Fast day dinner - courgette lasagne

Sorry for lack of pictures, I completely forgot (bad blogger!). 

So after a birthday spent on the sofa in 30 degree heat under a duvet shivering like a sickly newborn giraffe, I can report that yesterday saw my return to food (nearly). Having not eaten really for 3 days I took it slowly, food still kind if made me want to retch. Nice.

Anyway, moving swiftly on... Courgettes. I have 2 plants at the moment making courgettes of amusing shapes and sizes for all they're worth. I reckon we're getting at least one a day on average, and I still have 2 plants maturing; think I may have got overexcited with the seeds! Anyway, it's making me more inventive. I actually did say the phrase the other day 'there's only so much you can do with a courgette'. Then heard what had come out of my mouth. Ahem.

This recipe is a skimmed down version of a BBC recipe, and by my calculations had 250 cals per quarter. But feel free to bulk up if you're not an idiot that doesn't eat two days a week ;). It's excellent for you and I have to say, pretty ruddy lovely. Even Mr B was a fan.

Ingredients:

4 courgettes, grated coarsely and squeezed a bit to get rid of some water

250g fat free quark

2 cloves garlic

8 sage leaves

Few sprigs fresh thyme

Salt and pepper

5 lasagne sheets

2 tins tomatoes

1 red onion, finely diced

Handful of basil, torn

Squidge of tomato purée

Method:

Sweat the onion in a splash of water (I'd use olive oil if this wasn't a super low cal effort) until translucent then add tomatoes, purée and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer gently while you make the courgette stuff.

Mix courgettes, chopped sage and thyme, a good hefty pinch of salt and the garlic together, then add the quark so you have a pale green schmush. 

Layer up! Tomato, then courgette, then pasta, then tomato, then courgette on top. Maybe sprinkle the basil in and amongst while you go. You could go mad and grate a bit of nutmeg in too, that's an excellent idea I've only just had. Anyway, if you're making this for a normal day I'd add another layer of pasta and a healthy dose of cheese on top.

Bake it for 30-40 mins at 180 then dive in (it's hot, be careful!!). Not bad for 250 cals, eh?! 

Once again a demonstration that herbs are your bestest friend on a fasting day :)

JB

X

Brioche mark II

Well. I have found happiness. And, unsurprisingly, it contains a mildly alarming amount of butter.

Further to the last brioche post, I was a little disappointed with the results. Step forward Michel Roux Jr (not literally, that would have been far more exciting than me getting a book out of the cupboard. Which is what actually happened).

Anyway, this epic cloud of butter and egg enriched heaven was what emerged a mere 18 hours after the process began...

It was incredible...
Here is the recipe (slightly altered by my own incompetence but it worked beautifully all the same...). We froze half of it and it revived itself really nicely too. Again, I'd always use a machine as I don't have arms of steel (or even anything more solid than a rubber band).

• 15g fresh yeast
• 500g plain flour
• 6 eggs
• 1  tsp salt
• 50g (vanilla) sugar
• 250g unsalted french buttery loveliness (we used President), nice and soft and warm
• some egg wash to glaze

Method:
First, put the flour and yeast into a bowl and rub in the yeast, then add the eggs one at a time to your mixer with the dough hook on a reasonably slow speed. When it's all incorporated, it should become smooth and elasticy after about 5 mins. Then add the butter in a few additions, again with the mixer going, ensuring it's all thoroughly mixed in. Give it another 7 or so minutes at a slightly faster knead. You will create a silken ball of buttery wonder which you may want to stroke. When you can tear yourself away, put it into a clean bowl, cover with cling film and plonk it in the fridge overnight. Evening is ideal to do this bit - knock it back after 4 hours then go to bed, dreaming of Brioche clouds and asking for forgiveness from the Gods of cardiovascular disease.

In the morning your dough will be pretty solid but risen. Remove it from the fridge, give it a knead to wake it up gently, then place it into a loaf tin (well buttered). Cover with loose clingfilm (or put it in a pedal bin liner) and leave it to warm up and rise ay about 1/3 (about 2 hours or so). Preheat the oven to 180 and, giving it lots of headroom as it will puff up wonderfully) bake for 40 mins, adding a small foil hat after half an hour if it's looking a bit too brun (la Francais pour 'burnt'!). Leave it to cool if you can, then welcome to wheat and dairy heaven.

Vive la France!!

JB x

Christening cake

Here is little Ethan's christening cake :)

The recipe is from BBC good food and is FANTASTIC - just the right texture for a large cake as it's deliciously moist and just the right mixture between a madeira and a sponge. I've successfully scaled it up to a 12" round and also scaled it to do a 9" and 7" as here and it always comes out a treat - rises just enough to give a lovely light texture but not so much you have to cut loads off the height to get a flat surface (although offcuts are never a problem for the chef, or indeed the husband of the chef ;)).
Click for recipe link...

(Check me out, I learned links!)

The little dude also took a casual selfie last weekend when he was playing with my phone... had to put it in cos it's so cute!

He's not quite got the hang of the photography yet...!

Key lime pie and rose and chocolate cakes

...This weekend saw the sun and a BBQ for Mr and Mrs M's housewarming. I obviously took this as an excuse to bake...!

I followed the Hummingbird Home Sweet Home recipes to the letter and produced these lil beauties... Only changes were to pipe a rose onto the rose ones. 

If I were to make these again (and I definitely will!) I'd make the custard for the key lime pie cupcake frosting the day before as even though mine was cool, if it had been refrigerated I think I'd have been able to create a better finish (swirled or piped). I won't repeat the recipe here as they're both quite long, but here are pics and notes...

