Easter Emergencies - Whilst I'm at it …

...speaking of cherries and raspberries too – I thought you'd find the following two recipes of use in your secret culinary arsenal. I have mentioned them previously but a long time back - they are definitely worth repeating.

Cherry and raspberry compote

350g cherries, stoned

150g caster sugar

juice of 1 lemon

150g raspberries

Pour 4 tbsp of water into a pan and add the cherries, sugar and lemon juice. Place the pan over a medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Cook the cherries over a low heat for 5 to 10 minutes, until they have released some juices but are not overcooked.

Add the raspberries to the pan and cook for a further 1 to 2 minutes, until they start to soften. Remove the pan from the heat and leave the mixture to cool, then chill it well before serving.

Cherry Compote

350g cherries, defrosted if frozen

50g granulated sugar

2 tbsp cherry juice

¼ tsp almond essence

2 tsps arrowroot

1 tbsp cold water

Place the cherries, sugar and juice in a saucepan heat gently, stirring. Cook for 10 minutes then break up the cherries so that there are no whole cherries left. Add the almond essence.

Blend the arrowroot and water together then add to the cherry mixture, on a gentle heat, stirring continuously. When the mixture has thickened heat for another minute.

Use over ice cream when warm or set aside to cool and decant into a clean screw top jar and “fridge”.

Notes:

Both the compotes have many uses – apart from warm served with ice cream. Spread it on toast, serve with yogurt, on top of cereal and definitely with scones.

Sweet dark cherries available frozen from Sainsbury's £2.15p for £480g.

Raspberries – shop around – Iceland's £1.50 for 300g.

You'll be pleased you made one or the other!

Easter Emergencies - Hodgepodge – take 2

Never let it be said that I don't give you alternatives - here's another variation of Hodgepodge :

Cherry and Chocolate Hodgepodge

Serves 1

1 410g can of Black Cherry pie filling with

fruit separated from juices

3 meringue kisses, crushed

25g of chocolate – see below

As with the previous Hodgepodge recipe a glass bowl or sundae dish is perfect for this dessert.

Tip the cherries into a sieve and let the juices drip through – this will take a while since they are dense – it's worth the wait.

Assemble with the meringues, add a dessert spoon of cherries then add tiny pieces of chocolate of your choice – the list is endless but here's an idea or five :

plain chocolate drops

crushed Maltesers

small pieces of Rocky Road

bash a crunchy (in its wrapper – so convenient, no bits

other than where you want them to be!)

bash a flake (in its wrapper)

In the photos below I used tiny pieces of Rocky Road.

Add another dessert spoon of cherries. With the juices reserved add a drop of water to loosen – loose enough to be able to drizzle over the top of the cherries.

You'll have cherries and juices left over but I can't believe this is going to be a problem. You could either repeat the dessert or use as a topping over ice cream. If you want a grown-up version, add a drop of Kirsch to the juices but don't tell anyone I said so! Your secret is safe – tee hee.

P.s. An optional extra – add a scoop of chocolate ice cream in between the cherries.

Easter Emergencies - The Upside to the Hodgepodge!

To begin, you've included all the elements of a good dessert :

sweetness – the meringues

texture – the hazelnuts

sharpness – the raspberries and the juices

sticky toffee sauce and ice cream – pure indulgence

what is a dessert without indulgence!

Better still the Hodgepodge is instant – ish. You can put in as much or as little effort as your time permits – to explain.

You can buy drums of meringue kisses or make your own*.

You can buy ice cream or make your own*.

You can buy whole hazelnuts and chop and roast or buy roasted, chopped hazelnuts in 100g bags ready to use.

Frozen raspberries are another “Perfect Product” for our list.

You can buy jars of caramel sauce – dulce de leche or salted caramel or you can make your own sticky toffee sauce*.

If you want to make any marked * above, i.e. your own meringue kisses, vanilla ice cream and sticky toffee sauce the recipes for all three are on the blog.

It's whatever suits you best - a very large tick whichever way you look at it!

Easter Emergencies - A Hodgepodge …

… aka a mess. I just love to be able to pull ingredients for a speedy sweet straight from the store cupboard/pantry and freezer and serve a dessert worthy of the extra calories! Like I said a girl needs to be prepared - what follows is a series of recipe ideas and variations - the components of which can either be made ahead and frozen or can be part of your store cupboard/pantry.

