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!

Easter Emergencies – perfect products

Call me old fashioned but I always like to have the wherewithal to produce a little something from my pantry and/or the freezer when visitors turn up unexpectedly. I know that this can happen any time but it's more likely when we've an Easter weekend and we all have more time.

My first contender in the “perfect product” list is the puff pastry sheet. A good life span from supermarket chiller to your fridge and even longer if you freeze.

With this in mind, here are :

Mini Belgian Buns

1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, thawed in fridge (375g)

15g butter, melted

50g dark chocolate drops (or finely chopped)

25g ground almonds

50g sultanas

1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tbsp milk

Fondant Glaze

75g icing sugar

1-2 tsps boiling water

50g flaked almonds and 6 glacé cherries cut in half

to decorate

Preheat your oven 180c fan/200c/Gas 6. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper or similar. Unroll the pastry sheet and lay with the short sides either side - you are going to roll to form a log.

Brush the surface of the pastry and melted butter then scatter the chocolate and ground almonds leaving a border at the top end of the pastry to enable you to “glue” the log when rolled. Then scatter the sultanas over the chocolate and almonds. Carefully roll up from one of the shortest sides as tightly as you can forming a log.

Using a sharp knife, cut the log into 12 even slices. Place on the baking tray and brush with the remaining butter, then the beaten egg mixture. Bake for 15-20 minutes until puffed and golden.

Here's the photo story so far folks!

Hey a girl needs to be prepared – I like to know that I can produce food quickly – if, on the other hand, the unexpected visitors don't materialise there's no harm done and your store cupboard/pantry is brimming with stuff which won't spoil!

Read on for the final flourish ...

Make it your own

There's nothing quite like giving a gift that you've made. These days it's easier because there are so many bits and pieces you can buy, inexpensively, to make it special.

I had this dim and distant childhood memory of when you were able to buy small slabs toffee in a foil tray with a tiny hammer to break it – very posh. That size of tray would be perfect for personal gifts of Rocky Road. Here are the results of my research :

The foil trays are by a company called Queen of Cakes via Amazon and measure 7” x 4.5” in old money or if you prefer 18cms x 11.5cms. The cellophane bags came from Lakeland Plastics and the Easter “pegs” came from Home Bargains, as did the tiny Easter buckets.

Design your own Rocky Road

Traditionally Rocky Road is made using Brazil nuts,

glacé cherries and marshmallow.

Rules are meant to be broken - take a look at the

list below and if you'd like to design your own

Rocky Road swap any or all of the three

ingredients in the original recipe for the

same weight

(or may be four if you want to stay true

to Rocky Road and include the mini marshmallows)

Cashew

Peanut

Pistachio

Pecan

Hazelnut

Glacé cherry

Dried sour cherries

Cranberry

Apricot

Banana chips

Pineapple

Sultanas

Nougat

Turkish Delight

Fudge

Toblerone

Praline

Salted Caramel

Mini Marshmallow

Popping Candy

My latest versions are :

Pecans with dark cherries and vanilla fudge

Pistachios, apricots and Turkish Delight

Easter rocks!

I realise that this is not a traditional Easter Egg but hey does it really matter so long as it's chocolate?! What I love about this treat is it's easy and makes heaps so whilst it sounds like it could be expensive if you've lots of treats to give then you'll find it's great value too.

Rocky Road

250g dark chocolate

150g milk chocolate

175g soft butter, unsalted

4 x 15ml tbsp golden syrup

200g hobnobs

*150g shelled Brazil nuts

*150g red glace cherries

*125g mini marshmallows

Put the biscuits into a freezer bag and roll with a rolling pin until you get a mixture of rubble.

Chop the Brazil nuts into different sizes.

Chop both sorts of chocolate into small pieces, or use chocolate buttons made for melting and then put them into a heavy-based saucepan to melt with the butter and syrup over a gentle heat.

Take the pan off the heat and add the biscuit and nuts, cherries and mini marshmallows. Turn carefully so that all the ingredients are coated with the syrupy chocolate.

Tip into a foil try (I use a tray bake size), smoothing the top as best you can, although it is meant to be uneven.

Refrigerate until firm enough to cut, which will take about 1½-2 hours. Take the set block out of the tray. With the long side in front of you cut 6 slices down and 4 across so that you have 24 squares.

Original recipe was taken and tweaked from “Nigella Christmas”.

This is the basic Rocky Road recipe. The three ingredients marked “*” can be swapped to suit your own personal taste. You can choose any of the ingredients given on your “Design your own Rocky Road” sheet attached.

Make ahead tip:

Make the Rocky Road and refrigerate to set, cut into bars or bite size pieces and then store in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 1 week.

Freeze for up to 1 month.

Read on … and think outside the Easter Egg box!

Venerable Veggies

You don't have to be a vegetarian to enjoy veggies – here's an “all in one” dish that can be served with a roast or on its own for a supper.

