Category Archives: Recipe

Poached egg & mushroom on tomato & pepper couscous

I had the idea of making eggs benedict with a large mushroom instead of the muffin. Then I decided to make it into a larger meal and this is what happened. It’s pretty easy and takes about 30 minutes from start to finish.

Poached egg & mushroom on tomato & pepper couscous with hollandaise sauce (serves 2)

Ingredients

1/4 pint volume of couscous
1/2 pint boiling water
1 tbsp lemon juice
Small handful of basil leaves
1/2 ramiro pepper
Handful sundried tomatoes
Two large portobello mushrooms
4 rashers of streaky bacon
4 eggs (2 for sauce, 2 for poaching)
80g salted butter
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar (any white vinegar should do though)
Small amount of fresh chives
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Preheat oven to gas mark 6 / 200C / 400F
Add boiling water to couscous. Chop and add the basil and lemon juice. Cover.
Cut ramiro pepper in half lengthways and deseed.
Put mushrooms and pepper on baking tray and cook for 10 minutes.
Add bacon to baking tray and cook for a further 10-15 minutes (depending on how crispy you like your bacon).
Meanwhile, add remaining lemon juice and vinegar to a saucepan and simmer.
Separate two of the eggs. Put the yolks into a bowl and save the whites for something else, like meringue.
Whisk the eggs, and slowly drizzle in the hot lemon juice and vinegar while whisking vigorously.
Melt the butter in the saucepan you just emptied. Don’t worry about cleaning it.
Meanwhile, take the pepper out of the oven and coarsely slice it and the tomatoes and add to couscous.
Start warming plates and put a pan of water on to boil.
Gradually pour the melted butter into the egg mix again whisking vigorously. Leave in a warm place.
Add a splash of any type of vinegar to the pan of boiling water. Turn down to simmer. Stir in a circular motion, then when almost still, break an egg into the middle.
Spoon half the couscous mix onto each plate. Get the tray out of the oven and add a mushroom to each plate.
By this time your first egg should be ready. Remove from pan, drain and place on top of a mushroom. Cook the second egg.
Pour half the sauce (will be runnier than normal hollandaise) over the egg. Place the bacon on top and sprinkle with chives.
When the second egg is cooked, repeat.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Eat and enjoy!

Food Friday 2 – Quick and Simple Mocha

Leave a reply

I really love mochas. They’re one of my favourite hot drinks. My favourite so far has been from a small shop called Caracoli in Winchester. I’ve bought some of their ground coffee and I’ve been trying to make my own mocha. I’ve had varying levels of success, but have never quite made a mocha I love. Recently though, I’ve managed to get pretty close. So here’s my recipe for a quick and simple mocha.

Ingredients (per person)

125ml strong coffee (I use a blend from Caracoli but use whatever you want)
125ml milk (I use semi-skimmed, but whole is also good)
1tbsp double cream
20g dark chocolate

Method

Warm the milk in a saucepan or microwave until it’s almost boiling
Add the chocolate and cream to the milk and whisk until melted
Pour in the coffee and whisk a little more
Pour into mug, and add sugar if desired
Enjoy!

It’s really simple and really yummy. You can replace some of the milk with cream, or add more chocolate if you want, but I find my recipe works best if you’re trying to lower calories without sacrificing too much taste. Enjoy your simple mocha!

Have you made something yummy this week? Do you have a recipe you want to share? Join the link party below. All I ask is you link back to my blog.

[linkparty id=”2″]

Food Friday – Bakewell Pavlova Biscuit

Leave a reply

I had a couple of egg whites left over from making a sauce, so I decided to get inventive. It worked, and the cherry bakewell pavlova was what came out. Thank Nick from udellgames.com for the name!

Recipe (16 Servings)

Ingredients:

Biscuit:

90g room temperature butter
60g caster sugar
110g plain flour
2 tsp almond extract

Meringue:

2 egg whites
55g caster sugar

Topping:

40g room temperature butter
160g icing sugar
Splash of milk
Glace cherries

Method:

Pre-heat oven to gas mark 4 / 350F / 180C (take off 20 if fan assisted).

Biscuits:

Cream together sugar and butter.
Add almond extract and flour and stir until a crumbly dough.
Mold into balls then flatten. Place them onto a greased baking sheet.
Bake for 5 minutes.

While biscuits are baking, Meringue:

Bakewell pavlova biscuit 2

Whisk egg whites until firm.
Add sugar and whisk thoroughly.
Once biscuits baked, pipe meringue in two layers around the outside of each biscuit.
Bake for 15 minutes then leave to cool on cooling rack.

When the biscuits are cool, Topping:

Mix butter, icing sugar and milk to make butter icing.
Pipe into meringue.
Top with half a cherry.

Enjoy your Bakewell Pavlova Biscuit!

Winchester Farmer’s Market – Pork with Warm Salad

Leave a reply

It was Hampshire Hog Day this week at Winchester Farmer’s Market so, although this post is usually anything but food, today it’s about food.

The day started well with piglet racing. They were kenekunes so very friendly, and apparently were around 10 months old. I picked number 6 to win. Naturally he came last!

After the racing, we wandered the market and found lots of delicious produce. As it was Hampshire Hog Day I decided to make a meal involving pork with produce bought entirely from the market.

Recipe – Pork and beetroot, carrot and leek warm salad, served with poached egg, fresh bread and chutney.

