Lemon and dill yogurt dressing

Lemon and dill yoghurt dressing

Well, it sure has been a while! Having started a new job, my food blog hasn’t been very active. So, now I want to start it up again, and will start with a simple and quick recipe.

I often make some kind of dip or dressing for salads, pizza or for bread even if it's just simply balsamic and oil. Today, I was having fishcakes and wanted something to go with it. So, I whipped up this quick and easy dressing.

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp plain, natural yoghurt
• Zest of half a lemon
• Approx. 1 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp chopped dill
• 1 tsp honey

Just mix it altogether and it is ready. Add a bit more yogurt if it is too runny.

Salmon fishcakes, served with salad and a lemon and dill yoghurt dressing

Spring Onion and Gravlax Pancakes

Pancake day is one of my favourite days ever. I get so excited about it every single year! Even though I never do anything in particular for it, or cook anything fancy or special, I just adore this day. As far as I remember, it always falls on the first Tuesday of February, but in the past couple of years it has been pushed back to later in Feb with Easter being later too.

So two Tuesday's in Feb have passed and it's now Pancake Day again! I've no idea what we'll make later on, maybe just the usual simple batter and fill the pancakes with a mix of fruit, chocolate, honey, or the simple-but-still-delicious lemon and sugar. But already I've started pancake day with little fluffy spring onions pancakes and gravlax. It wasn't even planned!

We make gravlax quite often - we just love the stuff - and we have had quite a supply recently as I got a great deal on a kilo of salmon last week. Probably a bit too much salmon intake for two people over such a short space of time, but I'm not one to waste food, nor do I particularly like freezing fish. So, plenty of gravlax was made! My other half loves gravlax too, which is odd considering he really doesn't like smoked salmon. But after I gave it a go using a wonderful Nigella recipe a year or two ago, there was no turning back.

So with our stock of gravalax (which had significantly depleted after I spent most of the weekend out), spring onions growing well, and pancake day on the horizon, it just made sense to throw it all together! Check out the recipes below, hope you love it as much as we did :)

I'd love to hear what everyone else has made for pancake day! Any unusual recipes, or do you like to keep it simple?

Gravlax recipe

Spring onion pancakes and gravalax

Ingredients
400g (approx.) salmon fillets
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 heaped tsp english mustard
4 tsp gin
A small bunch of chopped dill

Method

1. Mix the salt, sugar, mustard and gin together to form a paste
2. Smother the mixture all over the salmon fillets
3. Cover the salmon with the chopped dill all over
4. Wrap the salmon tightly in cling film
5. Store in a container in the fridge for approximately 4 days.

It's ready when the salmon turns a more deep pink colour and has firmed up. To serve, slice slithers of salmon thinly and top with a few drops of the liquid mixture.

Spring Onion Pancakes recipe

Spring onion pancakes

Makes approx 10 pancakes

Ingredients
100g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
150ml milk
1 egg
25g melted butter
1 chopped spring onion
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Mix the flour and baking powder together in a bowl
2. Whisk in the egg and milk
3. Mix in the melted butter and chopped spring onion, adding salt and pepper to taste
4. In a non-stock pan on a medium heat, drop in approx. two tablespoons of mixture. Once the edges look cooked, flip over and cook on the other side.

The pancakes should be nice and fluffy.

Honey Mustard Trout

I've been a little lazy with cooking recently. I do love cooking, trying new culinary experiences, and experimenting with different flavours. But, you know when you just want some food to appear with minimal effort? Minus the pizza or takeaway from the picture too.

Well, that brings me onto fish. So quick to cook and good for you with all it's omega-3 goodness. Those who follow me on Twitter may know that I'm partial to a Fish and Chip Friday but, you know when you actually just don't want all the batter and deep-friedness?

Enter tonight's dinner

I bought trout fillets and I was originally going to fry them on the grill pan with a few chopped tomatoes and some basil leaves. Nice and simple. But, you know when you want something different? I think I made this last week already.

Ok, enough with the "But, you know's".

