Blue Cheese, Parmesan and Green Olive Bread Sticks

My mum asked me to make a starter for Christmas dinner and I was faced with a problem. Between the six people who would be there, dislikes included: salmon, prawns, pate, salad.... I decided I would be safe with cheese. I also knew it had to be something I could prepare the day before and transport down to my parents, and that my mum wouldn't have a lot of space in her kitchen for preparation or oven for cooking. So the easiest thing, and something I thought we would all enjoy, was baked camembert. You simply buy a whole round camembert (or two, in this case), and put them in the oven for about ten minutes for them to melt. Then you dip bread or veggies into the cheese and enjoy. You could do these if you are having people over on new year's eve, though they are good at any time!

I did want to make something though so I decided to do homemade bread sticks. I'd never made them before, and hardly ever make bread, so I was pleasantly surprised to see how easy these were, and how well they turned out.

I used this recipe from BBC Food but adapted it slightly.

To serve about 8, you need:

one 7g packet dried yeast

1 tsp sugar

500g strong white bread flour,. plus extra for the worktop

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

5 tbsp grated parmesan

2 tbsp blue cheese

3 tsp herbes de Provence

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tbsp green olives from a jar, chopped

For the rub:

1 egg

2 tsp piri piri seasoning

2 tsp herbes de provence

50g grated parmesan

Add the yeast and sugar to 280ml warm water in a large bowl. Add 75g of the flour, whisk and leave for ten minutes for the yeast to activate.

Add the oil, remaining flour, parmesan and blue cheese, herbes de Provence and garlic and mix well to form a dough.

Chop the olives then add to the mixture and combine

Knead for about 5 minutes then cover the bowl with cling film and leave for half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 190C. Mix the parmesan, herbes de Provence and piri piri seasoning for the rub in a small bowl.

Roll out the dough to a long rectangle and brush with beaten egg yolk, then sprinkle over the rub. You only need to do this on one side.

Use a pizza cutter or a sharp knife to cut strips of the dough. Gently twist each one, and stretch a little as you do so, and place on a lined baking sheet.

Bake for about 12 minutes until golden brown.

I did these in three batches and by the end had a pile of 16 bread sticks. They were quite large - both longer and thicker than the ones you buy in the shops - so I think you would only need 2 per person.

Here are the breadsticks ready to dip into the baked camembert:

I'm sending this to Four Seasons Food, the blogging challenge hosted by Anneli at Delicieux and Louisa at Eat Your Veg as their theme this month is festive party food.

I am also sending this to Cheese Please, hosted by Fromage Homage, as the challenge this month is to make festive nibbles using cheese. These bread sticks contain two types of cheese and are designed to be dunked into cheese, so you can't get more cheesy than that!

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Meal Planning 2013 - Week 52

I'm really pleased that I lost 2.5 pounds last week given it is so close to Christmas! I am going to make more of an effort with Slimming World next year but this week I will be staying with family and friends so won't have as much control over meals.



Monday I've got the day off today though my boyfriend is at work. Today I'm going to make the dessert that I'm taking to my parents on Christmas day (assuming I can fit everything in my boyfriend's car, which has a tiny boot and no back seats!)

Breakfast cereal


Lunch broccoli and stilton soup

Dinner seeing my boyfriend's parents - I think we are having takeaway at his mum's house




Tuesday -Christmas Eve

Breakfast cereal or yogurt


Lunch either leftover soup from yesterday or a baked potato

Dinner We are going to see my boyfriend's family this afternoon, I don't know if we will still be there for dinner or not. If we are back home I will cook fishfingers and chips as it's quick and easy.



Wednesday - Christmas Day

Breakfast With my boyfriend at our house - but we won't have much time as we need to leave to drive to my parents by 9am, and I'd like to open some presents before we go!

