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Crowd Pleasing Bolgense

Ingredients 

500g steak beef mince

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 garlic, finely chopped

1 large white onion, finely chopped

2 bay leaves 

1 stalk celery, chopped into 1cm pieces 

2x400g tinned chopped tomatoes 

1 teaspoon tomato puree

splash worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

pinch salt and pepper

Instructions 

1. Heat oil in pan and fry onion and garlic for 8 minutes of fully cooked down.
2. Add beef mince to pan and break up with spatula while cooking.
3. Once the beef is brown and broken up add the chopped tomatoes, and fill one can with water and then pour into the other tin to get all the juices.  Put all of this in the pan. 
4. Stir, add the tomato puree, sugar, worcestershire sauce, bay leaves, salt and pepper. 
5. Cook this down for at least 6 hours or even longer if you can. The longer you leave it the tastier it will be!

Blackberry Velvet Cupcakes

Makes 12

Ingredients

60g Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature

150g Caster sugar

1 Egg

10g Raw Cocoa Powder

20ml Blackberries, blended and sieved 

10ml purple food colouring

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

120ml milk

150g Plain flour

Pinch salt

1/2 teaspoon Bicarbonate soda

1 Tablespoon rice wine vingear

For Frosting:

300g Icing Sugar

50g Butter

125ml Cream Cheese 

1 Tablespoon Milk

5ml Food Colouring, of your choice

12 blackberries

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 170C.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale.
3. Add the egg and mix until well combined.
4. In a small bowl add the cocoa powder, food colouring, vanilla and blackberry juice. Mix until combined. Add to the egg mixture. 
5. Add the vinegar to the milk and add in alternation with the flour to the batter. 
6. Finally put in salt and the bicarb.
7. Mix until everything is combined. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
8. While the cakes are cooling, make the frosting. Add the icing sugar and butter and mix until it looks like breadcrumbs.  Add the cream cheese and mix, add the milk to allow everything to combine.
9. Use a star tip in your piping bag. Stripe your food colouring of choice on the sides on the piping bag,  and spoon in the frosting.
10. Swirl the frosting over the cooled cakes and add a blackberry to each.
11. Enjoy!

Showstopper Blackberry Forest Gateau

Serves 12

Ingredients 

For the sponge:

6 Large Eggs

150g Caster Sugar

100g Self-Raising Flour

50g Raw Cocoa Powder

For the filling:

850g Blackberries

300g Caster Sugar

1 Lemon, Juiced

4tbsp Cornflour

1/2 tsp Blackberry essence 

1/2 teaspoon Monin Blackberry syrup 

750ml whipped cream

For the decoration:

150g Dark Chocolate 

75g White Chocolate

100g Blackberries

Instructions

Start by cooking the blackberry jam: 

1. In a large saucepan add the blackberries, sugar and lemon and heat on low until the sugar is dissolved.
2. In a small bowl add the cornflour, and 4tbsp of the juice from the pan.  Stir to combine and add the pan.
3. Keep mixing until the cornflour is dispersed add the essence and syrup.
4. Bring to the boil, and stir.
5. Pour into a shallow dish and cool.

Make the chocolate bark:

1. Line a cookie sheet with a non stick sheet. ( I use this: Non-Stick-Icing-Sheet )
2. Melt the dark chocolate slowly over a ban-marie stir constantly.
3. Meanwhile, melt the white chocolate in intervals of 15 seconds in the microwave stir in-between.
4. Pour the chocolate over the sheet and lever to your preference. 
5. Spoon the white chocolate over in random blobs.  Take a knife and swirl until desired marbled effect.
6. Place in the fridge for 2 hours.
7. Take the bark out of the fridge and smash up into shards.

Make the chocolate sponge:

1. Grease 4 20.5cm round cake tins or 2 23cm and cut each cake in half after baking.
2. Heat the oven to 180C. 
3. Break the eggs into a large bow along with the sugar and mix on high until doubled in size and lighter in colour.
4. Sift the flour and cocoa powder and fold into the egg and sugar mixture.
5. Divide the mixture between the prepared tins.
6. Cook for 15 minutes and allow to cool throughly. 

