Crustless Pizza - Round Two and with Pretty Plates!

I know I have blogged Nigella's Crustless Pizza before but it really is delicious, frugal and so easy I make it regularly, and with some minor adaptions the last one was perfect!

Following the same base, I substituted the previous cherry tomatoes for a couple of diced up sundried tomatoes from a jar and they added such a lovely earthy, sweet tang to the mixture!

Serves two:

1 egg
100g plain flour
250ml milk

4 sundried tomatoes (in oil) finely chopped
Pinch salt
Butter for greasing
100g grated mature cheddar cheese 

Pre-heat your oven, 200/ gas 6/ fan 180

Lightly beat the egg with the flour, salt, slowly adding the milk to form a smooth batter and add 3/4 of the tomatoes and half of the cheese

Grease a large pie dish, pour in the batter, and bake for 30-35 minutes until just cooked through.

Top with the remaining cheese and tomatoes and return to the oven until the cheese has melted and is all lovely and golden brown. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes in the dish, it will make it easier to remove from the dish!

Slide onto your lovely new pizza plates and serve!

Good side dishes are something simple like rocket, dressed in a little of the oil left from the tomatoes and pine nuts. Or also on this occasion I pan fried courgettes, peppers, sundried tomatoes and seasoned with smoked paprika and served warm alongside. Delicious! (Apologies for awful picture - was taken under very bad lighting in previous flat!)

My new lovely 'Alessi Pummaroriella Piatti' Pizza Plates plates are from Red Candy, who have lots of lovely things to drool over on their website. They are just the right size for serving (or eating!) pizza on and 'feel' so nice to touch! They are made of fine porcelain but feel equally solid and I love them! The designs are both cute and funky and will make a great addition to your kitchen.

Many thanks to Ariane at Red Candy

Channel Island Eating

Hellooooo I am back, in my new home (remind me not to move and go away in the same week!) and at long last have wifi again. Oh And Sky telly! So I can sit here watching tv (I.e. the food channel) and from the comfort too of the new futon! Blogging just got a whole lot better!

I recently spent 10, mostly glorious days eating and walking my way around Guernsey, Sark and Jersey and whilst I don't have as many foodie pictures as some of the places it *just didn't feel right* to take pictures, you will have to drool over the scenery and ice creams!

There were among bar meals some very nice treats - one meal was at a place called Auberge, nestled up on picturesque hillsides over looking the sea. Fortunately Dad paid for this one!

I liked my starter of raw scallops with fennel and apple, though the dressing was a little tart and it was my first time eating raw scallops...they themselves were soft like butter and delicious!

My main was a perfectly cooked loin of Lamb, served on a bed of wilted little gem lettuce, crispy salty pancetta, crisp asparagus and peas. We also shared side dishes of tender broccoli with sesame seeds on and perfectly cooked mange tout.

However the pudding was the ultimate in desserts and was simply titled 'Coffee' this beauty consisted of a little cup containing a layer of coffee infused pannacotta, topped with espresso jelly that was like wow and finished with a lighter than air tiramisu foam, served with warm amaretti biscuits!

My favourite meal however of the trip came as a surprise. Outside, the place didn't look much more than a cafe, we were wandering off the main seafront as the bars were heaving and the noise overwhelming after the quiet of Guernsey, and stumbled across Bracewell's. The menu was a mixture from Japanese vegetable tempura to Beef Carpaccio, a strange menu to read but surprisingly inviting. Inside it still didn't feel much more than a cafe but the food was simply perfect, not much cheaper than our meal at Auberge but I preferred it, it was relaxed, friendly waiting staff and perfect food after an afternoons travelling!

We started with fresh little balls of foccacia, then I had for the first time ever a Pear Carpaccio - perfect slivers of ripe pear, topped with walnuts, heavenly cream cheese. I think there might have been something else but it was literally perfect. Light, tasty and just right! Definitely something I want to make at home! We then shared another first - Horseradish icecream with rocket and parmesan shavings. Delicious, confusing, hot but cold. Bizarre but the right kind of bizzare! Pudding was a lemony concoction of meringue and cream, but was the chewy kind which doesn't float my boat... but overall was a great meal and was a shame I get paid so little and couldn't really justify a repeat visit!

In our first hotel on Guernsey, we ate in the hotel restaurant several evenings but the highlight was their seafood buffet evening - beautiful poached salmon, smoked salmon, giant prawns, little prawns, you name it! Oh and it included a huge choice of cold cut meats, slices of mozzarella and this was only the starter...

Just one of the many ice cream's eaten..

