Eurovision Pudding Party - Douze points!!

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Eurovision - what a great excuse for a party!!  And every good party needs….puddings!  Well its more a combination of two separate ideas really, we have had a Eurovision party previously, and before that we had a pudding party, both held at a very unusual house built by some friends out at Necton which once again was the host venue.  The basic idea was that everyone brought a pudding to share, and we spent the evening listening to songs, good, bad and some distinctly odd, shouting at the TV during the scoring!

We joined in the sweepstake, but between us drawing Poland, Israel and Lithuania we had a sneaking suspicion we wouldn’t win…….!!

As far as food goes, despite Sherrie promising “nibbles”, we have more of a feast awaiting us when we arrived, not leaving much room for puddings, but with a gap of a few hours in between we gave them our best efforts!  As usual, and along the same lines as Sherrie, I had as usual got a bit carried away in the kitchen during the day and managed to take three puddings and some freshly baked breadsticks.  I will post the recipes for the Chocolate Meringue Pie (think lemon meringue with a difference) and the white choc chip scones with vodka strawberries on here later, the chocolate apple pie wasn’t in my opinion quite as nice and was basically just a twist on a normal apple pie.  The first two were something quite special though - I’d be hard pushed to say which was my favourite .

Of course the evening was also an excuse for disposing of a few alcoholic beverages, as most of us stayed overnight - unlike some of the others, for some reason I seem to have lost the desire to drink for the sake of it, sticking to one bottle of beer and a single vodka and coke - I must be losing my touch, and will certainly be out of practice come the KL Plus mid-summer party - that really doesn’t bode well…….

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Pesto

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Project 52 pictures and the photos from Santa Pod will follow shortly, in the meantime a healthy alternative to traditional pesto (serves 4).

100g fresh basil

28g parmesan cheese

3 garlic cloves

4 level tbsp pine nuts

198ml fat free vinaigrette

Chop the basil, grate the cheese and peel and chop the garlic.  Place in a food processor along with the pine nuts and blend until the basil is finely chopped.  Add the vinaigrette, a little at a time, and continue to blend until the mixture is still quite thick but able to drop off a spoon.

SW:  1.5 green, pine nuts = HE

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5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

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I don’t often take too much notice of the sort of “chain” type emails that constantly arrive at work, but this one involved food and a recipe I though I really must try!  I wonder how many of these little cakes have been made as the email makes its way around the country!  I posted the result on facebook and have had requests for the recipe - so here goes….

4tbsp self-raising flour

4tbsp sugar

2tbsp cocoa

1 egg

3tbsp milk

3tbsp oil

Vanilla essence

4tbsp chocolate chips (optional)

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large coffee mug, then add the liquid ingredients and mix well.  Add the chocolate chips, mix again and put into the microwave (mine is 850W) for 3 minutes.  It will probably raise up out of the mug but hopefully not overflow!  Done - easy!  Leave to cool and tip out, or eat from mug!

I think it would probably be very good as a pudding eaten with chocolate sauce!

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Creamy Egg Curry

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2tbsp sunflower oil

2 onions, thinly sliced

2 heaped tbsp curry paste/Tikka Massala

400g can chopped tomatoes

140g frozen peas

8 eggs

4tbsp greek yoghurt

rice and mango chutney, to serve

Heat oil in a pan then fry the onions over a low heat for 10 mins until golden.  Add the curry paste and sizzle for 2 mins, stirring.  Add the tomatoes and 200ml water, season to taste then bring to the boil.  Simmer for 10 mins until you have a rich sauce.

Meanwhile, boil the eggs for 8 mins, cool in cold water, then peel and halve.

Stir the peas and yoghurt into the curry and simmer for another 2-3 mins to heat through.

Serve with rice and mango chutney

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Tear and Share Garlic Bread

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I can never resist a good garlic bread - looking forward to trying this one:

300ml warm water

3tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

500g soft grain strong white bread/country grain strong brown  flour

2tsp salt

7g packet quick yeast

sea salt (to serve)

For the filling:

50g butter

4 garlic cloves, crushed

1tbsp each fresh thyme leaves/chopped chives/chopped parsley

1tbsp olive oil

Put the first five ingredients into a breadmaker, set to dough programme and press start.  While dough proves, make the filling by mixing together butter, garlic, herbs and seasoning to taste.  Grease a 23cm square tin.

When dough is ready, turn out onto a floured surface and knead lightly.  Roll out to a rectangle roughly 40.5cm x 28cm.  Spread the filling over the dough.  Starting at the long edge, roll up into a sausage.  Cut into 9 slices and arrange in the tin.  Cover with lightly oiled cling film and leave in a warm place for 30 mins until doubled in size.

Heat oven to 220 degrees centigrade.  Bake for 10 mins.   Turn oven down to 200 degrees centigrade and bake for further 25 mins until firm and lightly golden.  Drizzle with olive oil and serve sprinked with sea salt.

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Sausages with Lentils and Roasted Peppers

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Time for another recipe - this one comes from a calendar I got from Sainsburys - not tried it yet but looks good.

