Sticky Toffee Pudding

Last year, during a trip to the Lake District, Rachel and I had the opportunity to visit what for us is the equivalent of an Elvis fan's trip to Graceland.
 
We both have a sweet tooth and for me in particular the classic British dessert 'Sticky Toffee Pudding' is my favourite. So it was with extreme excitement that we wound our way down through the beautiful countryside from Hawkshead Hill, after a delightful stay at - Summer Hill Country House, to Cartmel.

Cartmel is a small village in the south of the Lake District famous for one thing - being the home of the greatest dessert our fair shores have to offer. 

Having bought one of the puddings as a souvenir we arrived 2 hours later back in Manchester at my mother's house to drop off the car she'd very kindly lent us for the last few days. While unpacking i decided to show my gratitude for the car loan and offered Ma Foster the aforementioned Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding and carefully put it in the fridge for her to enjoy another day.

The following day we were getting ready to head to the station for our train back to London, which my Mother had generously offered to drive us to. Before heading off i stuck my head in the fridge to see if there were any last snacks i could nibble at and my eyes landed on the sticky toffee pudding...

It had been 24 hours since we'd experienced the delicious taste up in Cartmel and i found myself craving another hit.

And so, and looking back now with a little hint of guilt, i rescinded the offer to leave the pudding. I took back the gift I'd felt so good giving just the night before and stuck it back in my bag with a smile on my face knowing that i could enjoy that incredible taste once again later that evening...

Having polished that off in no time i thought it might be worth cooking one from scratch myself, so using the memories from Cartmel as inspiration i did and the recipe is below. I think i should probably make one for Mrs Foster or at least buy her one of the originals that I've noticed you can now buy in Waitrose.

Ingredients, for approx 10 portions -

Chopped Dates

250g dried dates, stoned and chopped

300ml black tea, medium strength

¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda

100g unsalted butter, softened

200g golden caster sugar
2 large eggs
200g self raising flour

Tsp vanilla essence

Tsp cinnamon
½ tsp allspice

½ tsp nutmeg

For the toffee sauce -

100g unsalted butter

100g light muscovado sugar

150ml double cream

• Preheat oven to 160C Fan / 180C Normal
• Put the dates and tea in a saucepan and bring to the boil, cook for around 6 minutes until the dates are softened. Stir in the bicarbonate of soda
• Beat the butter with the caster sugar until pale and creamy
• Add the eggs and continue to beat, add in the flour, vanilla essence and spices, ix to combine
• Fold in the date and tea mixture and pour everything into a large lightly buttered ovenproof dish
• Bake for around 35 minutes, the top should be just firm to the touch
• While that's baking make the toffee sauce - Add all the ingredients to a saucepan and warm over a low heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved and you have a smooth sauce
• To serve cut the pudding into squares, drizzle over the toffee sauce and pour over hot custard.

Moroccan Couscous And Smoked Mackerel Salad

Having never been totally convinced, we're still experimenting with dishes that combine sweet and savoury. We recently tasted a cheese macaron and although i found it rather pleasant, although equally confusing, Rach did not take to the clash of differing flavours occurring in her mouth ->

So it was with a little trepidation that i decided to take my life into my culinary hands and dish up a healthy Moroccan couscous style salad for dinner with Rachel's favourite broccoli included (hopefully this would help appease the beast) along with some potentially controversial and very sweet dried apricot also included.

The gamble luckily paid off, the mixture of the oily fish, sweet apricot, buttery couscous and fresh veg was splendid and has now been added to Rachel's weekly 'why dont we have ....... for tea tonight' request list, the seal of approval for any new dish!!

Ingredients (Serves 4) -

300g Couscous

2 tsp Ras El Hanout

Tsp Ground Coriander

Approx 1 tsp of grated ginger

2-3 Knobs of Butter

450ml Vegetable Stock

Approx 250g Broccoli, boiled until soft then chopped

Juice and Zest of half a Lemon

2 Cloves Garlic, finely chopped

Red Chili, finely chopped

1 Small Red Onion, finely chopped

100g Dried Apricots finely chopped

Toppings -

250g Hot Peppered Smoked Mackerel, flaked

100g Flaked Almonds, toasted in a dry pan until golden

• Mix the couscous with the grated ginger, Ras el hanout and the ground coriander. Dot with butter and pour over the hot stock, cover tightly and leave for 10 minutes or until all soaked in.
• Mix the couscous through with the broccoli, lemon, garlic, chili, onion and apricots until combined.
• Top with the mackerel and almonds and serve.

Get Creative With Your Quesadillas

Lovely little Mexican cheese toasties - quesadillas are ready in minutes and can be thrown together with anything you have in the fridge, as long as you have a couple of the essentials then you're ready to experiment!