Decorating the cake:

1. Once the cake is cooled, whip your cream to soft peaks.
2. Place your first layer onto a icing turntable ( I use this: Icing-Turntable )
3. Add a generous layer of jam, and then cream.  Repeat this twice.
4. Add the top layer, and add leave the cake to set for 20 minutes.
5. Cover the sides and top with the rest of the whipped cream.
6. Add your shards of chocolate to cover the sides of the cake.
7. Add blackberries to the top.
8. Enjoy!

How to grow your own vegetables

Part 3: Onions

Onions are the most useful and popular vegetable in the kitchen, and growing them in your garden is easy and makes sure you have plenty on hand.

Onions can be grown from seed or from small bulbs called sets. Onions need an open sunny site to grow. 

For White onions:

• Plant in humus-rich, moist but well drained soil in a sunny position.  
• Lay onions out to dry a day before harvesting.
• Make sure your planting area is well prepared beforehand in a necessary amount of compost fertiliser. 
• Water plants well before planting out and afterwards if the soil seems dry.
• Remove plants from soil by pushing through from the underside. 

For Red onions:

• Plant outside, spacing 15cm (16in) apart in rows 30cm (12in) apart in humus-rich, moist but well drained fertile soil.
• Water well if the weather is dry.
• Again, Make sure your planting area is well prepared beforehand in a necessary amount of compost fertiliser. 
• Water plants well before planting out and afterwards if the soil seems dry.
• Remove plants from soil by pushing through from the underside.

Flavoured Double Chocolate Twirled Cake

Marble cakes, such intricate and memorising masterpieces. To me they have always stuck in my mind as a childhood favourite, because what is not to love about them? It's the best of both worlds.. vanilla and chocolate. For any chocolate lover this is a MUST HAVE as it takes on both a rich, sharp chocolate and a simply sweet chocolate.  

Ingredients

For the cake:

250g Unsalted Butter

250g Caster Sugar

250g Self-Raising Flour

4 Large Eggs

1 Tablespoon Raw Cocoa Powder

1 Teaspoon of French Almond Extract

75g Green & Blacks Dark Chocolate

75g Green & Blacks White Chocolate

Splash of Grand Marnier

1 Tablespoon of Orange Zest

For the frosting:

25g Butter

15g Raw Cocoa Powder

2 tbsp Milk

100g Icing Sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 190C.
2. In a electric mixer blend the butter till smoth. Then add the sugar until slightly pale and thick.
3. Add one egg at each time and blend well. If it looks a little split add a sprinkle of flour for each egg.
4. Add the flour and a pinch of salt and blend until just combined. 
5. Transfer half of the mix into another bowl.
6. Melt the chocolate over a bain-marie. Allow to cool for a minute. 
7. Add the raw cocoa powder,melted dark, the Grand Marnier and orange zest chocolate to one bowl.
8. Add the french almond extract to the other bowl. 
9. Add the mixture randomly into a greased loaf tin and swirl around with a knife. (You may not need all the mixture as this cake will rise)
10. Cook for 40-50 minutes.  Keep an eye on this loaf as all ovens vary. *
11. While the cake is cooling melt the butter in a pan, once it has melted add the raw cocoa powder and mix until smooth. Take it off the heat an add the icing sugar and milk and blend until combined.
12. Once the cake is cooled, drizzle over the top.

* You could even do this in a cupcake/muffin form which I have done many of time.  Just cook for 20 minutes!

Lemon Drizzle Shortbread

This shortbread is incredibly short, crumbly and melts in your mouth with each bite you take. You could easily omit the lemon zest and juice for a decadent shortbread, but the freshness of the lemon really gives it that unique taste.

Ingredients 

For the shortbread:

250g Butter

125g Caster Sugar

250g Plain Flour

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder

150g Chocolate Chips (this isn't needed, but chocolate is a MUST for me)

1 Lemon zested

For the drizzle:

4 teaspoons of icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice


Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 190C.
2. Combine the butter and sugar, until it lightens in colour slightly.
3. Add the flour, baking powder, chocolate chips, lemon zest.
4. Grease a cookie sheet and spoon on the dough. 
5. Cook for 12-15 minutes.
6. Allow to cool.  Mix together the icing sugar lemon juice and drizzle over the cookies.
7. Enjoy!

How to grow your own vegetables

Part 2

Tomatoes need sunshine, so choose an open, warm site. They do fantastically well in a greenhouse but you can gain very good results outside in a container against a warm wall. They need a well drained, fertile soil, that doesn't dry out too quickly.

If growing in containers, use a specially formulated grow bag or good quality potting compost.

