Victoria Sponge

The first cake I ever learnt to make was victoria sponge. I messed up making it several times however I was determined and practiced until it was perfect. I dont like to blow my own trumpet but I can honestly say it's the best victoria sponge I have ever eaten. This recipe book was my mums, it was old fashioned, pictures were in black and white and a bit tatty. I dont think my mum had ever even used it. Here we are though years later and it's my most prized possession. I wanted to share this recipe with you all 💕

8oz Self Raising Flour

8oz Mixture of margarine and butter

8oz Caster Sugar

2 teaspoon Vanilla essence

4 eggs

Dash of salt

Jam

Double Cream

Line two baking tins with greaseproof paper and set your oven to 180 degrees

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and leave to the side.

Add the butter and caster sugar and mix until it starts to get a creamy texture and the colour turns pale. Add the vanilla essence. Slowly add 1/4 of the flour and one egg and mix. Repeat until all the flour and eggs have been used and its mixed in.

Distribute your mixture between the two tins and put in the oven for 25-30mins. It should be done when you can put a piece of spagetti in it and it comes out clean.

Let it cool. Once mix the cream until fully whipped. Then spread the jam and cream on the cake and put together. Enjoy with a cup of tea x

BOLOGNESE

Why is mince the most tastiest, moorish meat? It can be a big filthy burger, super sloppy meatball, ring burner chilli or wholesome cottage pie, anything with mince in is delicious. To all you veggies, dont believe the hype about bacon, mince is the real god, even quorn mince is preety nice to be fair. For me though the mince dish that makes me weak at the knees is bolognese. Its rich, garlicy, meaty, boozy and quite frankly sexy. Have you seen lady & the tramp? Thats how they fall in love! This explains everything. So next time your planning on wooing someone give them a plate full of bolognese, a glass of red wine, some garlic bread & a candle, they will be yours at first bite. 

I have fond memories of my lovely friends cooking bolognese, whether it was Abby in Madrid who fed us some super sexy bolognese & then we all went out with our garlicy breaths & meaty farts. Or Jo who when I am having a bad day seems to just magic up some bolognese in minutes (these are the kinds of friends you need to keep). It just seems that this humble dish isnt so humble after all, its everything you want and its guaranteed to make you feel warm & fuzzy. 

This is my take on bolognese, sometimes i also put one chilli in there but this ones the original. Play Barry White when eating & make for friends, lovers or mothers.

INGREDIENTS

500g Lean Beef Mince

400g Fresh Spaghetti

1 pack of Bacon Lardons

1 pack of Passata

2 Red Onions

1 Celery

1 Carrot

5 cloves of garlic

Grated Grana Padano

1 Beef Stock

1 Large Glass of red wine

2 Sprigs of fresh Rosemary

Handful of fresh basil

1tsp Dried Oregano

2 Bay Leaves

Garlic Bread

METHOD

Get a large saucepan & put on medium heat, add olive oil & fry the bacon until golden & crisp. Reduce heat & add onions, carrots, celery & garlic. Next remove leaves from rosemary & add. Fry until veg has softened. Add the mince and stir until brown all over. Add passata, basil (leave a sprig behind to serve), oregano, bay leaves, stock cube & wine. Give everything a stir & then let bubble away for 30/45 mins until flavours start to develop. Then season & add a little grana padano. Meanwhile boil some water & cook the fresh spagetti for about 5 mins. Once cooked drain & add the bolognaise sauce, give it all a good stir. Then serve with some grated grana padona, basil, garlic bread & bottle of wine!

Enjoy!

Baileys, Banana, Chocolate & Pecan Bread & Butter Pudding

This recipe is not for the faint hearted! Delicious but extremely filling & calorific, comfy clothes advised!