Lunch With my parents - turkey and all the trimmings


Dinner with my parents - probably a turkey sandwich and some sausage rolls




Thursday

Boxing Day- still at my parents' so don't know what I will be having


Friday

- still at my parents' so don't know what I will be having




Saturday

- at my parents then with friends for the rest of the day so don't know what we are having


Sunday

- I will be leaving my friend's house at some point and coming back to London so the only meal I can really plan is dinner and it will need to be something quick and easy that my boyfriend also likes, e.g. fishfingers and chips

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Meal Planning 2013 - week 51

I put on a little weight last week which really doesn't surprise me. Since my last weigh in I had: lunch and drinks with friends on Sunday; dinner and drinks with a friend on Monday; lunch and drinks with work colleagues on Wednesday; the work Christmas party (with a free bar) on Thursday, and a takeaway with my boyfriend on Friday! Though the way it has turned out means I have no social events or plans at all this week, so I am going to try hard to shift the weight I just put on.



Monday

Breakfast skipped breakfast as I left early and had a Slimming World hi-fi bar later


Lunch leftover pasta from Sunday


Dinner My other half is out this evening so I can cook something he won't like; I'm thinking salmon with lemon rice.



Tuesday

Breakfast yogurt

Lunch burrito with leftover gammon and rice

Dinner spaghetti bolognese




Wednesday

Breakfast yogurt or toast


Lunch leftover spaghetti bolognese

Dinner Slimming World stuffed lemon chicken - All in One book p30




Thursday

Breakfast yogurt


Lunch sandwich


Dinner fish in breadcrumbs and chips for me, chicken in breadcrumbs for the OH




Friday

Breakfast yogurt


Lunch baked potato or sandwich


Dinner My boyfriend also has the day off today but I am at work. I have promised my boyfriend a takeaway pizza at some point before Christmas (it was actually behind one of the windows of his homemade advent calendar!) so tonight seems a good a night as any.



Saturday

Brunch It's our Christmas party at Slimming World and they are cooking us bacon sandwiches

Lunch I'll also do a bacon sandwich for my boyfriend


Dinner individual roasted poussin for me, chicken breast for the other half, with roast potatoes.



Sunday

Breakfast waffles


Lunch baked potatoes with beans/cheese/tuna


Dinner Slimming World lamb shank casserole for me, sausage casserole and mash for the other half

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Best Blog Award- Capricorn Challenge

I was thrilled to be chosen as "best food blog" for the month of October by Capricorn Goat's Cheese. I had a lovely email from Ethel the Goat telling me they had picked me and that my prize was a year's supply of goat's cheese! The reason that I am only mentioning this now is because I was waiting until my prize arrived to discover how much they reckon a year's supply is! Rather than fill my fridge with a ton of cheese at once, they very kindly sent me 24 vouchers for a 100g packet of Capricorn goat's cheese. So that's 2.4kg of cheese altogether - a decent amount for a year, I think!

Having said that, I doubt I will keep the vouchers all to myself. You will undoubtedly see some recipes using goat's cheese on my blog over the coming year however! I'd be interested to know if anyone has any suggestions or a favourite recipe using goat's cheese; if so please let me know in the comment box below!

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"X- Rated" Cookies (Bonking Biscuits!)

If you are easily offended then look away now... these are a little bit naughty! And I don't mean in terms of calories.... I have done my best to make the photographs 'artistic' and indeed not too revealing. I was given these cookie cutters last year by a friend and wanted to hang on to them until Alphabakes came up with the letter X - there are not many things I can bake beginning with X so I think these X-rated cookies are just the thing!

Here you can see the top of the box from the cookie cutters

I used a straightforward biscuit recipe and added some allspice as I thought it was quite appropriate that I made these biscuits spicy! Allspice apparently combines the flavours of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.



You need:

100g butter, softened

100g caster sugar

200g plain flour

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla flavouring

2 tsp ground allspice



Cream the butter and sugar and mix in the flour

I used this Madagascan vanilla from Dr. Oetker, which had a really good flavour. Add the vanilla, egg and allspice and mix well.

