Creamy salmon pasta

I was actually inspired to make this by a recipe on the back of the salmon packet! I decided to alter it a little and make it my own, by adding a few ingredients and removing others. This serves two and is really simple to make :)




Ingredients
150-200g of penne pasta, depending on how much you want.
200g smoked salmon, chopped
150g double cream
4 generous tablespoons of cream cheese (plus more for serving)
salt and pepper for seasoning


First, cook the pasta according to usual packet instructions. You can add a few drops of lemon juice if you like!
When this is almost done, gently warm the cream and half of the salmon. Don't let it boil, boiled cream is not nice!
Add four tablespoons of cream cheese and let it all melt together. Continue heating for about five minutes, then toss season with salt and pepper.
Toss the sauce into the pasta, and top with the remaining salmon and another dollop of cream cheese.

Enjoy!

Garlic and Anchovy Pasta

Wow, it's been a very long while since I updated here! I should hopefully be updating more regularly; I'm trying to be more organised!

I'm going 'bring it back' with one of my favourite recipes at the moment. I discovered it in "Sam Sterns' Student Cookbook" and adapted it a little to make it my own. It's most definitely not to everyone's tastes but I LOVE IT, and so thought I'd share as it;s so simple to make.

It serves two, (but I like to use the specified amount of sauce for one person...what can I say, I like strong flavours!)

Ingredients;
-200g dried spaghetti
-1 x 50g tin of anchovies
-4 cloves garlic
-1 tablespoon of olive oil (I use the stuff that comes with the anchovies)
-Squeeze of lemon
-1 chilli (optional)




Finely chop the garlic, anchovies, and chilli if using.
Boil a pot of water, and cook the pasta as according to instructions on the packet.
When the pasta is almost done, heat up some oil in a pan, and chuck in the garlic. Cook the garlic gently, making sure it doesn't go brown (This ruins the garlicky flavour!) and add the chilli and anchovies. Turn down the heat and mix until it's all goey and smelling yummy!
Drain the pasta, and mix in the garlicky sauce.
Serve!

Cupcakes!

Everyone loves to remember their childhood and this is the perfect way! Cupcakes, Fairy cakes, or buns; call them whatever you want, but they are fun to make and taste great!




Ingredients;

-150g self raising flour
-1 teaspoon baking powder
-110g soft butter
-2 eggs
-2/3 tablespoons cocoa powder
-A little vanilla extract
For the icing;
-275g icing sugar
-20g cocoa powder
-110g butter
-3/4 tablespoons water
-Sweets e.t.c. for decorating

Bun cases!

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6, and set out the bun cases (preferably onto bun trays, but a baking tray will do. Just be sure to double up the bun cases if you're using a baking tray, for a bit of extra strength).
Mix all the cake ingredients together in a bowl, and mix quickly with a wooden spoon until soft and creamy. Split the mix into two bowls, and in one bowl add some cocoa powder. Put about 1 teaspoon of each mixture into each bun case. They should look something like this:





Cook the buns in the oven for about 15 minutes or until browned. Now, they are ready to decorate!

To make the icing, gently melt the butter (mixed with the water) in a pot. Don't boil. Mix into the icing sugar, and like with the cake mix, split into two bowls and add cocoa powder to one of them. Decorate, and eat!

Lemon Chicken

This is a really, really nice dish! It's pretty easy too. The recipe here serves 2 people.

Ingredients;

-2 chicken breasts (or 1 per person)
-110g basmati or long grain rice
-1/3 tablespoon vegetable oil
-4 drops sesame oil
-1 clove thinly sliced garlic
-1 tablespoon of lemon juice
-2-3 spring onions, chopped
Marinade;
-2 cloves thinly sliced garlic
-1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
-1 tablespoon cornflour
-6 drops of soy sauce
-A little egg white

First, mix together all of the marinade ingredients. Stir this into thinly sliced chicken. I usually leave the marinade to sit overnight, in a sealed container in the fridge but if you want to use it right away, that's fine too!

Put the rice into a pot, and add lots of water (just over double the amount of rice there is) bring to boil and salt.

Heat a wok or pan, and add the vegetable and sesame oil. If you can get groundnut oil instead of veg oil that's great, but substituting the sesame oil for another oil really changes the taste (I did this the first time I made it, and it was nowhere NEAR as nice as it was when I made it the second time, using sesame oil!) so I don't advise it. Stir fry the garlic quickly for 20 seconds; don't brown! Next, add the marinaded chicken. Stir fry quickly for 3 minutes until cooked white all the way through (this is why it's important to cut your chicken extra thin!). Reduce the heat, and add the lemon juice and spring onion.

dish up with your rice, and you're done!

