Never Anger Hungry Jenny

You have been warned...

Continue reading this post..

Friday Pie Day: @pieminister Butter 'nut nut' pie

Uh oh, I've accidentally cranked my pie-upmanship. When I brought this week's pie into work, a Butter 'nut nut' pie, it got more yummy noises than usual.

Erm look, it's meant to look scary ok!

I can't take credit at all for the recipe (the beauty of which I destroyed by the way into this Halloween effort as you can see), for it is a Pieminister creation. And Pieminister, ladies and gentlemen, is the genius lovechild of two blokes who simply wanted to bring better pies into the world.

Jon Simon and Tristan Hogg started Pieminister back in 2003, making fresh, wholesome, natural, generally-all-that-is-good pies in their hometown Bristol. This branched out into summer festivals, markets, supermarkets, pubs...far and across the UK land.

When my mate told me that they were publishing their first cookbook, I bookmarked it straight away to buy. Ok, so I only just got round to buying it, but I'm very glad I did!

Although aptly released in time for the coming winter months, there really is 'a pie for all seasons' here (to use their subtitle). I am partial to a good cookbook but must admit that I very rarely follow the recipes in them. They make for good bedtime reading - I flick through the pages, make some notes, jot ideas of flavourings, but never get round to using them.

However, I think it would be difficult to resist the temptation to cook from this particular book. There are gorgeous photos throughout with quirky little illustrations dotted around too. The recipes are unnumbered and a little more longwinded than I would personally prefer, but have fantastic names that really catch your attention - 'poussin boots' or 'pietanic' anyone?

The actual content of the book is well-thought out too - you don't just have recipe after recipe, which can get tedious, but chunks of other useful or interesting info as well.

For instance, you can learn about the best cuts of meat for pies, some worldy facts about pie, Jon and Tristan's favourite pie shops, and even pick up tips on what to do with pastry trimmings - though I don't see what's wrong with just baking the titbits and munching them straight out the oven ;-) But it's the little details like this that really put their signature on this book. Great personal touch.

And that's the most important feeling you get from this book I think - that pure love for pie :-)

Ok, I think I've raved on about this for far too long now (and I haven't even finished reading the whole thing through yet!), so I'll leave you with the recipe (and a piece) of this delicious Butter 'nut nut' pie...

The squash is mixed with double cream, sugar and nutmeg, and topped with a nutty crunch. I was quite surprised by the teaspoon of nutmeg it asks for, as that is quite a lot I think - I chucked it in anyway and did find it quite overpowering so would probably use just half next time.

Butter 'nut nut' pie

Print-friendly recipe

Serves 6:

330g shortcrust pastry
500g butternut squash (peeled weight), diced
200ml double cream
2 free-range eggs
80g light soft brown sugar
1 tsp grated nutmeg

For the topping:
100g blanched almonds
100g skinned hazelnuts
100g pecan nuts
40g pumpkin seeds

1) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to about 3mm thick and use to line a 25cm (9") loose-bottomed tart tin, trimming off the excess. Cover with baking parchment, fill with baking beans or rice and bake blind for 15-20 minutes, until the pastry is cooked and lightly coloured. Remove from the oven, take out the paper and beans or rice and leave to cool.
2) Cook the butternut squash in a large pan of boiling water until tender to the point of a knife. Drain thoroughly. Transfer to a blender or food processor, add the cream, eggs, sugar and nutmeg and blitz until smooth. Leave to cool.
3) For the topping, pulse the nuts in a food processor until roughly crumbled. Tip into a bowl and stir in the pumpkin seeds and maple syrup. Set aside.
4) Pour the butternut puree into the pastry case and bake at 180 degrees C for about 20 minutes, until the filling is just firm to the touch. Sprinkle over the nuts and return to the oven for about 10 minutes, until the topping is golden brown. Drizzle with extra maple syrup. Serve warm with ice cream or at room temperature.

Recipe reprinted with permission from Pieminister: A Pie For All Seasons by Tristian Hogg and Jon Simon (Bantam Press, September 2011).

Psst. Go buy yourself a copy of the book right now ;-)

Pie out.

