Food In My Home

I have been wanting to make this cake for AGES!! I saw it on a blog I follow called flourishing foodie and it looked like the funnest cake ever, so I made it for my friend Phil's surprise 30th birthday which we had at Santo an amazing fun mexican on Portabello. It did take about a day making all six layers, I even had to go out and by an extra cake tin or it really would have taken forever. After about 4 bottles of food colouring...voila! Unfortunalely food colouring tastes grosse so licking the bowl almost made me barf. So to cover up all the E numbers I made a ginormous bowl of cream cheese frosting to spread between all the layers and all over which must have worked as everyone liked it, or maybe it was all the margaritas and tequilas numbing the taste buds. The most scary part was once I finished it I had to drive it down the road to the restaurant, being quite an eratic blonde driver I was sure it was going to fly through the windscreen at some point, but I managed to keep it

I saw these pops on a blog a while ago and they looked so fun and cute so I had to make them. You don't have to use brownie you could do whatever you like. Chocolate biscuit cake ones would be good, or just thought of doing cheesecake balls and rolling them in biscuit, that would be amazing! Apparently people do cake ones but I read a recipe where it says you make the cake and then crumble it and squish it back together which absolutely doesn't work. You just need to have something that will go hard in the fridge or freezer so the sticks stay on. They would be amazing for a kids party, a sweet canapé or just a funny different way of serving pudding. I have had a plumber here fixing some leak all day who must of thought I was mad covered in icing and sprinkles all over the place, but he was very impressed with them and said they were delicious. He still hasn't fixed the leak though, maybe hanging around in hope of another one. makes about 35 pops You need Brownies Icing suga

I have just spent the week doing a stage at The River Cafe which was amazing! I absolutely loved it and learnt so much and I now have a million ideas and recipes I want to try, I think I am going to have to have people over for dinner every night so I can get out all the things i've learnt while it's all fresh in my head. This is just one side dish that was served with spinach, roasted monkfish with lemon and marjoram.  Braising the fennel like this makes it really soft and has the most delicious flavour. You could serve it with anything you like, as a vegetable side or just do a big bowl of it cold with a salady lunch would be perfect. serves 5 2 fennel bulbs 1 large garlic clove, chopped finely chicken stock about 500ml olive oil tbsp picked thyme leaves Cut the fingers off the fennel and then cut it in half and slice into thickish pieces. take the green hairy bits off the fingers and put aside for later. Chop the fingers in chunks too. In a heavy based pan with a lid heat up

If your looking for a simple, fruity, summery, light pudding this is so delicious. The yogurt needs to be drained for 4-6 hours minimum but best left overnight to get it really thick, rich and creamy. 800g greek yogurt 80g icing sugar a few pinches of cinnamon 1 sliced mango 1 pomegranate, seeds removed 20g coarsely chopped pistachios 5 tbsp runny honey Mix the yogurt, icing sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl. Get a clean bowl and place a sieve resting in the top of it. Lay a clean tea towel on the sieve and spoon the yogurt into it, fold over the excess tea towel to cover the yogurt and place in the fridge overnight, or for at least 4-6 hours. This will take most of the moisture out of the yogurt and turn it into labneh. The yogurt should be nice and thick by now and all you need to do is spoon it into a bowl and scatter it over your fruits and nuts. The honey you can either drizzle over cold or heat in a pan so it goes really runny. The labneh is also really good for brunch with s

Gnudi gnudi gnudi, it's a fun word to say and a fun thing to eat. No one seems to know what this delicious little ball of amazingness is but I am going to share it with you. They are little balls similar to gnocchi rolled in semolina and filled with ricotta and parmesan which when boiled create an unusual pasta coating, served with brown sage butter, you cut through the pasta layer and out oozes this cheesy yuminess. I discovered it having dinner at The Spotted Pig in New York with a friend who took me there on my last week saying I couldn't leave without going. Well he was right we had the the famous Gnudi and it was oh sooo good. I have been thinking about it for a while, trying to work out how to do it when I came across a recipe in The River Cafe Classic Italian Cook Book. It makes sense that they would have a recipe since the head chef at The Spotted Pig is April Bloomfield who trained at the River Cafe before moving to NY. I made the River Cafe version but as I write this

This is a Jamie Oliver recipe and it is just the best bolognese EVER. It's so good I quite often just have it with cheese on top and no spaghetti at all, kids go mad for it too. I normally make double the recipe so I can stick some in the freezer. serves 4 10 slices pancetta or smoked streaky bacon sliced 1 handful rosemary, leaves picked and roughly chopped 1 large white onion, finely chopped 3 cloves garlic finely chopped 455g lean minced beef 1 wineglass of red wine 1 tsp dried oregano 2 x 400g tinned tomatoes 1 small jar sun-dried tomatoes roughly chopped 455g spaghetti 1 handful fresh basil lots of grated cheddar cheese Preheat the oven to 180˚. In a large oven proof saucepan fry the pancetta and rosemary in a little olive oil until golden. Then add the onion and garlic and fry for a further 3 mins until soft, then add the minced beef. Stir and continue frying until the beef is a bit brown all over. Then add the wine, reduce slightly and add the oregano, all the tomatoes, sund

  Pasta recipe (from the River Café cookbook) Makes about 1kg which serves 8 500g Tipo '00' flour, plus extra for dusting 1 tsp sea salt 4 large free range eggs 6 large free range egg yolks 50g fine semolina flour for dusting Put the flour and salt into a food processor, add the eggs and egg yolks, and pulse-blend with a dough hook until the pasta comes together into a loose ball of dough. Knead the dough on a flat surface lightly dusted with semolina and a little extra flour, for about 3 mins until smooth. If it is very stiff and difficult to knead then you may have to put it back in the processor and add another egg. Cut the dough into eight pieces, briefly knead into balls, wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 20 mins. Set your pasta machine on the widest setting. Flour the work surface and push each piece of dough through the rollers 10 times, folding the sheet into 3 each time then turning it by a quarter and pushing it through the rollers again.