My big ass Texan burger stuffed with onion rings and cheese mmm (and Dad's huge pie in the background!)

More ice-cream? Go on then - this was half a pint of scoops of strawberry, vanilla and choc chip, topped with hot chocolate sauce!

Towards the end of the holiday, the cost of eating out every night was quickly adding up, and one night we opted for good old Fish and chips, with added calamari and a pot of their yummy home made garlic mayo, eaten whilst watching the sun set over Gorey seafront:

Whilst being closely watched for any dropped chips by the seagulls!

Another super cheap dinner was a beach picnic in Jersey watching the sunset at Le Pulente – we had popped into a local shop and picked up some yellow sticker bargain items including a tub carrot houmous @ 38p, large sausage roll for 20p, a packet of Le Roule cheese for 51p! Added in some rolls, crisps and a few bottles of J20 and it was apart from being a bit chilly, quite perfect!

Whilst on Jersey, we also had a lovely beach picnic overlooking Elizabeth castle, how better than to do a picnic in style with a mini bottle of Prosecco!

A little more ice-cream..though this was my dads!

 Our last evening in Jersey, paddling through the waves!

There were a couple of not so good meals.. I got served hot steak pie pie with ice cold mashed potato..which the restaurant then zapped in the microwave = inedible on every level not to mention burning my mouth! We received free drinks but was such a disappointment to the evening! O and waiting 45 minutes in a cafe for a prawn sandwich... but overall we ate very, very well and I can't wait to return!

As well as eating, and a little drinking..I did the whole tourist thing, visiting an awesome wildlife park, exploring castles and crossing scary causeways on Sark but one thing you cannot fail to notice is the constant reminders of the 2nd World War, when both Guernsey and Jersey were under German occupation. It was sobering to visit the memorials and reminded me how lucky we are to have our freedom to live our lives now. May we never forget.

Back soon!

I am sadly approaching the end of my holidays in the beautiful channel islands :(

But I suppose I have to return to the real world sometime...

Food and drink has been a plenty - will be salad and porridge when I return!

We have gone from Michelin dining, feasting upon raw diver caught scallops......to fish and chips watching the sunset! And both were equally delicious!

This is how beach picnics can be glamorous - a bottle of chilled prosecco in the sun!

Back soon! 

Anne

x

Lately in Anne's Kitchen...

This post is a round-up affair style of what has been happening in my kitchen....

Last week I moved house.

Why do I never learn? 6 times in 10 years and still not mastered packing and get super stressed to the point of swearing at people and getting far too emotional

there are still boxes everywhere...as we can't fully unpack due to housing people not installing promised furniture...

The new (shared, gulp) kitchen is tiny..and my saucepans are currently living in the communal hallway in a large old freezer bag. Super practical.

so we have to put shelves up...I am a girl and the drill is too heavy on this mornings attempt to put up a coat rack!

So, what's a girl to do?

Option a) Never move again. Unfortunately this will probably not be our home forever as is tied to my employment..

Option b) Contemplating selling all bar 10 favourite cookery books. I had more boxes of books than anything else packed. (This thought does however give me nightmares)

Option c) Win the lottery and buy a very big house. This would require buying a ticket however and luck.

Option d) Be patient and wait for my man to move in and get him to put the shelves up whilst I bake something nice to eat after!

But my favourite option of all? Eat more chocolate.

Say hello new lovely bag of Cadbury's Crispello!

Little chocolately filled and coated wafery parcels, eaten in one greedy or two sensible bites!

These were very popular too with my helpers who assisted my housemove, I am shocked I had any left but did fob them off with the crisps etc so more for me haha!

 Thankyou to Anya for my samples!

After the dust had settled, the discovery of local pizza place and basic kitchen items placed in appropriate cupboards, this was the first meal I cooked and ate - a quick spinach and mushroom curry, made using some chana masala spice mix and randomly some leftover black olives! Oh and a little peshwari naan warmed in the toaster, which I found in the 'carbs' box! 

And just before the house move - my guilty pleasure of shop bought garlic bread! One piece is just never enough!

Last but not least another pre-moving meal from the archives - a random assortment of fridge suprise by frying mushrooms, adding balsamic syrup and a wedge of brie, stir together and spooned onto rice cakes as I was out of bread. A great little lunch and worth repeating!

At long last too my holiday has come around, so I will abandoning you for the next fortnight but hopefully will return with lots of lovely food pictures to drool over!