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

Say NO to Takeaway: Bake Some Sweet and Sour Drummers Instead!

Alright, so I've been dishing out takeaway alternatives for quite some time now. Yes, I'm partial to the odd takeout every now and again, but for the most part, healthier alternatives always win.

If you still need convincing, then trust me, this is the dish to try: Baked Sweet and Sour Drummers...

But why this dish?

Well, at the risk of sounding like my recipes are rubbish, it's been a long time since I've made something that's made me dance around the kitchen in glee. I don't post recipes unless they have worked, but it is quite a rare moment that I make something that makes me quite literally squeal with excitement at the greatness of its taste.

And so this is such a dish, and because I've now super-hyped it up, I really hope that it will make you as happy as it did me :-)

Baked Sweet and Sour Drummers

Print-friendly recipe

Serves 4:

8 chicken drumsticks
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp tomato puree
Juice of 1 small lemon
1 tbsp sesame oil
300g can of chopped tomatoes
200g pineapple chunks
150g cucumber chunks
100g orange or yellow pepper
75g red onion, chopped
Salt and pepper
300g rice
525ml boiling water

1) Mix the soy sauce and half of the honey in a large bowl. Add the drummers, mix well and leave to marinade for at least 15 minutes.
2) Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. In a small bowl, mix the cornflour with the puree, lemon, remaining honey and sesame oil until smooth.
3) Add the cornflour mixture into a 2 litre ovenproof dish with the chopped tomatoes, mixing well, before adding in all the veg.
4) Place the drummers on top, seasoning with some salt and pepper if desired.
5) Bake for about 40 minutes, turning the drummers over once.
6) Meanwhile, rinse the rice and put in a pan with the boiling water. Bring to the boil, then turn down, cover and leave to simmer for 20 minutes. Take it off the heat for 5 minutes, then serve with the baked sweet and sour drummer goodness.

You can test that the chicken has cooked through but sticking a fork or skewer through it - the juices should run clear.

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

Stop Talking, Start Doing (and Eat Brownies)

What's this then, some motivational mantra to get you to eat brownies?

(Erm, no. I'm pretty sure you'd be quite capable of eating this all by yourself.)

Let me explain.

In the crazy world of Capstone, where I spend my working days on manuscripts and authors, we publish alot of business self-help and motivational books.

Oi NO, not the cheesy ones (ok, sometimes a whiff of cheese) but the cool ones. The ones that you can read through and actually get something out of it! In this case, yes, that something was brownies :-) The author Shaa Wasmund sent us these gorgeous Gower Cottage Brownies as a thank-you for publishing her book, Stop Talking, Start Doing. Erm, yes, there was only one left by the time I took a picture (and I couldn't resist taking another nibble out of it), but that just shows how darned good they are.

You don't need to be a genius to work out what the book is about - yes, it's a call-to-action to get off your arse and do whatever it is that you always talk about doing.

There are alot of sceptics out there that pooh-pah the kind of motivational talk that goes on in these books. And yes, of course, they have a point. You can easily say it's all common sense, it's stuff you already know. I mean, diet books are the same - you can create a fancy-sounding diet but in essence, you already know that to lose weight, all you need to eat less and exercise more. Simple, right? So why do people find it so hard?

Because they haven't yet found a method that works for them, that's what. Or that trigger to push them to take that next step.

Well, here you go then.

It's not one of those annoying pep talks that go on and on - but instead is full of powerful images and illustrations with the kind of blunt, snappy messages that you just can't ignore. But I'm going to Stop Talking about it now - there's probably something a bit unjust about me raving about a book by a publisher I work for - so I'll leave you to judge it yourself.

(It really is rather good though)

Continue reading this post..

Friday Pie Day: Puff Pizza Pie

Puff Pizza Pie. There is probably something a bit wrong about putting those words together. But put the ingredients together and you'll get something rather special.

Ok, so it's not exactly the picture of health but once you start eating it, you really won't care.

As you can probably guess, this is pizza topping atop a puff pastry base. It tastes dangerously buttery if eaten straight from the oven and you'll need to stop yourself from inhaling the whole pizza in one giant bite. Even better is if you manage not to do this and have some cold the next day. Yum!

