Food In My Home

This is a Jamie Oliver recipe that I did for lunch. It was really light and fresh, perfect in the sun, it could also be served as a side salad to a BBQ or just on its own. Serves 4 as a side 100g Feta cheese Handful of fresh mint, flat leaf parsley, basil leaves torn into small bits 300g beetroot 1 crunchy apple 1 fresh chili finely sliced or a bit of dried crumbled 8 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1 juiced lemon Crumble the feta into a salad bowl, finely slice the beets and apple into matchsticks, add all the ingredients into the bowl and just before serving toss all together with the lemon and olive oil and some pepper, you shouldn't need salt as the feta should be enough, and serve straight away.

It was another gloomy day on Tuesday and the young boys of the family I work for were desperate to go to the beach and play in the sea, so they all went off to Cannes and I had the place to myself. I decided to make a cake for tea time when they returned as I had seen a nice recipe for a summery sponge cake with berries baked into the top. I love almond cakes so I found a sponge cake recipe and swapped the flour for ground almonds, to my amazement it actually worked so maybe I am a cake scientist in the making? 225g soft butter 225g caster sugar 225g ground almonds 4 medium eggs 1 lemon zested and juiced 1 heaped tsp baking powder berries, frozen or fresh Heat the oven to 180c and butter the inside of your cake tin. Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric whisk until pale and creamy, add the lemon zest and juice then slowly add the eggs one at a time, still with the electric mixer, it may look like its curdled but thats normal.  Mix the ground almonds and baking powder toge

I got this recipe from the patisserie chef in Paris and when writing it down he instructed very casually that I melt everything and mix it together. The language barrier made me question this but I did just as he said and ended up with perfect little soft and sorry to say it but..extremely moist little gooey chocolate fondant style cakes. So this is an idiot proof recipe which will not fail to impress! Makes 5 ramekins 230g Unsalted butter 100g Caster sugar 130g Dark chocolate 50g Plain flour 4 Eggs Melt the butter and sugar together in a pan, when all melted take the pan off the heat, melt the chocolate and then mix in with the melted butter and sugar, sieve in the flour and fold. Whisk the eggs in a separate bowl until combined and then mix everything together until smooth. Melt some butter and lightly brush it on the inside of each ramekin then dust with cocoa powder, cool in the fridge until set and then fill 3/4 full with the mix. Cook at 180c for around 5 mins, you want them to h

I have turned incredibly jet set these days and after a week of being home in England I headed out to Verbier to start working for a family for 3 weeks, it turned out the weather was again torrential rain, cold and stormy...seems to be a pattern with me at the moment. Anyway we were going to head down to the south of France after a week in the Alps but looking at the two weather forecasts decided that one was much more disirable than the other so left for the sunny Côte d'Azur pretty pronto. Well its nice and tres chaud here so I'm very happy and I have been testing out some of my frenchy food recipes and here is a yummy recipe for Madeleines. Great as a little tea time treat! 100g plain flour , plus extra for dusting 100g caster sugar 100g butter , melted 1 whole egg , separated, plus 1 egg white 1 tbsp  honey or you can use lemon/orange zest 1 tsp vanilla extract icing sugar , for dusting Heat oven to 190c. Use a little of the melted butter to grease the madeleine mould and t

I returned from Paris last week very sad to leave but also fairly relieved that I didn't have to attempt to speak bad french anymore. My parents were spending the week in our house in north Wales which is close to the sea so I went up on the train to join them for a few days and put in my orders for lobster and crabs from Ken the fisherman. It was extreme welsh weather when I arrived with horizontal rain and crazy winds after apparently a mediterranean week...typical! Crab Salad This is the most delicious salad if your a crab lover. I advise picking through the crab a bit before you mix it with anything just to prevent breaking a tooth on a bit of shell that could be lurking. White crab meat 1/2 red chilli finely diced Coriander roughly chopped Seasoning and drizzle of lemon dressing Salad, baby gem or soft green lettuce Cucumber peeled and cored then sliced Tomatoes cored and chopped Avocado peeled and sliced Lemon wedges Lay the salad out on a plate with the cucumber and tomatoes

I decided that I would tick off some of my to do list this year and go live in Paris for a couple of months with the plan of hopefully becoming fluent in the language of love, and to learn how to make food the French way. Well so far there is nothing lovely about the way I attempt to speak le French but I can now make croissants…C’est Bon! I have been working at my uncle's restaurant Maceo over the last month learning all sorts of tricks and different styles of cooking in the kitchen. I have mainly worked in the pastry section as the puddings are the most fun to make and prettiest to present and also the hot section meant sweating next to the grills and ovens which I je detested. Every Sunday me and my uncle go to the market for our weekly food shop and scope out which grocer has the best vegetables that day, at first i thought it was a silly way of shopping as it takes a long time and you have to go to all kinds of different stalls to get everything you need, however the differenc

Well since I’m in Paris I thought I should learn some very traditional French recipes. So I befriended the Patisserie chef at Maceo and we have been making all sorts of treats. Last week we baked away and made brioche, croissants, eclairs, profiteroles and my personal favourite the choux swan! Below is the recipe for the Macaroons, the rest are top secret and very unhealthy so you wouldn't want them anyway. Macaroons 110g Egg whites 115g Ground almonds 225g Icing sugar Preheat the oven to 150c Line a baking tray with baking paper Whisk the egg whites to a stiff peak. Mix the icing sugar and the ground almonds together. If adding colouring use a powder colour and add to the almond mix, also if making them citrus flavoured add the zest in with a little food colouring. Pour half the almond mix into the egg whites and fold adding the other half in gradually until everything is mixed. Put the mix into a piping bag and pipe small round discs all the same size and not too close together.