Ingredients

75g unsalted butter 

7-8 Slices of white bread

100g Caster Sugar

1 Vanilla Pod

4 Large Free Range Eggs

600ml Double Cream

600ml Semi-Skimmed Milk

4 Ripe Bananas

75g pecan nuts

100ml Baileys

100g Dark Chocolate

METHOD

Put the oven to 180c/350f/Gas 4. Butter all the bread on one side then cut into triangles. Whisk the sugar, vanilla seeds & eggs together the add cream & milk until smooth. Peel & roughly slice the bananas, then bash up pecans & chocolate. Grease your baking dish with butter, then layer bread (butter side up), choclate, pecans & Bananas. Drizzle over the baileys once done & finally pour over the cream until all bread is covered. Leave to stand until bread soaks up liquid (about 20 mins). Put in the oven for 35 mins until golden brown. Finish with a sprinkle of sugar on top & blowtorch until caramelized. 

Pad Kra Pao Gai - ผัดกระเพราไก่

Ingredients (Serves 1)

1 Egg

1 Chicken Breast

5 Cloves of garlic

4 Thai chillies

1 tsp Oyster Sauce

1 tsp Light Soy Sauce

1/2 tsp Sugar

1 tsp Dark Soy Sauce

1 Handful of Holy Basil (found in any good asian supermarket)

Method

Cut Chicken into strips. Put the chilli, garlic in pestle & mortar & ground to a paste. Heat wok, add a splash of oil, chilli & garlic paste, fry for about 20 seconds until fragrant. Toss in the chicken and cook. Once chicken has almost finished cooking add, oyster sauce, light soy sauce, sugar and the dark soy. Keep frying for another 30 seconds. Grab a handful of holy basil and toss into the pan, fold in the rest of mixture and turn off heat. Fry your egg and serve onto with some jasmine rice

Vegan Black Bean & Sweet Potato Caribbean Curry with Rice and Peas and Grilled Cinnamon Pineapple

Carribean food gets me so excited, there is something about it that feels fun. I am never sure if thats because it usually involves drinking rum and ting or if irs because my taste budes salvate over that sweet chilli heat that a scotch bonnet likes to warm you with. My first experiance of carribean food was in a field at Glastonbury, stoned and chowing in down on some delicious jerk chicken, since then I have matured somewhat and have been trying and experimenting with my own take on carribean cooking. 

This recipe is a great crowd pleaser and as its a one pot cook its great for when you have some extra marvalous guests that you want to look after and entertain asthe minimum fuss will allow you to concentrate on them

Serve with Lilt if your not drinking or Rum and Ting!

BLACK BEAN AND SWEET POTATO CURRY

2 Red Onions, 1 Diced, 1 Roughly Chopped

50g Ginger

Corriander 

2 tbsp Dark Rum

3 tbsp Jerk Seasoning

2 Thyme Sprigs

400g Chopped Tomatoes

4 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar

1 Scotch Bonnet (More if your Bold)

2 Limes

6 Cloves of Garlic

3 tbsp Demerara Sugar

2 Veg Stock Cubes

1 kg Sweet Potato

2 x 400g cans black beans

450g Roasted Red Peppers

Soften the diced onion in oil with the garlic. Once done turn off heat, whizz the roughly chopped onion, ginger, chilli, juice of the lime, rum, half of the corriander and jerk seasoning in a blender. Then add to the soften onion and garlic, fry until fragrant. Stir in Thyme, chopped tomatoes, vinegar, sugar and stock cubes with about 600ml of water, Simmer for 10mins. Then drop in the peeled and chopped sweet potato, simmer for 15/20 mins. Stir in the beans, chopped peppers and season, simmer for another 10 until potatoes start to become tender. Cool and leave (can be left for up to 2 days, if you make this in the morning and leave it until the evening though I think this would be best). When ready to eat, heat through and chop some corriander to serve with a squeeze of some lime. 