It only takes about 15-20 minutes in the oven and you can pretty much go for any pizza topping of your choice. I went for a tomato cream cheese base, with bacon, pepper, sweetcorn and mozzarella :-)

Puff Pizza Pie

Print-friendly recipe

Makes a 9" pizza (6-8 slices):

200g puff pastry

(make your own with this Quick Puff Pastry recipe)

50g cream cheese
50g chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
3 bacon rashers, roughly chopped (raw or cooked can be used)
50g pepper, chopped
2 tbsp sweetcorn
50g grated mozzeralla
Black pepper

1) Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C. Roll out your pastry to the size of a large dinner plate (about 9"). Score a thin border about half an inch from the edge around the dough.
2) Spread the cream cheese over the base, within the border.
3) Mix the chopped tomatoes with the puree, then spread over the cream cheese.
4) Add the pepper, sweetcorn and bacon evenly on top.
5) Scatter over the mozzarella and crack over some black pepper.
6) Bake for about 15-20 minutes until the cheese is melted and the pastry golden.

Pie out.

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

Mini Lemon Coconut Cake (butter free)

These days, the cakes I bake are pretty small - partly because my main guinea pigs, the Hungry Aikido Guys, are now a much smaller group. But also because if I'm making something up, I don't want to waste too much if it ends up going wrong!

I thought that this was going to be such an occasion. I could have made it look a bit prettier to start with..! Icing, frosting and all of that jazz is not my strongpoint.

And it turned out pretty iddy too. But you know what?

It kinda of worked anyway. This is a butter-free lemon cake with a good hint of coconut.

The icing took some working out (accumulating various tasting teaspoons in the process) but is just the right texture to match the spongy cake. I used cream cheese and beat in some coconut and icing sugar before spreading it on top. It was made in a 7" sandwich tin and only rises just so.

But it's one of those cakes that you could only manage a little bit of at a time anyway, because of the icing - well, I find that anyway with iced cakes! It cuts into 10 cute little slices so hopefully enough to go around...

Mini Lemon Coconut Cake (butter free)

Print-friendly recipe

Makes 10 mini slices (7" sandwich tin)

Juice and zest of 2 lemons
75ml rice bran oil
50g sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
100g plain flour
75g dessicated coconut
1/4 tsp baking powder
150g soft cream cheese
2 tbsp icing sugar

1) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Mix the lemon juice (retain a tbsp for the icing later) with the oil, sugar and egg.
2) In a separate bowl, sift in the flour with 50g of the coconut and the baking powder. Mix in half of the lemon zest.
3) Add the wet mixture into the dry and fold until just mixed.
4) Transfer to a lined tin and bake for 25 minutes.
5) Mix the cream cheese with the icing sugar, remaining lemon juice and zest. Use a knife to spread evenly over the top of the cake. Chill for a few hours or overnight before cutting to serve.

More Hungry Jenny cakes!

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

Friday Pie Day: Minted Fish Pie with Creamy Mash

It's quite difficult to make a pie with potato topping look good. (Well, I find it difficult anyway.)

At least I can reassure that this tastes good!

The list of ingredients and recipe steps looks quite long, I know. But this is really easy, I promise.

Now you can use fresh fillets of fish, ready-cooked fish, or if you really want to, one of those seafood packs where it's already chopped up for you.

If using fish that is already cooked (either shop-bought or leftovers), you don't need to cook it in the pan for too long before putting it all in the oven - you can pretty much chuck all the ingredients in together at the same time to heat through for about 5 minutes and then stick it in the oven.

The sauce contains cream cheese, to make everything nice and smooth, and I also added it into the mash topping with butter and milk as well. If you're going to do creamy mash, you might as well go all out, eh?