Without further ado here's my most recent creation :

Hazelnut Hodgepodge

Serves 1

3 meringue kisses, crushed

1 scoop of vanilla ice cream

A sprinkle of toasted, chopped hazelnuts – 25g approx

30g frozen raspberries – defrosted – do not sweeten

1 tbsp sticky toffee sauce – loosen in microwave for

15 secs on medium

Assembly

A glass bowl or sundae dish makes this

dessert stand out, layer as follows :

crushed kisses

scoop of ice cream

sprinkle of hazelnuts

raspberries but reserve the juices

drizzle of sticky toffee sauce

drizzle of raspberry juices

Add a final sprinkle of hazelnuts

Here is the result :

Feedback from the Chief Taster – yum and is there enough for tomorrow?!

My quest …

for the ultimate burger – a meat free version that is – has taken a positive turn of late.

I came across “Fun in a bun” (Spicy corn and chickpea burgers with smoky sweet potato wedges) by Jamie Oliver in the Sunday Times Magazine.

Here's my variation – the first prototype!

Burgers

1 x 400g can chickpeas – shucked

1 x 340g sweetcorn drained and placed on

a tray lined with kitchen roll – pat dry

½ tsp each of ground coriander, cumin, sumac

and salt

3 tbsp plain flour

extra flour to dust

cling film

Place the chickpeas and sweetcorn in a food processor and pulse – keep some texture in the mixture :

Tip the mixture into a mixing bowl and then add the spices and salt. Divide your mixture into a size that suits – as a rough guide I made 5 :

Spoon your divided mixture straight onto the cling film and gather firmly into a ball. You can weigh your mixture if you want to be precise. Tip the ball onto your floured board and form gently into a burger shape. Your mixture is quite fragile and requires gentle handling. When formed place the burgers on a tray and “fridge” for 30 minutes.

Heat a glug of rapeseed oil in a frying pan to a medium heat. Add the burgers and cook gently for 5 minutes each side until golden brown.

Here they are :

What the recipe doesn't say

The mixture is very sticky and if you don't use the cling film method I've included above then you'll finish up with more of it on your hands than anywhere else – by using the cling film you're not handling the mixture until it is formed into a ball - ready to roll into flour to form your burger shape.

Use the best quality of sweetcorn you can afford – it's worth it.

I would not recommend adding your spices and seasoning directly into your food processor - you'll run the risk of tainting the bowl, hence transferring to a mixing bowl.

I'm difficult to please having sampled lots of rubbish vegetarian food over the years, but this first version is good to go – here's what I served – to myself!

The burger in a toasted brioche bun with a side of Coronation Coleslaw. The recipe for the slaw and the second prototype of the burger are coming soon!

OCC!

I cannot deny it – I am definitely OCC – an obsessive compulsive cook – my hope is that the bits and pieces that irritate me irritate you too!

For example - are a devotee of chick peas but don't like the outer husk which is not terribly pleasant to eat.

Here's my answer – shuck your chick peas. You can do it the old fashioned way – sit with two bowls and do it using the “pea” by “pea” method if you prefer – if not, then drain and rinse the chick peas and lay them on a tray lined with two sheets of kitchen roll - cover with another two sheets. Gently roll your hand over the top sheets three or four times. Remove the top layer of kitchen roll and this is what it looks like :

You can see the husks - they are easy to remove and discard. Repeat the process and this is what you finish up with :

It's strangely therapeutic – like taking the outer casings from broad beans.

The reason I did this in the first place was because I'd come across a recipe for a vegetarian burger that I quite liked the look of – with appropriate tweaking of course – that contained chick peas.

Guess what's coming next?!

The final flourish!

Fondant Glaze

75g icing sugar

1-2 tsps boiling water

Pour the boiling water slowly over the icing sugar in a small bowl while stirring the mixture with a wooden spoon. Pour in only enough water to make a creamy mixture that has the consistency of pancake batter. Cool. You need to make sure the mixture isn't too stiff – you need to be able to drizzle the glaze over the pastries.

A trick or two

Everyone wants to get as good a finish as possible - particularly with fondant - quite honestly it has a mind of its own. You can, if you feel brave enough dip a fork into the glaze and scatter it over your pastries and hope – I know I've said it before - “unleash your inner Jackson Pollock”!

If you'd like a safer option, you might like this idea – use a disposable piping bag and line a plastic jug. Cut off any excess – turn the bag over the edge of the jug :

You then have control of the fondant, transfer it from the bowl into the piping bag. Gather up the bag and ease the fondant to the bottom, ready to pipe. Use a clip-it to secure the top of the bag :

Snip the tiniest end from the bag and drizzle the icing over the pastries – easy peasy.

In a final flourish, decorate your pastries with the flaked almonds and half a glacé cherry.

Your very own miniature Belgian buns!