• Plant out tomato plants using a stake for support.
• Cut out any side shoots, as they appear to keep to a central stem.
• Water and feed regularly  with a liquid tomato.
• Pick the fruit as soon as they ripen.
• If frost is forecast, harvest the tomatoes green and allow to ripen in doors.
• Tomatoes are definitely best picked fresh but, if do need to store a glut, perhaps consider cooking, pulping and freeze for a burst of summer in the winter months.

We have lots of recipes using this base tomato sauce!

A Summer Decadent Pavlova

Pilled high with fresh summer berries, this pavlova is the ultimate show-stopper.  Great for any special occasion and easy to cater to your preference! 

Ingredients 

4 large egg whites

8oz caster sugar

1 tsp of vinegar

1 tsp of cornflour

1 Large carton of whipping cream (600ml)

Summer fruit, e.g. Strawberries and raspberries 

Mint leaf for decoration

Icing sugar

Instructions

*Top Tip

1. Place a sheet of grease proof paper on a baking sheet and mark a large dinner plate on it as a guide.  Roughly 12 inch or 30 cm.
2. Preheat oven to 150 C / gas mark 2. In a bowl  * ( I always use a stainless steel bowl, wiped out with half a lemon and then rinsed and dried with a paper towel)  I do this because the slightest speck of grease will make your meringue collapse. With the electric mixer on  full speed, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks.
3. Now add the caster sugar a table spoon at a time, beating well to each addition.  The mixture will start to look firm and glossy.  Before the last spoonful of caster sugar is incorporated
4. Mix the cornflour and vinegar into a paste.  Add to the egg whites and when incorporated add the last of the caster sugar and beat.  Don't over-beat.
5. Pile to meringue mixture onto the baking sheet and try to keep to the outline circle. The mixture should be stiff, glossy and form peaks on the back of your spoon.  Peak the mixture up, build the sides up and hollow out the middle slightly for the filling.
6. Reduce the oven to 140 C / gas mark 1, pop the meringue into the oven and bake for 80 to 85 mins or until pale cream in colour.  * I usually put the meringue in last thing in the evening,  on a timer, so the oven switches off after baking and then the meringue can dry out overnight.
7. In the morning remove from the oven and carefully peel off the grease proof paper and place onto a service platter.
8. Whip up the cream into soft peaks, but be carefully not to over whip.  It should still have some slackness in it.  I then put a little icing sugar into the mix to take off the cream taste.  This is entirely personal preference but I have found most people really like it as it doesn't taste obviously sweetened.
9. Prepare the strawberries by hulling, rinsing and drying.  Raspberries by rinsing and drying.
10. Pile the cream into the centre of the meringue and then pile the fruit on top.
11. It you want a little extra height then put a second, smaller layer of cream onto of the fruit and decorate with the last of the fruit and then a sprig of fresh mint.
12. When you are ready to serve.  Dredge icing sugar lightly over the top.

Other summer fruit can be substituted if your not keen on strawberries or raspberries.  Why not try kiwi!

Winter warming Lobscouse

This stew is traditionally made with lamb or beef, which originated from Northern Europe by the sailors. You can easily adapt the recipe to other meat, but personally I prefer chicken.  It is full of nutrients and very heart-warming, therefore perfect for the cold weather, or when your feeling a little bit under the weather.   

Ingredients 

1/2 swede

4 large carrots

1 large onion

3 large sweet potatoes

3 leeks

3 cloves of garlic

2 skinless chicken breast

5 OXO vegetables cubes 

1.5 L of boiling hot water

Salt and pepper to taste

Sprinkle of chilli flakes 

Instructions

1. Peel and chop all the vegetables into bite sized chunks.

2. Chop the chicken breast into large chunks

3. Heat oil in a large pot.

4. Add the chopped onions, leek and garlic, and cook until soft.

5. Add the sweet potato and swede and cook for a further two minutes.

6. Add the carrots, and cook for a minute.

7. Crumble over the stock cubes and add the chicken.

8. Add the water, you may need a little extra, just make sure the vegetables and chicken are covered.

9. Season with a salt and pepper, and a sprinkle of chilli flakes.

10 . bring to the boil, and then set on a low heat for 5 hours. (you can speed up the process by letting it simmer, just make sure the vegetables are soft and the chicken is cooked)

11. Serve with crusty bread and Enjoy!