Now finally, fresh mint is best for this, as the flavour comes out much stronger. But dried mint is absolutely fine as well, if you can't get hold of the fresh stuff. It will be more subtle, but still deliciously minty :-)

Minted Fish Pie with Creamy Mash

Print-friendly recipe

Serves 2:

500g potato, chopped
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp olive oil
2 salmon fillets (raw or cooked)
2 smoked haddock fillets (raw or cooked)
75g broccoli, chopped
75g marrowfat peas
50g mushrooms, chopped
50ml hot veggie stock
2 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
175g soft cream cheese
1 tbsp butter
50ml milk

1) Put the potatoes in a pan with the salt and bring to the boil. Turn down to the lowest heat and simmer for about 15 minutes until just cooked. Take off the heat, drain and keep warm.
2) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
3) Put the oil to a frying pan with the fish, frying for a few minutes.
4) Add the broccoli, peas, mushrooms, to heat through for a couple of minutes.
5) Pour in the stock, then leave to simmer for about 4-5 minutes. Stir through the fresh mint. Take off the heat and stir in 100g of the cream cheese. Transfer into a 1 litre pie dish.
6) Put the remaining cheese into the potatoes with the butter and milk. Mash away, then spoon onto the top of the pie filling.
7) Bake for about 30-40 minutes until piping hot and the potato is just beginning to crisp!

Pie out.

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

Grilled Sesame Pork and Cucumber Salad

Salads don't automatically mean limp lettuce leaves and cold tomatoes you know. They don't need to be covered in loads of dressing either.

You can have a juicy piece of grilled sesame pork atop a warm salad instead, mm!

But you know what? It's the cucumber in this that makes the salad.

Honestly.

I don't know what it is but there is something about cooked cucumber that is quite special. Now I'm not going to go into some weird declaration of love for them but fry them up in a wok with a bit of soy sauce and sesame oil and you're golden. I'm being serious!

Ok, ok. So the sesame sauce is used to marinade the pork first. But you reserve the marinade when you come to grill them, instead of leaving the sauce on there (which might otherwise just burn off too). When you then come to frying your veggies for the salad, you pour the reserved marinade over it all and leave it to simmer. The cucumber especially soaks all of this up and just complements the grilled pork so well.

Trust me on this one.

Grilled Sesame Pork Salad

Print-friendly recipe

Serves 2:

2 pork steaks
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil
100g red onion, chopped
300g cucumber, sliced chunks
150g broccoli, chopped
150g spinach
2 tsbp sesame seeds

1) Mix the sesame oil, soy, lemon and honey in a bowl with the pork and leave to marinade for at least 15 minutes.
2) Transfer the steaks to a grill pan, reserving the marinade. Grill for 6-8 minutes on each side until cooked through.
3) Whilst your pork is grilling, add the oil to a hot wok, and fry the onions for about 30 seconds, followed by the cucumber and broccoli. Add the reserved marinade and turn down to simmer.
4) Add the spinach to wilt through, tossing everything well. Divide onto two plates, top each with a pork steak, then scatter over the sesame seeds to serve.

More porky recipes you might want to try. Continue reading this post..

Friday Pie Day: Chocolate Crusted Raspberry Yogurt Pie

Yes.

This tastes as good as it looks and sounds.

For some reason, I had this randon urge to make chocolate pastry. I've not tried to make it before but I figured that adding a bit of cocoa powder to a normal pastry dough would be ok.

And it turned out better than I thought it would, you know. It was not as sweet as I thought it'd be, but it didn't taste too bitter either, and balanced out well with the raspberry yogurt filling. I mashed fresh raspberries to put on the base of the chocolate shell, then poured on top a mixture of raspberry and greek yogurt.

So it's a really easy pie to make actually, but a little time-consuming when you consider the pastry making/resting/blind-baking time. But so worth it.

Next time, I'll probably try beating an egg into the pastry to make it a bit richer and smoother. More luxurious. But for now, this hits the divine mark just right.