Veggie Gratin

Serves 8

2 large fennel bulbs

2 medium parsnips

3 medium carrots

2 medium onions

400g Charlotte potatoes

4 cloves garlic cloves crushed

or alternatively mix 4 tsps garlic paste

with the oil below

50ml rapeseed oil

salt and black pepper

Alfredo Sauce – see below

100g Panko crumbs

Pre-heat oven 200c/180fan/Gas 6

Peel and dice the veggies to 3cm pieces – approximately – I'm not suggesting you stand with a ruler measuring exactly! Measure one 3cm piece and then use your eyes as a guide then divide that piece into four. So long as your veggies are of a similar size they'll roast evenly. Note to self: have a compost bag at the ready for all your peelings!

I'd use a large foil tray, measuring 30cms x 24cms x 6cms deep (approximately) to roast the veggies add the rapeseed oil and using your hands ensure that they are covered, season with salt and black pepper. Roast for 20 minutes then turn and repeat. The veggies are then ready to use or can be left to cool and covered for use later.

Next comes the Alfredo Sauce, which can be made ready to use immediately or left to cool and then covered and fridged for use later. Please note if you use the sauce later it should be warmed through before pouring over the roasted veggies.

2 tbsp unsalted butter

400ml double cream

100g grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and ground black pepper

Gently heat the butter and the cream together, stirring, until the butter has melted, then stir in the Parmesan. Slowly bring to a gentle boil, turn down the heat and simmer, stir continuously for a minute or so until you have a smooth, creamy sauce.

Top with the Panko crumbs and bake for 20/25 minutes until golden.

Here it is :

Remember me droning on about making the most of your oven when, for example, you're cooking a roast dinner. Here I go again! Prep extra veggies – far more than you'd need, set aside to cool, cover and fridge. Instead of Charlotte potatoes you could use cooked jackets using the same “making the most of your oven ”principle”. You would then have the base for your veggie gratin – a perfect midweek meal, with just the Alfredo Sauce to make which takes 5 minutes tops!

Panko crumbs – shop around – for example :

Waitrose version comes in 150g boxes and costs £2.49

Tesco version comes in 350g bags and costs £1.90

With the veggie gratin if you wish to halve the quantity then halve the times too.

I can however confirm that the gratin freezes well – you could box and freeze in portion sizes to suit.

Like these :

All my tasters loved the gratin and the best feedback is to be asked for the recipe. Just for the record my merry band range in age from 15 years to 85 years and all points in between!

Pasta Salad – how boring!

Insalata Fregola sounds so much more exciting – you'd be curious wouldn't you? Ever heard of Fregola? It looks like my most unfavourite foodstuff – couscous. In fact Fregola is a pasta from Sardinia – a semolina dough formed into tiny balls.

This is what it looks like :

What follows is a warm pasta salad :

Fregola Salad

Serves 6

750ml stock – vegetable or chicken

250g Fregola pasta

1 tbsp olive oil

1 shallot, finely sliced

125g chorizo, finely diced

1 Romano pepper – colour of your

choice, finely sliced

120g fine beans, topped and tailed

and cut into 3cm pieces

Little Gem lettuce – separate into

12 “cups”

Add chilled water to a medium bowl and add an ice cube or six. Fill a medium sized saucepan half full of salted water and bring to the boil. When the water boils add the beans and leave for a minute. Drain the beans and plunge straight into the iced water. When they've cooled drain them and wrap them in kitchen roll. Set aside until required. This is known as “blanch and refresh”.

Bring the stock to the boil, add the Fregola – bring back to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain and toss with the olive oil. Set the Fregola aside on a tray. This element can be made ahead.

Fry the chorizo so that it releases its oil, just as it begins to crisp add the shallot and fry for 2 mins then add the pepper and fry for another 2 minutes. Add the Fregola and then the drained beans and stir gently to mix for 3 minutes.

Serve in the Little Gem “cups” and garnish with a drizzle of Balsamic Glaze.

By blanching and refreshing your veggies you're saving yourself time and pressure. Apart from the cooking method mentioned above i.e. adding the beans to your Fregola Salad you can drop them back into boiling water for a minute or melt a knob of butter in a frying pan and flash fry them for a minute or two to heat.

The added benefits with blanching are that it can be done ahead and your veggies don't finish up overcooked and looking decidedly grey when family/friends/guests are delayed.

If you've a large microwave - big enough to take a platter you can have blanched all your veggies and arrange them on a plate – brush them with melted butter and cover with microwaveable cling film and set aside – microwave for a couple of minutes when you want to serve.

I know that my dislike of couscous comes from compulsory eating of pudding at school – in my defence I have tried to like it. What has couscous got to do with school puddings – every time I see it I actually see sago and tapioca – not that either was ever called by its correct name ….