Food In My Home

This is a really really good cake recipe, it's from Ottolenghi like most of all my favourite recipes and its a perfect winter cake, you could always swap the apples for pears if you like. makes one cake or around 25-30 cupcakes 80g sultanas 4 tbsp water 280g flour ½  tsp ground cinnamon ¼  tsp salt ½  tsp baking powder 1  ¼  tsp bicarbonate of soda 120ml olive oil 160g caster sugar ½  vanilla pod 2 eggs lightly beaten 3 brambly apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm dice grated zest 1 lemon 2 egg whites Maple icing 100g unsalted butter at room temp 100g light muscavado sugar 85ml maple syrup 220g cream cheese room temp Prepare your cupcake trays and put cases inside them, or if your making it into a cake grease a springform cake tin and line the base and sides with baking parchment. Place the sultanas in 4 tbsp of water and simmer on a medium heat until all the water has been absorbed and then leave to cool. Preheat the oven to 170˚C. Sift together the flour, cinnamon, salt, baking

So normally I would say I am a very relaxed cook, not much goes wrong and I don't really do panicking, but on Saturday night I had a really clumsy day. I had some girls over for steak and a movie and while drinking wine and gossiping in the kitchen I had one of the most dangerous accidents so far, I chucked in my potatoes to the boiling hot pan of oil and it went mad and overflowed all over the cooker top, thankfully I turned the gas off and nothing caught fire but there was a dangerous amount of boiling hot oil all over the kitchen. And then while clearing up the oil around one of the gas burners I set fire to some kitchen roll. Anyway a few things dropped on the floor and glasses spilled later, we had awesome steak with the best shoestring fries. So just a warning when using a pan of hot oil compared to a controlled fryer, check the temperature and gently lower in the chips in small amounts and don't drink wine and talk about boys! 2 sirloin steaks 2 medium potatoes, peeled a

Winter is here and although it is very depressing and getting cold it does mean a whole new season for veggies. Today at the market they had some amazing golden and rainbow beetroot which look incredible when sliced up and taste much sweeter than normal beetroot. Golden and rainbow beetroot very finely sliced, you can leave the skin on if you scrub them salad leaves handful of crumbled feta a few small mint leaves or parsley Pesto 1 bunch basil half small garlic clove handful pine nuts, very lightly toasted extra virgin olive oil handful of freshly grated parmesan salt and pepper Using a hand blender blitz all the pesto ingredients together with a a few glugs of olive oil, pesto is totally up to you with how you like it so add more parmesan or nuts, and if it's too thick more olive oil. It's also nice sometimes with a little lemon juice for a kick, but try it before and after and see what you like. To serve, mix up the beetroot and feta with some lemon juice, olive oil, salt an