Chocolate Crusted Raspberry Yogurt Pie

Print-friendly recipe

Makes 8 slices (8" fluted loose base tin):

150g plain flour
75g cold butter, diced
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp sugar
Pinch of salt
Some ice cold water

175g fresh raspberries
250g greek yogurt
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tsp vanilla essence

1) Sift the flour into a large bowl with the cocoa powder, sugar and salt. Rub in the butter to a breadcrumb mixture. Add a little cold water at a time and start to bring together until you form a ball. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
2) Roll the pastry out to a large circle. Transfer to line the base and sides of your fluted tin. Add foil and baking beads. Chill again for 30 minutes.
3) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C for 15 minutes, then blind bake the pastry for about 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
4) Heat the oven up again to 180 degrees C. Mush the raspberries together, retaining 4 large ones (or more) to decorate your pie later. Spread the mashed raspberries across the pastry base.
5) Mix the yogurt, honey, cornflour and vanilla in a bowl, then gently pour into the pastry over the raspberries.
6) Bake for about 40-45 minutes - it will still wobble a bit when you take it out. Allow to cool completely (overnight is preferable) and decorate with the leftover raspberries before serving.

Pie out.

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

Say NO to Takeaway: Make a Bacon Beansprout Stir Fry Instead!

Most stir fries have a base of either noodles or rice. But it's not a case of either/or. You could just do away with both and still make a decent stir fry. And yes, I mean bulking it up with more veg! It's more exciting than it sounds, honest.

In this case, I'm referring to the lovely beansprout.

I don't know about you, but I could quite happily munch my way through a big bag of the stuff (only once cooked of course). They are so juicy and moreish. Now I imagine that's probably not quite the association you might make with beansprouts, but it certainly works for this dish.

Beansprouts taste best when they are crunchy so you need to be on the ball with this one. Get everything else chopped up in advance (as you would with other stir fry dishes really), and then keep everything moving in the wok as you toss it all together. This will get everything piping hot quickly but with its 'bite' well maintained.

The saltiness of the bacon is a nice complement as well to all the different veggies you've got going on here. Fry the rashers first, then chop them up and return them to the wok towards the end. It'll be magic when you eat it, I promise.

Bacon Beansprout Stir Fry

Print-friendly recipe

Serves 2:

4 unsmoked bacon rashers
400g beansprouts
150g celery, chopped
100g broccoli, chopped
100g Chinese leaf, shredded
4 spring onions, chopped
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp groundnut oil

1) Add half the oil to a hot wok. Quickly fry the bacon rashers for a minute or so on each side until cooked. Set aside.
2) Add the remaining oil to the wok, then add the beansprouts. Toss for a couple of minutes before adding in the celery and broccoli.
3) After another minute, add the Chinese leaf and spring onions. Add the sauces and turn down the heat a little, keep tossing.
4) Quickly chop the cooked bacon and add into the mix. Serve immediately!

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

Peanut Butter Energy Bars (butter, sugar and flour free!)

These energy bars were a bit of a fluke. I wasn't expecting them to work at all. There is no butter (as in dairy), sugar or flour, so surely a cue for a Hungry Jenny Faux Pas, right?

But look!

A conveyor belt of Peanut Butter Energy Bar success, hurrah!

This must be one of the easiest things to make. It's a really good way to create a batch of Energy to have on standby, in the form of bars to grab when you need them - for work, exercise/training, or generally rushing around being busy. I specifically combined peanut butter, apricots, pumpkin seeds and oats because of their energy-boosting properties.

So eat one of these, feel the key on your back being wound up and prepare to zoom off into the distance...

Disclaimer: No scientific evidence has been unearthed or quantified to prove the zoomability provided by these Peanut Butter Energy Bars. They've tended to make MY energy levels alot brighter, so I just naturally think they're awesome.

Peanut Butter Energy Bars

Print-friendly recipe

For a 12.5 x 7" baking tin (16 bars):

300g ready-to-eat apricots, finely chopped (or food-processor-blitzed)
175g rolled oats
75g pumpkin seeds
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
100g honey
75g peanut butter
75ml rice bran oil
1 tsp vanilla

1) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
2) Mix the apricots with the oats, pumpkin seeds and cinnamon in a large bowl.
3) Pour the honey, peanut butter and oil into a pan over a low heat, stirring gently until it melts nicely together.
4) Take off the heat, mix in the vanilla, then spoon into the apricot mixture.
5) Fold in well, making sure the dry mixture is coated well.
6) Press the mixture into a lined shallow baking tray, then bake for about 20 minutes until golden.

Other healthy baking recipes you might enjoy.

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