Anne xx

Espresso, Chocolate and Ginger Pudding Cake

Coffee coffee coffee is mainly what I have been consuming these past few days, all in the name of research you see! De'Longhi set me a challenge to create a dessert, using their Vintage Icona Bar Pump coffee machine. Unfortunately when you work shifts for a living, fitting blogging and trial runs around can be a challenge in itself, and I found myself Saturday night priming the machine and making a few test espresso's, Bedtime was very late that night!

After mastering the machine, which is far easier when you have read the instruction booklet before the quick start guide its amazingly quick to product the perfect espresso! There is the option of single or double filtered, both which produce a beautifully smooth espresso in moments. I have also used the espresso to make my favoured americano coffee and have been very impressed by the results.

Preparing the coffee - I am learning to just slightly under fill it as otherwise I can't get it to clip into the machine:

The perfect Espresso - 

So now the coffee was mastered, it was on to making something sweet with its results! I did have ideas of creating a somewhat fanicer dessert than cake but then reality reminded me that all my cookery books are currently boxed up ahead of moving house at the end of this week, and the fact is fancy desserts are not really an area I am experienced in. The other challenge was that most of my cooking items were also boxed up, and I had to take my ingredients over to my mums house in order to bake so I had to be relatively organised with my planning for once!

When doing my planning, I started by writing down a few ideas, then deciding what flavour's work well with coffee, I.e. dates, chocolate, cream, cardamom, rum, ginger....and allowing for my current circumstances what was going to be achievable! Mum was in the kitchen helping me to decide and sniffing the selection of ingredients, ginger is not the best one to sniff!

Cake is something I don't think you can go too wrong with, and I decided to go along the lines of a pudding style of cake, baked in a dish rather than an iced type of sponge. One of the thoughts was sticky coffee pudding, rather than sticky toffee but I couldn't decide on whether to make a seperate sauce or bake it in the style of a self saucing pudding... I wanted to get the espresso flavour really into the cake, and soaked the dates for a good few hours in freshly made espresso, before incorporating it all into the mixture. The final result was a surprisingly light and moist cake, with a nice, smooth espresso flavour, compared to a coffee cake, which has an entirely different taste. 

Ingredients:

225ml freshly brewed single espresso

100g ready to eat dates, chopped up

150g Self raising flour

175g butter or margarine

Butter for greasing dish

25g good quality cocoa powder - I always use a Polish one

3 eggs beaten

1 tsp baking powder

100g cinnamon infused sugar (from Sainsbury's)

1tsp ground ginger 

Start by soaking the chopped dates in the espresso for at least two hours

Pre-heat oven to gas 4

1) Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy

2) Mix together the dried ingredients

3) Using a handwhisk or similar, add a third or so of the egg to the butter mixture, followed by about a third of the dried mixture, mix and repeat until fully incorporated.

4) Fold in the dates, reserving the soaking liquid

5) Butter the baking dish - I used a large rectangular pyrex dish, roughly a4 sized

6) Fill the dish with cake mixture and smooth over. Pour over the reserved liquid and bake for 55 minutes, or until the sponge bounces back. It should be moist inside but cooked through

7) Portion up and serve with lashings of custard or cream

Mum loved the cake, I think I would make a teeny bit sweeter next time but that's because I have a sweeter tooth!

New in my kitchen this week...well actually in the dining room!

Those who know me, know I like flowers. Pretty flowers. Though they do die off far to quickly and you end up left with a stinky vase and spending a good afternoon scrubbing it if like me you have neglected it for a few days... I will never be a domestic goddess and therapy has taught me that I am perfect just the way I am... the next best thing for me is anything flowery patterned...and my tablecloth from Dunelm Mill is simply quite perfect!

The pattern comes from a range called Homestead, and I had previously bought a seat cushion in the range for my office chair (ha office..more like desk / dressing table/ stationary storage etc in my bedroom, and I love it!) So when the nice pr lady for Dunelm Mill got in touch, I decided to extend to my small range and chose the 'Homestead' tablecloth, to go on my dining table. Though this is my old dining table...once again I have restless feet and am moving house again next week! I am starting to resent having so many cookery books...

Here you can see it underneath a rather delicious Cappuchino cake my super mum baked for my birthday! (And yes they are Christmas crackers...we are a special family!)

So back to my lovely tablecloth- its really good quality. It consists of a thick cotton and polyester blend, which has been treated with 3m Scotchguard and claims that stains will simply wash out without any pre-treatment. Despite having my brother over last week for dinner, it remained fairly unblemished so I will find out at some point in the future how true this claim is! (I am sorry dear brother if you read this but I never got any of those wine stains out of the previous tablecloths!)

Many thanks to Dunelm mill and Jennifer from Diffusion PR for all your help.