Quesadilla mix

They also create hardly any washing up so are perfect for a quick, easy meal!

Ingredients -

Flour or Corn Tortillas

Filling base -

Grated mature cheddar or other cheese

Dry fry on both sides

A Pepper, finely chopped

Onion, finely chopped

Chili Sauce, to taste

Optional -

Chorizo

Chicken
Refried beans

Olives

Mushrooms

To Serve -

Chop in three

Guacamole, see Breakfast Burrito recipe

Soured Cream

Salsa

Salad

Extra chili sauce

• Add the base and any optional ingredients for the filling to a bowl and, using a knife and fork, mix and finely chop everything together thoroughly.
• Place a tortilla into a dry non stick frying pan, add the filling to one half, not quite to the edge, and fold in half pressing down (you can do 2 at once, just be a little careful when flipping them over).
• Turn the hob on to a low / medium heat, you need to melt the cheese inside before the tortilla gets too brown, once the cheese is melting you can turn the heat up to crisp up the tortillas, turn halfway through to make sure the tortilla is crisp on both sides.
• Take the tortilla out of the pan and chop into 3 triangles.
• Serve with a salad, guacamole, salsa and soured cream.
  

Rancheros Pie

This 'Southern Style' shepherds pie is the very first dish i made in a slow cooker.

Because it was a new experience, a first, it lasts long and fondly in my memory, just like your first kiss.

Every time i make it it takes me back to a time before this particular pleasure was something i'd experienced and i wonder how life was ever interesting or acceptable without it?  

I'd obviously heard of slow cookers but being a very impatient person, my advent calendars have always been finished by the 3rd of December, i had never had a desire to use one - until Rachel and I moved in together and Rach, it transpired, came with a slow cooker and very attached to it she was too!

As she came with quite a small quantity of household items, the slow cooker, a couple of mugs and what looks like a snake charmers basket which is apparently used to keep tortillas warm, i felt that i should embrace these gifts she was bringing into our new home and decided to give it a go. 

My initial apprehensions, that i would be left starving while waiting 8 hours for my dinner to slowly become edible before my eyes were unfounded. I discovered that the slow cooker does not stop snacking or sandwich making in the mean time and the results of the dish it produces are often incredible for the simplicity of the techniques applied. The smells that it produces are possibly worth the purchase price alone, put away your jasmine scented candles and rely on this to fill your home with the relaxing aromas of slow cooked minced beef.

In all honesty and looking objectively at the Rancheros Pie it isn't the greatest dish of all time, a little like your first kiss will not have been the greatest kiss of all time, they're both a little messy, the basics are there but something just isn't quite right. The memory, however, of the life changing moment, the key point in your life when everything would change forever means this dish will always hold a special place in our heart and is fully deserving of a place on this blog!

Ingredients, to serve 4 -

500g Minced Beef

1 Onion, finely chopped

2 Garlic Cloves

Tsp Cumin

1/2 Tsp crushed dried red chillis

1/4 tsp ground all spice

2 stems of oregano, roughly chopped

3 tbsps sultanas

400g can chopped toatoes

250ml beef stock

Salt and Pepper

Topping -

500g Sweet potatoes, thinly sliced

25g butter

Extra dried chilli flakes

• Add the beef and onion to a pan and fry until browned.

• Stir in garlic, spices, oregano, sultanas, tomatoes and stock.

• Bring to the boil and add a little salt and pepper to taste.

• Spoon into a pre heated slow cooker and cover with overlapping slices of sweet potato, dot with butter and sprinkle with chilli flakes and a little black pepper.

• Cover with lid and cook on low for 7-8 hours, remove the lid and turn up to high for the last hour or so if the sauce is looking too watery.

• Brown and crisp under the grill (optional) before serving .

Jambalaya

When Rach and I have a child at some point in the future I'd be very tempted to call it Jambalaya, little Jambalaya Foster, Jumbo for short (let's hope it's not a girl).

My reasoning goes beyond the fact that it's a nice word to say or that i crave to repeat the tortuous school ground memories i personally have from being given my own unusual name.   

'Jambalaya' appears to come from a word which translates to a mish mash or mix up, a description of how the Spanish culture affected the local cuisine on the Caribbean Islands, where the dish was born. 

Our families have been similarly influenced, British mixed with Mexican and Polish nationalities to create us. So if a couple already from a mixed cultural background were to have a child it would be a real mix or mish mash of different cultures, a right little jambalaya if you will!

