CheeseToast

This time it’s good old fashioned fish and chips (‘fries’ for the US readers). This one was inspired by the delicious meal Andrea and I had at Gran & Grandpa’s house when we went for a visit back in March. Grandpa showed me an excellent new way of cooking the fish so that it’s nice and moist. The fish is cooked with seasoned breadcrumbs.

My previous attempts at cooking fish have been varied, but I usually find that when I fry the fish it turns out too greasy and when I use the oven it always dries it out. Grandpa showed me that by lightly grilling the fish you can get it just right!

Although the original meal used haddock, for this dish I used tilapia. I dipped the fish in a beaten egg to get it sticky and then rolled it around in the breadcrumbs. I seasoned the breadcrumbs with some salt and garlic. Once the fish is properly covered I placed it on a oiled baking tray. Grandpa told me that to stop the fish from getting dry it’s good to spray a little olive oil on top. This seems to work very well.

Once under the grill you should see the fish turned white. Turn it over half way and prod with a fork until it starts to fall apart a little. If it’s a think slice of fish remember to make sure that it’s cooked all the way through.

Serve with some oven chips with salt and vinegar, mmmm. If you like you can sprinkle some lemon juice on the fish alongside some tartar sauce.

Grandpa, if there’s anything I’ve forgotten to mention then please feel free to leave a comment on the site.

Last month saw in our grandparent’s diamond wedding anniversary (60 years). To mark the special occasion I decided to make a three-tier wedding-style cake (not a small challenge as I had never baked/cake decorated on this scale before!). I found a wedding cake recipe on the BBC Good Food website that looked easy to follow and had rave reviews.  What also drew me to this recipe was the type of cakes included: chocolate cake on the bottom, lemon cake in the middle and a light fruit cake on top.

I was really pleased with how the cakes turned out. The chocolate cake was probably the best cake I’ve ever made and I had good reports about the lemon and fruit cake too. I had a practice trial run with the lemon cake so I knew the next time not to include the full amount of lemon juice as it had been too moist the first time round.

I used fondant icing to cover the cakes. As this was the first time I had made a cake like this, I left the cake quite simple. Next time, I think I would be more extravagant and use sugar past (or gum paste) to add some decoration to the cake.

I will be making these cakes again for sure!

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4578/creating-your-wedding-cake

Rating:

This is an amazing soup and very easy to make if you have the spices lying around. First of all you just sauté some onions, add the potatoes and simmer them in some milk and chicken broth for about 10 mins. Once they are tender then add the fancy spices and some cream. Simmer it up a little and you’re good to go.

I didn’t manage to get any photographs for this recipe. I took a couple, but they didn’t do it any justice. I’ll make sure to take some next time I make it!

There is also a very helpful recipe that walks you through each step, photographs included. It suggests that you blend the soup to create a creamy texture. If, like me, you are too lazy I can assure you that it tastes just great without any blendage. This soup is a quite spicy so if you’d rather have it mild then go easy on the cayenne pepper.

This is one of my favourite recipes so far. Easy to make and hard to go wrong.

Recipe Link: Smokey Corn Soup

Rating:

Since we were having some Indian curry again, I decided to make the naan bread myself. This is quite a simple little recipe, very similar to the last bread posting I made, although you grill/broil the bread instead of bake it. It also has minced garlic in it, which adds a really nice flavour.

The bread turned out nice and crispy around the edges, just the way I like it. Unfortunately it didn’t match up to restaurant standard, but I’m sure I can track down a better recipe in future. Also, it required a fair bit of sugar which made it a little too sweet for my taste. Certainly worth a try.

Recipe Link: Naan bread

Rating:

Last weekend was superbowl Sunday so we made something a little different. Amanda found a recipe for Stromboli. I had no idea what it was until I read about it. Basically it’s bread with a cheese and salami filling.

After making the dough for the bread we just spread it into a large rectangle and put the fillings on one half. We used some provolone, mozzarella, and salami (the recipe suggests pepperoni, but whatever). You can also throw in some sliced ham if you feel so inclined. Once you’ve got all your ingredients in there you just wrap it up nice and tight, brush on some oil with oregano and throw it in the over to bake for about 45 mins.

The result was a nice golden brown loaf. Slicing it open and watching the cheese ooze out was certainly one of the best parts. Unfortunately we didn’t use enough cheese on the inside so it turned out a little dry. If you try it, don’t be afraid to use A LOT of cheese in there.

The photographs we took of the cheese oozing out didn’t do it much justice (in fact it was quite gross) so you’ll have to settle with one that just looks like a regular loaf of bread.

It’s definitely one I’d try again. I’m sure it will be even tastier the second time round.

Recipe Link: Stromboli

Rating:

I was looking for a good carrot cake recipe and I found this one on the BBC Good Food website which had received a lot of good reviews. It was relatively simple to make and was as good as the reviews suggested- it was moist and scrumptious! I would make this one again. Although walnuts are one of the ingredients, the cake is still good without them. The recipe for frosting was also good, although half the amount would be plenty to cover the cake.

Recipe link: Carrot cake

Rating:

I wanted to make a nice chocolate dessert so I chose a chocolate and hazelnut torte. It was really tasty; the ground hazelnuts give it a nice texture and the dark chocolate gives it a nice rich taste. If I was to make it again I would have some whipped cream to go alongside it as recommended, as it was a little dry. 

We didn’t have any orange liqueur but we had some cherry liqueur in the cupboard which did the trick. It was also lovely the next day with a cup of hot choc!

Recipe link: Chocolate and hazelnut torte

Rating:

These chocolate truffles are nice as an after-dinner treat. The main ingredient is crushed digestive biscuits so these are unlike traditional truffles made with ganache (cream and melted chocolate). They are very simple to make. The truffles can be covered in either coconut (recommended) or cocoa (or hot chocolate) powder.

Ingredients:

• 12 digestive biscuits
•  3 tbsp cocoa
• 3 tbsp coconut
• 75g margarine or butter
• 6 tbsp condensed milk.

Method: Crush biscuits then add the cocoa and coconut (optional).  Put margarine/butter and condensed milk in a pan. Melt on a low-medium heat. Add to the dry ingredients.

Serves: around 12 truffles.

Rating:

I wanted a basic cupcake recipe so I could try out my new icing piping bags. I chose a vanilla cupcake recipe; simple but still yummy. I watched a useful video on techniques for using piping bags to decorate cakes. For these cakes I used the star-shaped nozzle.

Recipe link: Vanilla cupcakes

Technique Link: Using piping bags

Rating:

These are really tasty double chocolate muffins. The more chocolate chips, the better! They are made with oil (sunflower oil, although I used olive oil since I had it) rather than butter, which makes them nice and moist like muffins should be. Delish!

Recipe link: Chocolate Muffins