Tasty Salmon

                     

♬ 'Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful' by Paloma Faith

You are about to witness a familiar face presenting and showing you how to make a scrumptious and appetising dinner. Being a presenter for George Foreman Grills was incredible. Let me know what you think. Everything is in the video, so follow the recipe and get grilling!

Love Asparagus

     

                    

♬ 'Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful?' by Paloma Faith


The idea of parma ham wrapped around asparagus was making my stomach gurgle while presenting this recipe. Asparagus grills beautifully and this makes a great starter or a side dish. As you know I am an avid fan of wrapping bacon around certain ingredients, but parma ham is slowly moving up the rank! 
Enjoy this video and eat more asparagus.x

Jubilee Cakebabs

♬ '1' by The Beatles

When the sun comes out in London, everything changes. Music bursts from every street corner, builders take their t-shirts off and tis the season for ice cream. Whereas I was plumped in the kitchen and gutted I didn't own an ice cream maker - so this meant a bit of baking! While emptying the dishwasher, I was prancing around to 'Yellow Submarine' and saw some skewers under the cutlery. That's when a little light switched on in my cake tin of a brain. Why not cut up the cake and make kebabs - with cake?! A simple sponge with fruit on a skewer, and perfect for any party, especially for the Diamond Jubilee event in June. I grabbed the whisk, flicked the album to 'Eight Days A Week' and started constructing this fantastic concept.

Recipe for 16-20 skewers, each cake tin yields 8 -10 mini sponges, and it also depends on the size of the cutter and how many you want on a skewer. I used *one sponge, and used 10 skewers.

Ingredients:

225g soft organic butter

225g golden caster sugar

225g self raising flour, sieved.

1 vanilla pod with seeds scraped out or 1 tsp vanilla essence.

4 medium eggs at room temperature.

200ml double cream

Raspberry jam

Desiccated coconut

Icing sugar for dusting the tops

Fresh strawberries

Fresh blueberries

Fresh blackberries

Method:

:Preheat oven to 180°c

: Cream the butter until soft and then add the sugar. Whisk until pale and fluffy.

: Add 2 eggs at a time and keep on whisking.

: Fold in the flour.

: Pour in two 20cm sandwich tins which have been greased lightly with butter. I tend not to use baking parchment on the base. Really depends on the quality of the tin.

: Bake for 25 minutes, once springy to the touch, leave both out to cool for half an hour, then put in the fridge.

: Once completely cold, whisk the cream and give the jam a stir in the jar to loosen it up a bit more.

: Use a cutter which is a size down from medium and not too big (see below).

: Cut 10 circles from each sponge. 

: Like I mentioned earlier, I only used one sponge and cut sandwiches from these. By doing this there was less chance of the sponge breaking.

: Cut the circle as you would a normal sponge if you were to fill it. Spread cream on one circle and jam on the other. Sprinkle desiccated coconut on top of the cream if you wish.

: Design your skewers with one or two sandwiches with fresh fruit. Try using your favourite jam or other fruits.
This is a creative moment for children to get involved.

As a test I gave a few out and they stayed on the skewer, didn't break and were easy to handle.

Here is one more shot and a Viddy because they looked and tasted so damn good.

Favourite Song:

ê 'A Hard Day's Night'

*With the other sponge, spread the rest of the cream on top and scatter remaining fruit.


I think the late nights of stopping off at a kebab shop are now over, I'm diving straight into my cake tin for a Cakebab!

Spinach and Walnut Pesto

♬ 'The Donna Summer Anthology' by Donna Summer

The deaths of Donna Summer and Robin Gibb have been added to the avalanche of loss in the music industry. To commemorate these musical legends I will be embracing their albums in the kitchen this week. This evening it was all about Donna Summer.

 It's National Vegetarian Week and I love a food challenge, so all over this like cheese on toast. Tonight's dinner was a familiar and comforting move - pasta and pesto. With a fresh green spangling bag of spinach, I whizzed up a quick pesto that will freeze well and also last a few days. I'm literally going to consume spinach similar to Popeye the Sailor Man!  Spinach is flipping amazing. Excuse the slang, but I can't think of two other words that describe this dark emerald gem of a leaf. Using spinach in meals will bulk up your RDA of protein, fibre and there are hardly any calories to worry about.

Recipe for 50g pesto:

6 medium shelled walnuts.

50g fresh spinach (two large handfuls)

Half a tsp of nutmeg

Olive oil

1 large garlic clove

▶ Method:

: Wash and dry spinach, then wilt in a sieve above boiling water.

: In a blender add the garlic, two tablespoons of olive oil, walnuts and nutmeg.

: Once the spinach has reduced, put this in the blender and whizz!

: Taste and check consistency, at this point I added a bit more olive oil.

: Stir through whole wheat pasta with roasted red pepper. For the pepper: the skin has to be charred and blistered then peel off. Finally add preferred cheese, I'm a feta-holic girl at heart!

DONE!

A lovely pesto suitable to use like any other pesto that sits on the supermarket shelf.

Favourite Songs:

ê 'Hot Stuff'

'Could It Be Magic'

Jubilee Meringue's

♬ Will Smith still on Spotify.

After the jammie dodger expedition, I still had 2 egg whites sitting solemnly in a bowl. 

I'm not one to waste anything. 

This called for the electric whisk, more sugar and a strong hand in case the whisk attachment got a life of it's own. Unfortunately it did, I hand whisked the rest and now I feel like I've got an extra bit of muscle on my right bicep. Next to skipping, I think whisking a meringue by hand should be on my workout regime.

Anyhow here is the recipe for 8 of the above beauties:

Ingredients:

2 medium egg whites at room temperature

175g caster sugar

Strawberries, sliced.

Honey in a squeezable bottle.

Method:

: Preheat oven to 120°c.

: Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper.

: Whisk half of the sugar with the egg whites until stiff and glossy.

: Add the rest of the sugar and whisk until stiff. Try the bowl over the head technique!

: Pipe out 16 small meringue circles, making sure they are not too close.

: Bake for 10 minutes on the bottom shelf of your oven, then crank up the heat to 180°c for an 40mins - 1hour. 

: Once they look like a pale diluted coffee colour, tap one of the tops to see if it's hard.

: Take out, and they should easily come off the paper with a rock solid base.

: Use the honey bottle like glue and sandwich a slice of strawberry in between each meringue. Try not to use too much honey, this could get a bit sticky! I randomly did this because I possessed no cream, soft cheese and ran out of butter. Honestly they tasted great, and unfortunately I didn't Viddy this. Totally reached my daily limit with that app!

Have a great weekend.

x