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 flou...

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...

I should be sunbathing right now but unfortunately the Italian heavens have opened over the last two days of our trip and torrential rain has sent us off for long boozy lunches, not a bad place to be for eating lots but I feel like I might be rolling home after pasta and gelato overload, good thing bikinis are now packed! We have been staying in Amalfi which is the most mental place ever for driving, not enough room for two cars and massive cliff drops into the sea. My sister managed to crash into an anchor arriving in style to meet my Dad for lunch who's surprise 60th birthday present was the trip, she sure made an impression and a massive dent in the car on day one. The food has been tres bonne, loads of pasta, pizza and amazing gelato, incredible mozzarella and burrata with the tastiest sunshine filled tomatoes. Here is a recipe for such a simple salad but totally delicious when you have the best ingredients, don't bother using a peach unless it's really ripe and spend a...

Another Ottolenghi salad which is really damn good, I just made this for 30 people which I'm not going to lie was a massive faff but if your making it for a normal amount of people it shouldn't be too bad. It's stuffed with all kinds of ingredients and has a warm asian flavour, perfect to take as a picnic salad. serves 8 1 small whole chicken 200g basmati rice 50g wild rice 50g brown rice 1 large onion, thinly sliced 6 spring onions, thinly sliced 4 mild red chillies, cut into thin strips small bunch coriander, chopped small bunch mint leaves, chopped large handful of rocket leaves, shredded salt pepper Dressing 65ml lemon juice 30ml sesame oil 30ml thai fish sauce 35ml olive oil Preheat the oven to 220˚C. Rub chicken with olive oil and season. Place in a roasting tin and put in the oven for 10 mins then lower the temperature to 190˚C and continue to roast for 50-60 mins until the chicken is cooked and juices run clear. Remove to cool and keep all the cooking juices for lat...

I know I have banged on before about having the most awesome brownie recipe but recently they have gone a little wild and trebled in awesomeness! Over the last 3 weeks I have made trays and trays of them for families who have got addicted, and the most recent comment on them was "OMG those brownies were better than orgasms!" so you better try them and see for yourself! The recipe is the Hummingbird brownie recipe just with dollops of mascapone and raspberries stuck on the top, kind of makes a cheesecake effect and tastes kind of amazing. Makes 12 200g Dark chocolate roughly chopped 175g Unsalted butter cut into small pieces 325g Caster sugar 130g Plain flour 3 Eggs a few tablespoons mascapone  1 punnet of raspberries Preheat the oven to 170˚C. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a big heatproof bowl over boiling water, making sure the bowl isn't touching the water. When all melted take off the heat and stir in the sugar and then the flour, then the eggs one at a tim...

I have had a slight obsession with cooking almond cakes at the moment, and in France there were loads of delicious apricots so I ended up making lots of different styles of cakes. They are really gooey and zesty and very tasty and everyone loved them. This one was my favourite because I put apricots in the middle and on the top. 200g unsalted butter 200g caster sugar 200g ground almonds 40g plain flour 4 eggs zest of 1 orange zest of 1 lemon 1 tbsp apricot liqueur or cointreau  8 apricots sliced almonds for sprinkling Preheat the oven to 170˚C. Using an electric whisk cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy then mix in the eggs, zest and juice and booze and fold in the flour. Slice the apricots in half and then slice each half into thirds and chuck into a bowl and sprinkle with some caster sugar and leave for 10 mins. Pour half the cake mixture into a lined cake tin and layer on half the apricots, then pour the rest of the mixture on top and prettily arrange the rest of th...