steamed pork buns

These are a revelation! Leftover meat need never be dull again!

I go this recipe basically from Jamie Oliver's money saving meals. It's a lovely way to feed a crowd with a very easy but complicated looking, yummy load of little hot, yummy buns of loveliness. And ready in 30 mins!

Makes 8 buns (serves 2-3 hungry peeps)

Ingredients:

250g self raising flour (or plain with a couple of level teaspoons baking powder)

200ml milk (or water at a pinch)

1/2 tsp salt

150-200g leftover roast meat (I used pork but chicken would work, or even prawns, ham etc would probably work. Or stir fried veggies even. Or tofu?!)

Big squidge tommy K mixed with 1/2 tsp chinese 5 spice and a good dash of dark soy sauce OR bbq sauce mixed with spice.

Method:

First, chop your cooked meat / filling stuff, and mix with the sauce.

Then, mix the flour with the salt and milk. give it a good mix so there are no lumps; it will possibly be a bit sticky, so sprinkle it with a little more flour in order to handle it. Split it into 8 equal pieces.

Flatten each piece into a round patty about the size of the palm of your hand (or maybe smaller, I have unusually small hands for a lanky person), fill with a decent teaspoon of mixture, and squidge the dough all around it so the meat is fully encased. Repeat until you have 8 little balls with a surprise inside!

Place said balls into non stick paper bun cases, and arrange them in a bamboo steamer basket or a metal steamer over an inch of boiling water (or a posh standalone steamer!), and steam for 15 minutes. They will puff up and be gloriously light and chewy. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve with any kind of dipping sauce and a mountain of stir fry veg. Yummers!!

Around the world... Bolivia!

Oooh, this was a weird one but a good'un! Humintas is the recipe, I compiled the recipe below from a few I found online.

This is a savory baked version of a classic South American recipe. It's a corn based cheesy cake... Sounds weird, tasted lush with a salad of tomatoes, peppers, coriander, marinated onion and borlotti beans for a midweek dinner.

Recipe (serves 4 or 6 as a starter/ lunch)

1/2 cup plain flour

1/2 cup fine semolina

1 tsp baking powder

2 big tins (280g each) sweetcorn

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup flavourless oil

1/2 cup low fat yogurt

2 eggs

Splash milk

Good grating of mature cheddar

Pinch of chilli powder

Method

1. Line an 8" square baking tin and put the oven on to 180 degrees C.

2. Put the flour, semolina, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

3. Plop the eggs, yogurt, oil, one tin of sweet corn and milk into a jug and blitz with a stick blender for a few seconds until mainly blended.

4. Stir the yellow corn mix into the dry ingredients and the stir in the corn which you didn't blend in.

5. Bake for 20 mins, then sprinkle the cheese and chilli on top and bake for another 10 mins.

Yum :)

JB x

Around the world in 80ish (kind of) bakes... India!

So we've arrived in India. Due to being away last week, this week I'm starting in India and ending in Argentina... exciting times!

Today was a little bit of a cheat... I had to do something savoury as we were starving, and having eaten the WORLD in Cornwall last week (pasties, clotted cream, scones, ice cream, scones, more ice cream etc on repeat until near nausea) I wanted something kind of healthy.

So Indian cuisine is one of my faves - Daddy Webb makes some pretty amazing curries, and I'm often o be found making my own naan and curry spice mixes. They're not as good as they could be, but I LOVE making and eating Indian food! So today, we have... the bakes Samosa.

Sorry India, these are probably as authentic as Sharon Osbourne's face. But they are rather delicious, rather easy, and rather healthy. Winners all round?!

Not a beauty contest winner - I made them a bit wonky due to laziness!

Ingredients - makes 12 samosas

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 big or 2 small cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 red chilli, finely chopped (mine was homegrown and pretty h-h-hot, so I deseeded it but feel free to leave yours in)
• 2cm piece of ginger, grated
• 1/2 tsp nigella seeds
• 1/2 tsp tumeric
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 3 medium potatoes, microwaved until soft (10 mins or so) or cooked and mashed (I like the skins on)
• Couple of tablespoons of frozen peas
• 1 cup wholemeal bread flour
• large pinch salt
• water

Method

1. Dough - mix the flour and salt with enough water to make a firm dough and knead for 5-7 minutes. Set aside.
   

2. Filling - gently saute the onion in a little butter or oil until softening, then add the chilli, garlic, ginger and nigella seeds. Yummy...

3. Cook for another minute or two, then add the rest of the spices and a pinch of salt. Mash in the potatoes, then add the peas...

4. Filling done! Time to assemble...

First, roll out the dough and cut into strips about 2-3 inches wide. Put a big teaspoon of filling into the dough, and stretch the rolled out dough around the filling and pinch it well to seal.

 You should have about 12ish samosas. At this point, you could pop them in the fridge or freezer (well wrapped) until you need to use them. When you want them, just bake them at 200C for 20 minutes (or 25 from frozen I would think).

Done!! Argentina next...


JB x