Chickpea Burgers

These we seriously yummy! They did however break apart a little - this seems to happen every time I use chickpeas in cooking and I don't know what I'm doing wrong - if anyone could shed some light on this it would be great!



ingredients;
-3 tablespoons Oliver Oil
-1 onion, finely chopped (should weigh aprox 110g)
-2 cloves of crushed garlic
-1 small chili (optional)
-1 tablespoon ground coriander
-1/4 tablespoon turmeric
-1 teaspoon ground cumin
-200g finely chopped mushrooms
-juice of 1 lime (I used lemon, and they were still yummmy!)
-1 x 400g tin of chickpeas (drain before use)
-75g fresh breadcrumbs
-A few splashes of Tabasco sauce (optional)
-salt & pepper
-Some white flour for coating

First, heat the olive oil in a pan. Fry the onion and garlic very gently, for about five minutes until soft. Add the chilli, cumin, coriander, turmuric, and cook for about three minutes, stirring carefully.Add the mushrooms and lime (or lemon) juice. Cook for another five minutes and remove from heat.Crush the chickpeas with a fork or blender, and add to the fried vegetables along with the breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, and Tabasco if you are using it!

This is where it gets messy! Spread a flour coating on a plate, and shape the chickpea mix into about 6 burgers with your hands, being very gentle. Roll the burgers into the flour, and leave to chill for at least 15 minutes. Once chilled, fry in a little olive oil for about 5 minutes or until cooked.

Your burgers are now done! Eat them on their own, in a bun, in pitta, however you want! I added some mayo mixed with sweet chili sauce and some spring onions.

Pizza!

Everyone loves a good pizza. But how about making your own?

For the dough....
450g strong white flour
1tsp salt
1tsp sugar
2x7g sachets of fast action yeast, OR dry active yeast (read directions for use)
300ml pint of warm water
2 tbsp olive oil


Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Add the sugar, water, oil and yeast. *(NOTE: if you are using dry active yeast granules, pre-mix the sugar, water and yeast and leave to activate for 10 minutes before adding to the dough mixture.)
Work this into a nice soft dough. Roll the dough onto a flat surface, and knead for ten minutes. Roll the dough into a ball, and put into a bowl. Cover the bowl with a tea towel, and leave in a nice warm place for an hour. When you come back, the dough should have doubled in size!

Knead the dough for a couple of minutes, and then roll out into a pizza shape! Put this onto a lightly oiled tray.
What I do here, personally, is put the pizza in the oven for a few minutes- no more than 5 - to harden up, since I have a fan oven. (apparently fan ovens are no good for pizza dough - in a regular oven the heat comes from below, and cooks the dough first, then the cheese. In a fan oven the heat comes from all around and I often find that whilst my topping is almost burnt, the dough is still slightly soggy.)

Making pizza sauce is simple - I usually just mix 1-2 large chopped tomato (or a tin of chopped tomatoes), 2-4tbsp tomato puree, crushed garlic and herbs and slop onto the pizza. But of course you can use ready mixed pizza sauce, or try your own recipe.

Then, it's topping time! For this particular pizza I used cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, peppers, mushrooms, and some yummy chorizo sausage - but of course you can put anything you like on there!

Place into an oven pre-heted to 180C for about 15-20 minutes. Take out and slice!

Chocolate Cake with Fudge-esque icing!

This strange cake is also taken from "Sam Stern's Student Cookbook", like the cloud cake. What is so weird about this cake, is that instead of eggs, it uses mayonnaise. Honestly. But don't fret - as promised in the cookbook you wont taste the mayo at all! The icing is AMAZING, it is quite honestly the yummiest chocolate based icing I have ever tried. I have a feeling I will be using it more often!

Ingredients;
-275g white self raising flour
-1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
-225g sugar
-200g Mayonnaise
-225ml boiling water
-4 tbsp cocoa powder
-1 tsp vanilla extract

For the icing;
-275g Icing sugar
-25g cocoa powder
-110g butter
-3-4 tbsp water

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 8inch (20.5cm) cake tin.
Sift the flour, baking powder and sugar into a bowl. Beat in the mayonnaise - don't worry that it's lumpy, it's supposed to be that way!
In a separate bowl, pour boiling water over the cocoa and vanilla extract. Stir, and then pour into the main mix. Beat until soft and creamy.
Tip all this into the cake tin, and bake for 40 minutes.

I was stupid and kept opening the door, so it didn't rise as much as it should have (although looking back I may also have used the wrong flour...although I'm not 100% sure!)
In the oven...mmmmm



After ten minutes of cooling time, tip the cake out of the tin, and leave to cool.

Whilst it's cooling, make the icing! Sift the sugar and cocoa. In a pot, gently melt the butter and water without boiling. Add this to the sugar gradually - you may not need all of it. The mixture should be smooth, and not too runny. Pour this over the cake, and decorate!