I came up with a super simple recipe that went down a treat. Always a winner when the other half enjoys it :)

Honey Mustard Trout recipe

Honey trout mustard,
served with asparagus

Ingredients

• 1 tsp English mustard
• 1 tsp aioli
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp honey
• 80ml water
• 2 fillets of trout, seasoned with salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Mix the mustard, aioli, vinegar and honey together.
2. Add some oil to a grill pan and when ready, add the seasoned trout fillets skin side down.
3. After about 3 minutes, add 3/4 of the prepared mixture on top of the fillets. The mixture will run down and start caramelising in the pan.
4. Turn the fillets over and then add 80ml water to the pan. For the remainder of the cooking, the mixture will thicken into a lovely sauce.
5. After 2 minutes more add the remaining mixture.
6. After about 1-2 minutes, the trouts should be cooked through.
7. Serve

I served mine with some asparagus today. Happy dining!

Let's get trufflin'!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great start to the new year and wishing all a healthy and successful year ahead.

A trial on truffle making

For Christmas this year, I really wanted to make some edible gifts for friends and family. They are just so much more personal, I think, and I usually enjoy baking something for an occasion or just taking a new bake into the office to test out on the hungry bunch. I miss working in an office now. Aside from the general enjoyment of being around people I like talking with, I really did like taking random bakes in whether it was for an occasion or not. We would often do the tea round, then eat cake and chat before meeting clients, staring at the computer and furiously tapping on our keyboards again.

That was four months ago as I was made redundant due to budget cuts. Since no longer being employed, I've very much enjoyed my time off. I have been baking and cooking more and set up this blog and Twitter account! I've also been sharing bakes with a few friends and family who I have been able to see more often.  

So, Christmas was an opportunity to share the baking love in mass. I knew there would be several gatherings with friends and family, and I would also be going for dinner with former colleagues.

I had a couple of months to get myself sorted. Having never made truffles before, I tried a few recipes and failed. Of course, of course… Well, you try and try again until you get it right. That’s what I did anyway and I came up with four great flavours of truffles:

• Rich double chocolate truffles
  A rich ganache with a liquid centre, covered in milk chocolate
• Hazelnut chocolate truffles
  A rich ganache with a whole hazelnut centre with a milk chocolate coating
• Orange Cointreau White Chocolate Truffles
  A sweet white chocolate centre, mixed with Cointreau and orange peel, with a white chocolate coating
• Coconut dark chocolate truffles
  A rich dark chocolate ganache mixed with coconut with a dark chocolate coating

The recipe below is for just one of these flavours, but I’d encourage you to play around with different centres and flavours to your taste. I’ve given some tips below from what I have learned.

Hazelnut chocolate truffles

Hazelnut chocolate truffles

Ingredients
200g dark chocolate (I used 55% cocoa solids)
200ml double cream
Hazelnuts – whole for centres, chopped for decoration
Milk chocolate

Method
Firstly, make the ganache. Choose your dark chocolate based on the type of truffles you are making. I found 70% too rich for these hazelnut truffles, but they were perfect for the coconut chocolate truffles.

1. Heat the double cream in a pan until it just starts to bubble (do not allow to boil).
2. Turn off the heat and place broken pieces of the chocolate into the cream.
3. Mix until melted and smooth.
4. Pour into a storage container and place in the fridge until ready for use. If required sooner, place in the freezer for about 30-60 mins. It is ready when it’s set and velvety smooth.

Next we make the truffle centres. The fridge and freezer are your friends here.

Chocolate truffles presented in a gift bag

5. Cut or spoon out a portion of the mixture, enough to place between two sheets of baking paper.
6. Place the rest of the mix back in the fridge.
7. Roll out the chocolate mixture between the two sheets of paper until about 3 or 4mm thick. Place this back in the freezer for 10 mins, or in the fridge if using later. Do the same for the rest of the mixture.

The reason why everything goes back into the fridge or freezer is so that it doesn’t all melt so much when you are making the truffles. It makes things a little less messy. Take out each rolled out sheet of ganache only when you are about to use it.

Rolling out the ganache makes it easier to form these truffles. Many recipes state to just spoon out a ball for each truffle and shape around the hazelnut or whatever centre you are using, but rolling out these sheets means that it's less messy and you get evenly sized truffles.

