze
Some veggie oil
400g puff pastry - to make your own, try my Quick Puff Pastry recipe.

(And don't worry, it won't turn out ridiculously puffed, I promise!)

1) Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Cut the pastry into 4 equal portions. Roll each one onto a floured surface into a large circle (about 5").
2) Transfer the pastry circles to a lined baking tray and brush with milk. Bake for 15-20 minutes until puffed and golden.
3) Meanwhile, fry the sausages chunks in some veggie oil to brown. Add the bacon, followed by the onion and pepper.
4) Pour in the baked beans and gently bring to the boil. Turn down to a simmer and mix in the puree and herbs. Continue to cook for about 5 minutes until heated through.
5) Divide the baked bean mixture into 4 large shallow bowls, then top each one with a puff pastry circle!

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures. Continue reading this post..

Hungry Jenny Faux Pas: Soapy Apple Cake

Eh, Soapy Apple Cake, is that meant to sound appealing?

Don't worry, it's not, and let me tell you why.

No, it hasn't actually got soap in, or anything dodgy like that - this was an experimental cake for sure, but not that crazy!

I was attempting a butter, sugar and flour free cake. I've managed to do this twice so far - the first time about a year ago with these Banana Coconut Choc Cookies and then more recently with these Cranberry Oat Bars. Both turned out well, but both of them could still be improved.

So, third time lucky?

Er, no.

This was a badly miscalculated match of apples, orange juice, eggs, ground almonds, oil, a couple of spices, plus baking powder and soda. The resulting flavour left a strangely bitter, soapy taste.

It was meant to be a loaf cake, but as you can see, it sank quite dramatically. Subbing ground almonds for flour means the cake will need more help to rise and stay up, but I thought I'd got around this by adding extra baking powder and soda to compensate.

Of course, this was the downfall (literally) of my apple cake. In my puzzlement at this new experience of a soapy-tasting cake, I googled it and came across this article on the Joy of Baking site - which says that using too much baking soda results in a soapy taste. And also, too much baking powder makes it bitter.

*sigh*

Fourth time lucky?

Fancy a laugh at my other Hungry-Jenny-Faux-Pas? Continue reading this post..

Say NO to Takeaway: Speedy Scallop Stir Fry

Everytime I make a chow mein, I always surprise myself at how quick it is to stir fry up onto your plate in less than 10 minutes.

Of course, that depends on how speedy you are at the prep and the type of noodles you use, but in short, this is one Speedy Stir Fry that you can whip up with hardly any effort at all.

You might even be so inclined to serve it up on the chopping board that you prepped your ingredients on like I did above - because it was so quick to make, that you didn't have a plate ready in time!

Ok, so that's taking it one silly step too far but I hope I made my point.

This flavours in this recipe is a mix of lime, ginger and fish sauce - basically your components for a good hint of Thai. The noodles I used are the dried egg noodle ones that you literally only need to boil for a few minutes before they're done. I use frozen scallops because I just find them more convenient for a stir fry (shock horror!). You can easily use fresh ones if preferred, though this will add a little extra prep time, but the stir frying time will be the same :-) So still speedy!

Speedy Thai Scallop Stir Fry

Print-friendly recipe

For 2:

2 blocks of dried egg noodles
200g scallops
100g mange tout
100g mushrooms, sliced
2 spring onions, chopped
2 tbsp red onion, chopped
2 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp ginger
Juice of 2 limes
1 tsp sesame oil
Some veggie oil

1) Mix the fish sauce with the ginger and lime juice.
2) Gently boil the egg noodles according to the packet instructions. Drain in cold water and toss in the sesame oil.
3) Heat the oil in a wok, then toss in the scallops to fry for a few minutes.
4) Add the rest of the veg, tossing well.
5) Pour in the lime mixture, then mix in the noodles.
6) Stir fry for a couple more minutes to ensure everything is mixed well.

If you liked this, you might want to try making these other takeaway alternatives too. Continue reading this post..

Bye Bye, Friday Pie-Day

So it's been just over a year and a half that I've been blogging about pies every Friday. There were alot of moments when I thought, omigosh, what if I run out of pies to make? What if I run out of pies to talk about? What if I overload myself on everything Pie so much that I decide to just never look at a pie ever again?

Alas, that moment, quite shockingly, has come.

But before you recoil in horror, please just let me try and justify this crazed decision...

It might help to describe my overload incident with Cadbury's Fingers - chocolate covered finger-shaped biscuits. A few years ago, a friend bought me one of those limited edition massive boxes, which contained 5 or 6 boxes of Fingers - you get about 25 Fingers in each box. I worked my way through a couple of the boxes, then randomly went on a chocolate ban for a month. So it was probably of no surprise that at the end of my ban, I ended up eating my way through the remaining boxes so fast that I've not been able to eat a Cadbury's Finger since!

With pie, I never really suspected this might happen - I always tried to vary Friday Pie-Days from week to week - sweet pies, meat pies, veggie pies, mini pies and of course, pies that unintentionally fail. But it's got to the point now, where I'm feeling a bit pie-tired, a struggle to keep doing this week on week - and although I wouldn't say that I'm 'sick' of pies just yet, I can feel it coming, and I just don't want that to happen, ever. That would be a really sad day.

I haven't quite worked out what to do yet in the absence of Friday Pie-Day, whether to come up with an alternative weekly theme, or just to blog about whatever I happen to cook or bake as usual. It's going to be really odd, I know, but today just seems like the right time to just stop.

Oh, hang about - what's the date today?

Sorry, I just couldn't help myself... ;-)

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures. Continue reading this post..