Zesty goodness for the lime curd filling for the key lime pie cakes 

Lime curd for the filling, chilling! So delicious I had to keep some for putting on toast. Will definitely repeat this bit on its own!

Vanilla sponges ready to fill... Cored...

And filled...

Custardy goodness slipped on

Choccy rose sponges

Filled with (blooming delicious) rose custard

Finished! Not a bad afternoon's work :)

JB

Brioche...

I did it. I made Brioche. The bread which is such a pain in the bum that even goddess Lorraine Pascale writes 'you can freeze the dough at this stage as you may be sick of it'. 

Well, I didn't have to. Inspired by a friend of Mr B who kindly sent him home from wok with a beautiful little brick bun the other week, I did it.

I used Lorraine Pascale's recipe, but in half quantities (below). However, it was good, but not as good as I had hoped, so I'll try another next time. Anyway, it was absolutely delicious warm and dipped in coffee for a Sunday morning breakfast.

Below is the recipe, the only thing I added was a handful of raisins soaked in amaretto for a couple of hours, then floured and added after the last bit of kneading. I used a mixer with a dough hook, I don't think I'd tackle it by hand!

Makes 8

Ingredients:

• 250g plain flour
• 10g fresh yeast
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 160g unsalted butter

Method:

• Put flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a mixer bowl with a dough hook.
• Add the eggs one by one, and knead really well until a smooth (very solid!) dough forms.

• Then, add the butter, bit by bit, and knead it for a good 10-15 minutes on a low speed, until it comes away from the bowl. This took ages and I had to keep scooping the dough off the sides of the bowl.

• The dough in the picture here isn't ready yet. I added the raisins after (see above picture).
• Then, put the dough in a greased muffin tim with little bobbles on top and leave it to rise, covered in oiled cling film, for a good 2-3 hours until doubled (the fat retards the yeast so it takes a while to rise).
• Then, bake at 180 degrees C for about 15-17 minutes. If after 12 they look a bit dark, put some baking parchment or foil on them.

Yum!

JB x

Egg free, butter free sponge cake (vegan)

Now here's a surprise.

I made this as an experiment, as I have had a few people asking me about egg free cakes. The recipe I found trawling the internet sound alike it would produce an inedible lump (or a 'pile of flour' as a friend suggested :)).

But this emerged from the oven...

Alarming. It actually tasted nice! The texture was fab, and the flavour not bad at all. See notes afterwards for how I'll change it next time, but here's the plain old cake recipe:

• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 1 cup water
•  6 tablespoons oil (neutral flavoured, meaning vegetable, sunflower or groundnut)
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method: mix all ingredients and whisk for a few seconds until smooth and non-lumpy. Place into two 20cm greased sandwich tins and bake at 175 (degrees C, fan assisted) for 20 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean. I cooled it then sandwiched it with jam (my home made jam which is a little runny, hence the artistic dribbling!)

Well, I have to say this was a revelation. My tips would be for future baking:

1. I think (so long as vegans weren't eating it!) I would use melted butter instead of the oil to give extra richness.

2. Milk would, again, in my view improve the depth of flavour in the place of water.

3. Normal flavourings could be added e.g. lemon zest, a couple of good tablespoons of cocoa powder, etc. 

Could also be adapted to make a gluten free dairy free effort by substituting gluten free flour blend for the plain flour, and ensuring you use gluten free baking powder. Although that would then be a vegan, gluten free cake which would blow my mind... This has unnerved me as I usually think anything made without copious amounts of butter and egg and gluten would taste pants. And if anyone makes it successfully using sugar substitute and gluten free flour I will indeed accuse you of witchcraft...!

JB

Bagels. The best bagels this side of NYC*

* I have no evidence for this. But they're bloody good. And easy!!! Do it!! For breakfast (ideally in bed delivered by an equally delicious partner of your choice) they take some beating.

A recent trip to the USA reignited my love of bagels - proper, chewy, soft, malty bagels, not the imitation things supermarkets here sell, which truly aren't bagels in my eyes! So for those if you who want to taste a proper bagel... Here's the recipe!

• 450-500g strong white bread flour
• 1 level teaspoon dried yeast
• 1 tablespoon malt extract (from holland and Barrett. Or use honey)
• 1 teaspoon salt (1 1/2 if using coarse salt)
• About 250ml warm water

Plonk ingredients together and make a dough. It should be quite firm and not at all sticky and after kneading for about 5-10 mins will look like a thing of smooth, satiny, slightly tense beauty.

Now the first bit of magic... Oil a bowl, plop the dough in and cling film it, then stick it in the fridge overnight. Or for however long you like. Then the next day (or whenever you want bagely goodness), remove from the fridge and make bagely shapes; either roll a sausage then loop it together or make a ball and poke a hole. Whichever way, make the hole a lot bigger than you thought you needed to, and put the bagels on an oiled baking sheet (or Teflon sheet). Cover with cling again and leave for an hour or so at room temp to puff up a bit more. This long fermentation time helps to develop flavour.

Now magic part number two... Being a large pan of water to the boil and add another spoon of malt extract and a teaspoon or so if bicarbonate of soda. Plop each bagel in for a minute, flip over, then drain and plop back onto the baking tray. Sprinkle with poppy seeds (or pumpkin, linseed etc if you like) and bake for 15 mins as hot as your oven will go.

Bloody lovely! Apologies for brief posting, trying to blog on the sly on my phone ;)