Ingredients (amounts depend on your preferences – you can easily add more for more people). I’ve added who I bought it from at the market:

2 Pork loin noisettes / pork steak / pork chops (Greenfield Pork)
2 Golden beetroot (you could use normal purple)
8 Large beetroot leaves (you could use spinach or cabbage)
1 Leek
2 Spring onions
2 Carrots (veg from various producers)
2 large handfuls of oyster mushrooms (Natural Wight Mushrooms)
Bread (Unsure of name)
Chutney (Real Jam and Chutney Co.)
2 Eggs (Kings Somborne Free Range Eggs)
Butter (I didn’t buy from the market as I had plenty, but there is butter available)
Apple juice (Hill Farm Juice)

Method:

Peel the beetroot and wash the carrot. Chop both into cubes and place into boiling water for 10 minutes.
While waiting for the beetroot and carrot to cook, start frying the pork in a little oil. If whatever cut you use is too big, chop it in half so it cooks nicely. Drain the beetroot and carrot.
Wash and slice the leek and beetroot leaves. Add a small knob of butter to a saucepan. Once the butter has melted add the leek and leaves.
Wash and slice the spring onions.
Chop the mushrooms roughly and add to frying pork.
Boil water for the poached eggs. Once boiling, poach each egg individually.
Mix beetroot, carrot, leek, beetroot leaves and spring onion.
When pork, mushrooms and eggs are cooked, place the mushrooms on a plate. Add the vegetable mix. Put pork on top followed by egg.
Serve with fresh bread, apple chutney and a nice glass of apple juice.

Food Friday – Cherry Bakewell

Leave a reply

I’ve never made a cherry bakewell until this. I’ve eaten plenty of them. Well, plenty of mass produced ones. I was feeling experimental. This tart was made with no recipe and I just kind of made it up as I went along. It worked, very well in fact!

This cherry bakewell isn’t very pretty mainly because I currently only have cake tins and am not particularly prepared for tarts!

Recipe (serves 8)

Ingredients:

Pastry:
90g plain flour
45g hard butter
Pinch of salt
~20ml cold water

Tart:
1 egg
25g soft butter
60g caster sugar
25g ground almonds
65g plain flour
Pinch of baking powder
1/2tsp almond extract
Splash of milk
Jam (I used cherry)

Icing:
150g icing sugar
2tbsp water
Glace cherries

Method:

Pastry:

Rub in butter and flour until the consistency of breadcrumbs.
Form into ball and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
Roll out thinly and put in tin, pressing lightly into corners.
Blind bake for 15-20 minutes at gas mark 4 / 350F / 180C (take off 20 if fan assisted).

Tart:

Cream butter and sugar together.
Gradually beat in egg.
Add all other ingredients and beat until smooth.
Spread jam over the base of the cooked pastry.
Add the mix and smooth out the top.
Cook for 20-25 minutes at gas mark 6 / 400F / 200C (take off 20 if fan assisted).

Icing:

Mix icing sugar and water until a smooth paste.
Spread over the top of the cool tart and add cherries to decorate.

Food Friday – Raspberry Marbled Drizzle Cake

Leave a reply

I wasn’t sure what to name this cake. I’ve been experimenting with various forms of fat free cakes lately, and this is the latest creation. Fair enough, it’s not quite fat-free, but very close!

Believe it or not, it’s only 238 kcalories a slice (if a slice is 1/8th of a cake). The inspiration for this was a lemon drizzle cake that I made, but that turned out a bit too dense. I wanted to try again, but didn’t want more lemon. So instead I turned to the lovely raspberry.

Recipe

Ingredients:

3 large eggs
125g caster sugar (I used golden) (If you’re not from Britain, this is whatever you would usually make cakes with. Fairly fine, but still grains.)
A drop of vanilla extract
150g raspberries
200g self raising flour
85g icing/powdered sugar
150ml water
100ml milk
1tsp baking powder
Pinch salt

~238 calories per 1/8th cake

You’ll also need:
A loaf tin, mixing bowl, scales, electric whisk (or be very very good at whisking!), saucepan, spoon, sieve, smaller bowl, spatula and skewer.

Method:

Raspberry Sauce:

Put raspberries and water (150ml) in a saucepan and cook on a medium heat until mashy, stirring occasionally.
Filter the raspberries through the sieve (a tea strainer also works for this) to get rid of all the pips. Stir it and squish it until you have all the lovely juice.
Put the juice back into the saucepan and add 25g of the icing sugar. Heat and stir until dissolved.
Put raspberry sauce to the side to cool.

Cake:

Lightly grease the tin with whatever you choose (I used vegetable oil) then dust this in a coat of flour. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6 / 400F / 200C (take off 20 if fan assisted).
Separate the eggs, with the egg whites in your main mixing bowl.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks.
Add in sugar and whisk this in too.
Lightly stir the egg yolks, vanilla extract and milk together.
Now sieve into the mix the flour, baking powder and salt, add the eggy milk mix.
Fold all the ingredients together.
Pour mix into loaf tin.
Take several spoonfuls of raspberry sauce and pour them on the top of the cake mix all over. Use your skewer to drag through the mixture all the way to the bottom to make the marbled effect. Don’t over-do this as it’ll burst too many bubbles.
Cook for 30 minutes.
When cooked, a skewer pierced into the middle of the cake should come out clean. If not give it another 5 minutes. Take out of the oven and put on a cooling rack (still in tin).
Take 50g of icing sugar and mix it with 5 tbsp of the leftover sauce. Mix until smooth then pour all over the top of the cake (still in the tin).
Leave to cool then turn out when cold.
Serve with vanilla ice cream and some of the spare sauce drizzled on top, or just enjoy it as a slice of delicious moist raspberry cake.

The finished cake, ready to eat:

Made by you Mondays at Skip to my Lou