 

RICE AND PEAS

Brown Rice

2 x 400g Coconut Milk

Spring Onions

400g Kidney Beans

1 Veg Stock

1 tbsp All Spice

Cook the rice in coconut milk, juice of the kidney beans and beans, chopped up spring onion and all spice. As its brown rice it will take longer to cook so keep veg stock and water to a side to keep topping up rice. Season and serve once cooked

GRILLED CINNAMON PINEAPPLE

1 Pineapple  

2 tbsp Cinnamon

Sprinkle cinnamon on chopped pineapple. Cook on griddle pan until starts to caramalise and brown

Oozy Boozy Mushroom Risotto & Steak

Cooking with wine is always a dangerous move, I always plan a recipe writing "add one glass of wine", all I am doing is kidding myself really, I end up plonking half a bottle in & drinking the rest. This recipe is really delicious & heartwarming, I decided to serve steak with the risotto this time as I was having a dinner party and needed that va va voom but it can be enjoyed by itself as a vegetarian dish. That old rule "dont eat garlic & kiss someone" might apply to this recipe, I personally think thats a crap rule, garlic smooches for all I say. 

This recipe should always be served with nice wine, garlic bread & lovely people to enjoy it with.

Ingrediants

Steak (I used flat iron but each to their own)

1 stick celery

1 onion

15g dried porchini mushrooms

2 sprigs rosemary

1 chicken or vegie stock cube

300g arborio rice

1 glassof wine (or however much you decide to plonk in)

500g mixed mushrooms

3 sprigs thyme

Bulb of garlic

Parmesan Cheese

Butter

A lemon

Method

Place the onion, celery & dried porchini in food processor & pulse until finely chopped. Put some olive oil in a frying pan & add the mixture. Stir while it cooks. Finely chop the rosemary & add with the rice. Stir for about a minute. Then add the wine & stock cube with boiling water. Stir until all the moisture is absorbed. Keep stiring & continuinely adding moisture if needed. Add the mushrroms with a large knob of butter to another pan with loads of garlic and cook them whilst still stiring the risotto pan. When the rice has begun to soften add the cooked mushrooms, thyme leaves, squeeze of lemon and stir in some butter. At this point check your seasoning, you will probably need salt & pepper adding. Keep stiring. When its almost done, heat up a griddle pan & put a knob of butter in with some salt & pepper and cook your steak to your own prefence. When all cooked chop the steak and serve over the risotto with a nice bottle of white wine ( Gavi is always great), garlic bread and parmesan.

Enjoy xo

GOAN FISH CURRY

Indian food is in my heart, I have warm memories of going out for food with my popa who was born in India, Delhi & trying all these unusual delicious dishes. My popa taught me so much; about life, about love, about family, there are not enough words to eloquently describe how fantastic a man he was. Indian food always reminds me of him, it reminds me of spending time with my family and cousins, and it reminds me of those Sunday's ending up in rusholme at the Sanam eating enough to explode

With Spring blooming and the evenings getting longer, I wanted to make a light, fresh, healthy dish that packs all those beautiful Indian spices that I love so much. What is better than making a Goan Fish Curry, milder than its northern counterparts; this curry has a sweet and sour element that is extremely addictive. 

As always, make with love, for the people you love.

RECIPE

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

1 tsp mustard seeds

Thumb of fresh root ginger

1½ tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp turmeric

4 garlic cloves, crushed

2 red chillies, chopped

2 tsp tamarind paste

2 tomatoes, chopped

1 can coconut milk

600g firm white fish fillets (I used Haddock but Cod, Monkfish of Talapia would also be nice)

A few coriander sprigs, to garnish

Method


Heat the oil in the pan, add the chopped onion and mustard seeds and cook over a low to medium heat, until the onion is soft and light golden in colour. Peel and grate the ginger and add to the pan, then add the ground cumin, coriander, turmeric, garlic and chillies. Cook, stirring frequently, for a minute or so, until the aroma of the spices is released. Add the tamarind paste, chopped tomatoes and coconut milk to the pan, then pour in 100ml water. Bring to the boil, then simmer gently for about 10 minutes, until thickened slightly. Season to taste. Tip the fish into the pan and cook for 2–3 minutes. When the fish is just cooked – it should be opaque – remove from the heat. Serve with rice, naan and scatter with the coriander.

Enjoy! Don't blame me if you get addicted to this recipe!