Roll out the dough and cut into shapes with the cookie cutters.You can see here I am being quite careful with my photography!

Bake in a preheated oven at 170C for about 10 minutes until browned but still slightly soft.

Transfer to a rack to cool.

I would recommend decorating these with royal icing or a tube of writing icing. I didn't have much time and was only making these for me and my boyfriend so I used an edible ink pen to draw on faces and arms (and nothing else - just arms, ok?!). I have to say I think these cookie cutters would be good for hen nights and parties! They are also quite large and make very substantial cookies, I broke most of them in half and just ate a piece at a time.

I'm sending these X-rated cookies to Alphabakes, which Ros at The More Than Occasional Baker is hosting this month.

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Meal Planning 2013 - Week 50

Monday

Breakfast yogurt or cereal


Lunch I was meant to be doing a cookery class for lunch today but it got cancelled at the last minute so instead I will probably make a sandwich

Dinner I'm going to see Rick Stein Live at the Palladium with a foodie friend and we are going to an Italian restaurant for a quick dinner beforehand.



Tuesday

Breakfast yogurt


Lunch sandwich or cous cous


Dinner Chicken kiev and chips for the Other Half, salmon for me - though I think I might take Tuesday off work as I have a lot to do at home in which case I will make something else that I can spend a little longer over.



Wednesday

Breakfast yogurt


Lunch I've got my work Christmas lunch today, we are going to Brasserie Blanc

Dinner spaghetti and cheese-stuffed meatballs




Thursday

Breakfast yogurt


Lunch sandwich


Dinner It's the work Christmas party tonight so I will be eating (and drinking) there. We're having a movies theme this year and I'm going as Cruella deVil, mainly because someone I know has a great costume I can borrow.



Friday

Breakfast yogurt


Lunch sandwich


Dinner sausage and mash for the OH, stir fry for me




Saturday

Breakfast yogurt

Lunch chicken fajitas


Dinner slow cooked gammon




Sunday

Breakfast toast/cereal


Lunch sausages (Quorn for me), baked beans, potato cakes which I have in the freezer


Dinner sticky BBQ chicken with Slimming World chips, which I had on the meal plan a couple of weeks ago but didn't make.

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Baby Back Ribs, Pinoy Style

Baby Back Ribs, Pinoy Style. I would like to share my easy Pinoy version of Baby Back Ribs for this Holiday Seasons. Most would have thought that Baby Back Ribs served at classy steak restaurant would be difficult to make. My version is fairly easy and any novice cook can make it as long as you have an oven at home.

For this this recipe I used pork ribs rack which should be available in most large supermarket. For our dish today I bought it from my favourite supermarket, the South Supermarket in Filinvest Alabang, yes I am in Manila for my Holiday Vacation. For the Pinoy style marinade, to make it simple I used Mama Sita’s barbeque marinade plus some soy sauce, banana ketchup, kalamansi and chopped garlic.

Here is the recipe of my Baby Back Ribs, Pinoy Style.

Ingredients



1 pc. about 1.5 kilo pork rib rack, cut in half

1 small bottle Mama Sita’s barbeque marinade

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4-1/3 cup kalamansi juice

1/2 head garlic, chopped

1/2 cup banana ketchup

1/4 cup cooking oil

Cooking procedure



To marinate, place the pork ribs in a rectangular container with lid. Add in the garlic, kalamasi, Mama Sita’s barbeque marinade and 1/3 cup of banana ketchup. Using your hand mix thoroughly the marinade and ensure that the pork ribs are evenly coated with the marinade mixture. Replace the lid, place inside the refrigerator and let marinate for at least overnight.



To make the basting mixture mix banana ketchup and cooking oil in a small bowl.



To bake arrange the marinated pork ribs in a rectangular baking dish, cover with 2 sheets of aluminium foil. Place the baking dish in an oven pre-heated to 125°C to 150°C, bake for 1.5 hours. Then remove the aluminium and discard the oil that have accumulated on the baking dish.



