Cute as a button!

Aaaw how adorable are these shortbread button biscuits!? The most gorgeous pastel colours and such a sweet concept.

The simple ideas are always the best. Such an easy way to cutesy up your tea time. Granny would be pleased.

Read how they were made here. I'm smitten!

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Mmmm salsa

If you ever need to spice up a dish, here's a winning number.... This salsa is fresh, sophisticated and colourful! I've tried it with salmon and tuna, and am going to try it with chicken next.

So here's how to make it. This is for 6 people and it makes a lot! There's a lot of preparation but it's SO easy to put together...

1 mini cucumber/1/2 cucumber
1 Papaya
1 Mango
1/2 red onion

2 red chillies

20g fresh ginger

2 lemons
2 limes
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp caster sugar
2 tbsp fish sauce
6 piece of Fish/Meat

- Peel the cucumber, papaya, mango and onion and chop them into 1 cm size pieces or however big you like.

- Cut the chilli into fine slices, removing the seeds. Take the skin off the ginger and chop into tiny pieces.

- Grate the rinds of the lemons and limes and then squeeze all the juice into a cup.

- Now mix ALL of the ingredients into a bowl, and add the olive oil, caster sugar and fish sauce and stir. Easy as that!

- Leave to sit for an hour or two. Or you can keep it in the fridge, will last for about 2 days, and then take out about 30 mins before you serve so it's at room temperature and not freezing cold.

Voila! It is SO fresh and tasty and jazzes up any dish. Love it.

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Flourless Chocolate Brownies :)

Continuing with my weekend cook-a-thons, I made Flourless Chocolate Brownies last weekend courtesy of Nigella. They are SO easy to make, and taste divine if I say so myself! Because there's no flour in them they are super squidgy and gooey which is just how I like my brownies. Very rich and a real hit for dinner parties. Everyone loves them!

So here's the recipe:

Ingredients for the brownie:

225g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids
225g butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
200g of caster sugar (I used brown sugar)
3 eggs, beaten
150g ground almonds
100g chopped walnuts (I just used a bag of mixed nuts)

1) Preheat the oven to 170C/gas mark 3. Melt the chocolate and butter gently over a low heat in a heavy-based saucepan.

2) Take the pan off the heat, mix in the vanilla and sugar, and let it cool a little (so that when you add the egg in a minute the mixture doesn't cook it!)


3) Beat the eggs into the pan along with the ground almonds and chopped walnuts. Turn into a 24cm square baking tin, or, most sensibly, use a foil one.


4) Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, by which time the top will have set but the mixture will still be gooey.


5) Let it cool down completely. I was too impatient and when I tried to cut it into squares I made a real mess because it wasn't cool enough, so try and wait as long as poss if you can bear it! Then just cut into however many/whatever size/shape bites of deliciousness as you like!


You can also make a chocolate sauce to pour over the top if you're feeling like a chocolate blow out. Here's how to make it:


Ingredients for the sauce:


75g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids
125ml double cream
2 teaspoons of espresso powder dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
1 x 15 ml tablespoon golden syrup


1) Break up the choc and put into a heavy-based saucepan.


2) Add the remaining ingredients, the place the pan over a gentle heat and let everything melt together. Mmmm.


3) Once everything has melted, stir well, take off the heat and pour into a jug to serve.


4) Lick the spoon :)


Enjoy!


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Saturday brunch ideas?

Mmmm, check out these bad boys. Spinach pancakes, cherry tomato ragout and a poached egg. Quick, easy and good for you! They'll set you up for a fabulous Saturday. Enjoy!

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Oatmeal, Dark Ginger Chocolate and Brazil Nut Cookies

I LOVE OATS! I just love them. Probably have them every day of my life now I think about it. Big fan.

So... Following my weekend challenge cook-a-thon, last weekend I made Oatmeal, Dark Ginger Chocolate and Brazil Nut Cookies. Rather good if I say so myself. Ate a bit too much of the mixture so could only stomach one actually cooked cookie (got it in time so the chocolate was still runny.... Mmmm). But it was terribly easy to make -

I used Nigella's recipe with my own addition of Dark Ginger Chocolate (Green and Blacks) and Brazil Nuts. Some tips for next time:

The mixture didn't stick together very well when I tried to roll them into balls, so I added two egg yolks to the mixture which did help a bit. So maybe don't use as much flour as she suggests. I'd say 75g instead of 100g.

I also made them WAY too big and bulky, rather than flat little cookies. This is partly because I wanted to try and get in as much choc and nuts as possible, but also because I am greedy and wanted massive cookies! But in hindsight, the ones I made were a meal in itself, so make small little balls - the size of a tangerine, and then squash them down so they are quite flat.

Apart from that this is a really quick and easy recipe, and you can add any ingredients you like in to the mix! I'm going to try peanuts and white chocolate next time!