1 tbsp sunflower oil

8 good quality sausages

1 onion peeled and sliced

few sprigs thyme

200g dried puy lentiles

2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1 x 415g can beef consomme or same quantity beef stock

1/2 x 450g jar roasted red peppers, drained and chopped

handfull of chopped parsley

Heat the oil in a casserole and brown the sausages.  Add the onion and cook over medium heat until softened.  Stir in the thyme, lentils and garlic and cook for a minute then stir in the consomme or stock.  Add a can of hot water and bring to the boil.

Lower the heat and partially cover with a lid.  Simmer for 20 mins.  Stir in the chopped peppers and simmer for another 10-15 mins until the lentils are tender and the sausages are cooked through.  Season to taste, then stir in the chopped parsley to serve.

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Melt-in-the-mouth Mince Pies

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Before I carry on with the blogging, time for a quick recipe.  I wish I’d found this one before Christmas, the pastry sounds interesting - maybe I’ll give it a try this year:

500g mincemeat

a little milk, for brushing,

caster sugar, to sprinkle

Pastry ingredients:

300g plain flour plus extra

3tbsp icing sugar

175g unsalted butter, fridge cold

175g soft cheese

about 3tbsp single or double cream

Sift the flour into a bowl with the icing sugar and 1/2 tsp salt.  Using a pair of knives, or food processor, cut the butter and cream cheese into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles course breadcrumbs.  Add enough cream to mix to a soft dough.  Gather up into a ball, knead very briefly to smooth out, then divide into two.  Wrap each piece in cling film & chill for at least 1 hr.

Lightly grease a bun tin, on a lightly floured surface roll out the pastry to the thickness of a £1 coin, then stamp out equal numbers of 6cm and 7cm circles.  Use the larger circles to line the cups of the tin, place 1 heaped tsp of mincemeat in each one, then cover with the smaller discs, lightly pressing the edges together.  Make a small hole in the centre of each lid to allow steam to escape.  Chill for 30 mins before baking.

Heat oven to 220 degrees centigrade/fan200C/gas 7 and place a baking sheet in the oven to heat up.  Place the mince pie tin on the baking tray in the oven and bake for 10 mins.  Reduce heat to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4 then cook for another 10 mins until golden brown.  Brush lightly with milk, dust with caster sugar then return to the oven for 1 min.  Cool for 5 mins in the tine then ease out.

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12″ Square Carrot Cake

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An adaption of a recipe I found on the internet - I wanted a nut free cake, plus the original recipe had orange juice/rind (2 oranges) or  1tbsp marmalade but I knew of one person with a citrus allergy so I missed that out too.

400g margarine

700g sugar (I used golden caster suger)

4 large eggs

1kg carrots, grated (the finer you grate them the tidier it is to cut later)

150g dried fruit (and/or nuts)

2tsp vanilla extract

500g plain flour

4tsp bicarbonate of soda

2tsp mixed spice, although a mixture of cinnamon and nutmeg works very well too.

2tsp salt.

Preheat oven to 180C/Gas mark 4

Grease and line the bottom of a 11″ or 12 square cake tin - mine was adjustable with removable sides which made releasing the cake very easy.

Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, then beat in eggs one at a time - if the mixture looks quite liquid after 3 eggs, don’t use the last one.  Fold in the grated carrot and fruit/nuts and add the vanilla essence.  Fold in sifted flour, bicarb, spice and salt - mix well and pour into prepared tin.

Cook for about an hour, the sides of the cake should come away from the tin and a skwer inserted into the centre should come out clean - it may need a little longer at a slightly lower temperature, mine tended to take about 1hr 20 at about 170C, otherwise the top burnt over that time - although I have a fan oven.

Thats about it - its good on its own cut into squares, or can be butter iced, fondant iced etc.  its almost flat enough to stack one on top of another and fondant ice without any trimming.

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Coffee Ricotta Creams

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Not tried this yet, but sounds yummy!!

4 tbsp raisins

3tbsp rum or brandy

50g golden caster sugar

6tbsp strong black coffee

250g ricotta

142ml double cream

50g dark chocolate, grated

Mix together raisins, rum or brandy, sugar and 4tbsp coffee.  Stir well then leave for at least 1 hour.

Tip the ricotta into a bowl and lightly beat to soften.  Gradually beat in the raisins and liquid.  Whip the cream into soft peaks and fold into the ricotta with half of the chocolate.

Spoon mixture into four glasses, drizzle over the remaining coffee and sprinkle with the remaining chocolate.  Chill until ready to serve (up to 4 hours).

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Broccoli-pesto Pasta

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Rachael, my sister-in-law, made this for tea when I last visited. 

400g penne pasta

250g broccoli, cut into florets

1 garlic clove, peeled

1 lemon

3 tbsp pine nuts

1/2 tsp dried crushed chillis

5tbsp extra virgin olive oil

3tbsp Grana Padano cheese, grated.

Cook pasta according to pack instructions, meanwhile boil broccoli for 4 mins 

Drain broccoli, return to the pan and mash with a potato masher or fork.  Finely grate the garlic & zest the lemon then mix into broccoli with the chillies and pine nats.

Drain the pasta and return to the pan, stir in the broccoli-pesto and squeeze over the juice of 1/2 the lemon.  Pour in the olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Spoon in the grated cheese, toss the pasta and serve.

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