8. With each sheet of ganache, cut rectangular strips with a knife approximately 4cm x 2cm.
9. Take one strip, place a whole hazelnut in the middle and the shape the ganache around it with your fingertips. Place on a baking sheet on a flat transferable tray or surface.
10. Keep doing this with the rest of the ganache and move to the freezer as soon as you can.

Moving the truffle balls to the freezer helps them to keep it shape and it makes it easier to take off when coating them in melted chocolate next. If they are left out too long, they will start melting and stick to the baking sheet.

Truffles in a box

11. Melt some milk chocolate, however be careful not to make the mixture too warm. This is so that it can set as quickly as possible around the ganache for a more presentable and round truffle.
12. Take some truffles out of the freezer and one by one, dip into the chocolate coating it all around and place onto a baking sheet on a flat surface.
13. Quickly after placing the truffles down, top with some chopped hazelnuts for decoration.

I used two teaspoons to help with this. The frozen balls will help the milk chocolate to set quickly around it. You can move back to the fridge to help them set and store in a container until ready to eat or present in a nice gift box or bag.

I purchased some cellophane gift bags and tied some ribbon at the top, including a tag so the recipients knew what truffles they had received.

Here are a few of my tips for making these truffles and also other flavours.

Tips

• It is usually recommended that 70% cocoa solids are used, but it was too rich for my taste. I found it better to use around 55% cocoa solids for the double chocolate and hazelnut truffles, but 70% for the coconut truffles.
• This ganache can be pre-made and kept in the fridge until ready for use. This was really useful for me, as I made my truffles over a few days.
• Work in batches and clear out fridge and freezer space. Keeping the mixtures cold is important or it could get very messy.
• Try making a liquid centre with chocolate spread such as Nutella. Freeze small drops of the spread in the freezer and wrap the ganache around in the same way as the hazelnuts.
• For coconut truffles use a higher cocoa solid content (70%) when making the ganache and mix with desiccated coconut for simpler, yet still tasty truffles. These can be made smaller as they do not have a centre filling. Coat in dark chocolate.
• Coating the truffles in melted chocolate is optional. Many recipes suggest to roll it around in something like cocoa powder. But I find the truffles don't hold their shape well and it's nice to have the solid chocolate to bite into before reaching into the velvety smooth ganache inside.

Coconut dark chocolate truffles

Snickerdoodle Fun

'Snickerdoodle' has to be one of my favourite words ever. How much fun can one word be? What does it even mean? I really couldn't tell you how this word came about but it isn't related to a Snickers bar, nor is there any drawing involved. It's simply a delicious sugary cinnamon cookie – a wonderful soft cookie with crisp edge to bite into.

I was introduced to these wonders when a former colleague came over from the US a couple years ago. She baked and we scoffed our faces. Just like that.

I've made them many times since then and now have tried to mix it up a bit. I still love the original sugar and cinnamon version, but then I decided to try a chocolate version too. Adding some cocoa powder to the mix worked quite well. I even added some chocolate to the middle of some of them for a bit of added flavour and texture.

Snickerdoodles

The recipe

There are several variations of this recipe about, but this is how I like to make mine.

Ingredients

125g butter, softened
125g light brown caster sugar
25g brown soft sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
200g plain flour
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar until soft then add the beaten egg and vanilla paste and beat till smooth.
2. Mix in the remaining dry ingredients and leave in fridge for 30 minutes to chill.
3. Roll into balls the size of a walnut and lay out on a baking tray leaving space to spread. Leaving the mixture in the fridge allows the balls to keep shape while baking instead of spreading out too much.
4. Bake for approximately 12 minutes at 160°C.

Alternative methods

• Roll the balls in some granulated sugar before placing on baking tray for a simple sugary and buttery cookie.
• Roll the balls in a tbsp of granulated sugar and a tsp of cinnamon before placing on the baking tray. These are the original method and delicious and moorish.
• I added in a heaped teaspoon of chocolate powder to about a quarter of the dough and rolled the mixture around some chocolate ganache for a nice chocolately centre for each cookie.
• I also tried the chocolately centre for the plain sugared versions.

Happy baking!