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Espresso Martini

You've had a big meal, eaten too much, and are in a full on food coma... But you're going out to party and need a kick start! Hmmmm, what to do?

Order yourself an Espresso Martini! This was introduced to me at a cocktail party last week and it is definitely my favourite cocktail of the moment - a sweet chilled coffee that produces all the desired effects. You'll be bouncing up to party in no time! So here's how to make it:

Pre-chill a Martini glass

Get a cocktail mixer and pour in:

1.5 shots (37.5ml) vodka

0.5 shots of kahlua

1 shot of espresso

As much sugar syrup (gomme) to your liking

Then, shake the mixture with ice and fine strain it into the pre-chilled Martini glass. It should be a gorgeous coffee colour with a small froth on the top.

Sip and enjoy... Not for a quiet evening in. 2 or 3 of these babies will keep you buzzing all night!

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Pearl Barley... Mmmm...

I'm trying to teach myself how to cook. I am a LOT more practised at eating food than cooking it, so I've set myself the challenge of cooking something new once a week for my housemates/guinea pigs.

Pearl barley is my new favourite foodstuff and I wanted to make something with this as the main ingredient. This grain has a low GI and is a great source of vitamin B - so it's not only yummy but full of goodness too! It's normally used in soups, stews or salads but I took inspiration from my delicious meal at Bocca di Lupo to use it as a risotto base. I had a flick through 'Jamie's Italy' and found the recipe for a 'Wild Mushroom and Parsley risotto'. Not a fan of parsley myself, I replaced it with rocket to get some good old greens in there and it worked a treat! So here's how to make 'Wild Mushroom and Rocket pearl barley risotto'...

Ingredients for 4 people -

For the risotto base:

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Few knobs of butter

Sea Salt

Black Pepper

Half a chopped onion

1 chopped garlic clove

350g pearl barley

3 pints of Veg/chicken stock

1 glass of white wine

150g Parmesan

Half a lemon

For the tasty bits:

1 tablespoon of olive oil

Knob of butter

25g of dried porcini mushrooms

Half a pint of boiled water

15 smallish chestnut mushrooms, sliced

Fresh thyme is preferable but dried thyme is ok too

2 chopped garlic cloves

Sea salt

Black pepper

1. Preparation = Heat up the stock. Turn on the oven to 200 C. Chop up the onions and 1 clove of garlic and put aside. Slice the chestnut mushrooms and chop the other 2 garlic cloves and set aside so that it's ready to go a bit later. Grate the parmesan. Tear up the rocket/spinach. Add half a pint of boiled water to the dried porcini mushrooms in a glass bowl/jug. Let the porcinis sit and rehydrate for 30 mins and create a yummy stock.

2. Heat a knob of butter and tablespoon of olive oil in the pan you will use to cook the risotto. Cook the onion and garlic over a low heat for around 10 mins so that they go soft but do not colour. You want them to look translucent.

3. Once the onions and garlic have cooked, turn up the heat and fry the pearl barley for around 2 minutes, turning the grains over in the pan so that they are cooked all over. They do not go translucent like normal risotto rice, but just trust that after 2 minutes they are ready for the stock to be added. Add a pinch of sea salt and lots of black pepper (whatever your taste) to season, and the glass of white wine. Make sure that the pan is hot enough so that the alcohol burns off.

4. Add the first 2 ladle-fulls of stock. Stir and turn down the heat to medium high so that the pearl barley is simmering. Keep adding the stock so that the risotto is always well hydrated, and remember to stir continuously so that the risotto doesn't burn or stick together. Put 1 tablespoon of olive oil in an oven tray and heat up in the oven.

5. In another frying pan heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Once hot, sauté the sliced mushrooms and garlic for a minute. Then, add the sautéed mushrooms and garlic to the hot oven tray. Season with salt and pepper, and mix in a knob of butter and a handful of fresh thyme. Return the tray to the oven and roast for 5 - 6 minutes. Don't forget to keep stirring the risotto! Once the mushrooms are roasted, take out of the oven and put to the side.

6. Pour the porcini stock into the risotto and stir in. When the risotto is cooked to your liking, take off the heat. Add most of the parmesan (but leave a little bit so you have enough left to sprinkle on the top of each plate!), and another knob of butter if you want. Season with more salt if needed, and black pepper. Squeeze in half a lemon. Cover and let it rest. Heat up the plates.

7. Now time to mix in the rest of the ingredients... Stir in the roasted mushrooms and juices from the oven tray, porcini mushrooms and rocket. This is when it all comes together :)

8. Take the plates out from the oven and serve out your delicious Wild Mushroom and Rocket pearl barley risotto! Sprinkle a little bit of parmesan or thyme on the top, or both.

9. Enjoy! And have seconds....!

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