Ingredients -

 

150g chorizo, halved length ways and then sliced

3 hand fulls of leftover roast chicken torn into small pieces / 2 chicken breasts

2 medium onions, chopped

2 red peppers, chopped

4 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tbsp Cajun spice

2 tsp cayenne

440ml can of chopped tomatoes

750ml chicken stock

300g long grain rice

Grated Cheddar Cheese (Optional)
Hot chili sauce to serve

• Fry the chorizo in a large pan until it starts to release it's oils, then add the chopped onions and cook until they're softened
• Add the chopped pepper, garlic and left over chicken (if using chicken breasts then fry these beforehand on either side until done and then chop)
• Add the Cajun and cayenne spices and stir through
• Add the uncooked rice then pour over the chopped tomatoes and chicken stock
• Cover the pot and allow to simmer for approx 20 minutes, until the rice is cooked. 
• Stir the mixture occasionally to stop it from sticking and add a little more water if it's getting too dry and the rice is not tender. 

Serve drizzled with hot chili / Tabasco sauce to taste or if you want to make it a little less healthy grate cheddar cheese over the top and grill to melt.

The Foster Family Chicken Parmesan

Passed down through at least 2 generations of the Foster Family (probably only 2 bearing in mind the cooking equipment used...) this is my all time favourite.  

My mum would cook it for me when i came home from Uni, on special occasions and probably any time she thought i needed cheering up. It was passed to my mother from my father's mother who was the most lovely woman with a perfectly groomed white Marge Simpson esque barnet, see photo attached of Nana looking very glamorous holding the most beautiful baby (me!).

The microwave technique works perfectly with this dish, keeping the chicken nice and moist and meaning that you can have a lovely filling hearty dinner in no time.

Ingredients -

Approx 600g Chicken Breasts, chopped each breast into approx 3 thin pieces

1 Large Egg

60g fine dry bread crumbs

30g finely grated Parmesan

2 x 400g cans of good quality chopped tomatoes

2 tbsp plain flour

1 and a half tsp Garlic Salt

2 tsp Oregano

300ml chicken stock

75g grated mature cheddar and another 30g grated Parmesan (or try some mozzarella)

Olive Oil

• Mix breadcrumbs and Parmesan together, beat the egg in a separate bowl, dip the chicken first in egg and then breadcrumbs until well coated.
• Quickly brown the chicken on both sides in a generous amount of oil in a frying pan and then place the pieces into a large microwavable dish.
• Mix the flour, in a large bowl, with a small amount of tomato juice. Add the rest of the tomatoes, oregano, garlic salt and stock.
• Heat in the microwave for 3 minutes on full power, then remove and blend until smooth, check the seasoning.
• Spoon the tomato sauce over the chicken and sprinkle the top with grated cheddar.
• Heat loosely covered with greaseproof paper on full power for 7-10 minutes
• sprinkle with grated Parmesan and heat uncovered for another minute to melt the cheese

Serve with fried potatoes and veg or over pasta.

Toad In The Hole With Onion Gravy

'Have you ever had Toad In The Hole' i asked Rachel.

No was the reply... I was flabbergasted, how could someone not have had the joy of eating such a great classic British dish?

Thinking about it though i guess it isn't that fashionable at the moment and hasn't been for a while, you don't see it in any restaurants or even on many pub menus anymore, such a shame. 

And as Rachel has only been on these shores for half of her life she can perhaps be excused for not sampling it, it's obviously not that popular in Ireland, must be something to do with the lack of potatoes...

I've made it more patriotic, and a lovely yellowy colour, by adding a good dollop of English Mustard to the batter mix!

Ingredients -

8 Sausages (i used spicy beef)

100g plain flour

Tsp English mustard

1 egg

Pinch salt and pepper

300ml semi skimmed milk

Tsp thyme

Olive oil

For the gravy -

400ml beef stock

2 red onions, sliced

100ml red wine

A good shake of Worcestershire sauce

Tsp soft brown sugar

   

• Heat the oven to 200/220C fan/not fan
• Add a tbsp of olive oil to a 30 x 20cm roasting tin, add the sausages and mix around to make sure they're evenly coated. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes
• Meanwhile make the batter, sieve the flour into a large bowl and add a little salt and pepper,
• Make a well in the middle and break in the egg, add a little milk and the mustard and then stir combining a little flour with the wet mixture, keep adding a little more milk and combining in the rest of the flour until you're left with a smooth creamy batter.
• Take the hot roasting tin out of the oven and pour the batter evenly around, it'll bubble with the fat from the sausages
• Bake in the oven for 40 minutes until the batter has risen and is crispy. poke a knife into the middle it should be set, not sticky or runny.

 While the toad in the hole is baking make the gravy -

• Slowly cook the sliced onions in a little olive oil until soft, approx 15 minutes
• Sprinkle over the sugar and mix, cook for another 5 minutes
• Sprinkle over the flour and mix well
• Add the red wine and turn up the heat
• Add the stock and Worcestershire sauce and bring to the boil, simmer until thickened. 

Serves 4 with veg (something green like broccoli)