To broil, baste with a thick coat, about half of the basting ketchup. Return to the oven and broil for 5 to 8 minutes. Carefully turn over the pork ribs and baste with the remaining basting ketchup, broil for 5 to 8 minutes. Serve hot with your favorite grilled side dish.

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Pinoy Lengua Estofado

Pinoy Lengua Estofado may not be as popular with Menudo, Kaldereta or Afritada but it is a special holiday dish to those who have acquired the taste and texture of the ox tongue. This version is the closes Pinoy version of Lengua Estofado that I could think of. Sure there are other Lengua Estofado versions that use fancy ingredients but those are reserved for future post.

My version of Legua Estofado is cooked using the traditional cooking method of the Pinoy estofado with plantain banana and sweet potato.

Here is the recipe of my Pinoy Lengua Estofado.





Ingrediets:



1 small size ox tongue, about 1 kilo size

1 medium size carrot, skinned, sliced diagonally

3-4 pcs. plantain banana, peeled, sliced diagonally

3-4 pcs. plantain banana, peeled, sliced longitudinally, fried

3-4 pcs. medium sized sweet potato, skinned, sliced crosswise, fried

1 whole garlic, cut crosswise

1 large sized onion, quartered

5-6 pcs bay leaf

1 tsp peppercorns

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

salt

cooking oil

Cooking procedure:



Wash the ox tongue thoroughly and place in a medium size sauce pan. Pour enough water up to 1 inch above the meat. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Drain and discard the first boiling liquid. Rinse the ox tongue peel out the white hard outer skin, use a small sharp knife as necessary, if having difficulty. Return the cleaned tongue to the pan and add in fresh water to about 2 inches above the meat. Add in the garlic, onion, peppercorn and half of the bay leaf. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 to 2 1/2 hours until tender add more water as necessary. Now remove the ox tongue from the pan and slice crosswise keep aside, now filter out and discard all the residue of the boiling liquid and reserved broth. Using the same sauce pan return the slice tongue. Add in 2 cups of the reserved broth, the vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, cooking oil and remaining bay leaf bring to a boil and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until the liquid is reduced to about half. Add in the carrot and raw banana continue to simmer for 8 to 10 minutes. Thicken sauce with cornstarch diluted wit 1/4 cup of water, cook a couple of minutes. Serve with the fried banana and sweet potato.

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Fish Menudo, Tuna Menudo

Fish Menudo, Tuna Menudo is our next 2014 Celebration’s Recipe that I would like to share. This dish is a non-meat alternative for your Christmas celebrations which most likely is a feast of meat dishes. For my Fish Menudo I used tuna for the reason that the meat of these types of fish is firm. The basic ingredients are similar to the regular Menudo except of course that we are using fish instead of meat. Cooking method is adjusted since fish cook faster compared to meat.

Fish Menudo, Tuna Menudo is another addition to our innovative menudo dish, click the links below to see the other versions of menudo on the archives.



Menudo with Baked Beans

Beef Menudo

Chicken Menudo

Menudo

Pork Menudo



Here is the recipe of my Fish Menudo, Tuna Menudo

Ingredients:



I kilo large tuna steak, cut into cubes

1 small block hard tofu, cut in to rectangles, fried and cut into cubes

2 small size potato, skinned, cut into cubes

1 medium size carrot, skinned, cut into cubes

2 small size green and red bell pepper, cut into small squares

1 medium size onion, peeled, chopped

1/2 head small garlic, peeled, crushed then chopped

2-3 pcs. bay leaf

1 small packet tomato sauce

2-3 tbsp. soy sauce

salt and pepper

cooking oil

Cooking procedure:



In a medium size non-stick sauce pan heat generous amount of cooking oil and sauté garlic and onion until fragrant. Add in the fish and continue to stir fry for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the fish from the pan and keep aside. Now using the same pan add in the bay leaf, potato and 1 cup of water let boil and simmer for 1 to 2 minutes then add in the carrot and continue to simmer for another minute. Now add in the fish, soy sauce and tomato sauce, continue to stir cook for 3 to 5 minutes. Add in the bell pepper and stir cook for another 2 to 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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Kare Kare, Kare-Kare

Kare Kare. It’s time to again celebrate Christmas it has been an OPC’s tradition to post as many special Pinoy Christmas dish for the Holiday Seasons. For our first 2014 Celebration’s Recipe I would like to share an easy to prepare and never go wrong Kare Kare dish. I have already cooked this on countless occasions in Australia using oxtail, yes I am back in Manila for the Holiday Seasons. For this recipe I used the local cow tail that you have been seeing hanging in the meat section of local public markets.

A lot of Pinoy use cow tail for their especial Kare Kare dish on Christmas. In fact Kare Kare is always an especial dish prepared on most Pinoy celebrations or special occasions and the Christmas Noche Buena dinner it is definitely one of talked about dish. See and click below other Kare Kare dish that on our archives if you are looking for another Kare Kare version.



Marinara Seafood Mix Kare-Kare

Seafood Kare-Kare

Kare-Kare, Kare-Kareng Pata ng Baboy

Kare-Kare (Beef Tripe)

Kare-kare Buntot ng Baka

Here is the recipe of my Kare Kare using the local cow tail, enjoy.





Ingredients:



2 kilos cow tail, cut into 2” lengths

8-12 pieces young corns

3 medium size eggplant, sliced

1 small size banana bud, quartered

1 bundle sitaw, cut into 2" long

1 bundle pechay

1 head garlic, crushed

2 large size onion, quatered

3 packets Kare-kare mix

1 cup crunchy peanut butter

ginisang bagoong alamang

Cooking procedure:



In a large sauce pan put cow tail, add enough water to cover the meat, bring to a boil and simmer for a few minutes until all scams are floating. Discard the first boiled water and rinse off the cow tail of scam. Now put fresh water about 1 to 2 inches above the cow tails, add in the garlic and onions bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 4 to 5 hours or until tender, add more water as necessary. Add in the young corn and banana bud and continue to simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Add in the kare-kare mix and peanut butter cook for another 3 to 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens stirring occasionally. Now add in the string beans and eggplant and continue to cook for 2 to 3 minutes, and then add all the other vegetables. Cook for another 3 to 5 minutes or until the vegetable are just cooked. Serve hot with ginisang bagoong alamang.

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Baboy at Langka with Black Eyed Peas

Baboy at Langka with Black Eyed Peas. This recipe is adopted from KBL - Baboy Langka at Kadyos a popular Iloilo. Kadyos is obviously not available down here so I used black eyed peas or beans instead. I have just recently cooked a similar black eyed beans dish using fork belly instead of pork hocks or pork pata, Black Eyed Pea with Pork Belly, that dish however was adopted from a similar dish called Pinablad a Pusi. There are also similar beans and pork dish in the archive just click the links below to check out recipes recipe.



KBL – Kadyos, Baboy at Langka

Kadyos, Baboy at Langka – Purple KBL

Black Eyed Pea with Pork Belly, Pinablad a Pusi

As a substitute for batwan as a souring ingredient I just used sinigang mix. Obviously langka is also not available therefore I have to use the canned langka usually available in Asian stores I Here is the recipe of my Baboy at Langka with Black Eyed Peas.

Ingredients:



1 small size pata ng baboy, pork leg

2 cups black eyed peas

1 big can canned unripe langka, drained, sliced thinly

1-2 tbsp. sampalok sinigang mix

1 medium size onion, quartered

2 medium size tomato, quartered

2 stalk tanglad, lemon grass

3-4 pcs. green long chili

salt

Cooking procedure:



Ask the butcher to saw cut the pork leg crosswise at 1 1/2” thick slices. Wash thoroughly and drain, in a charcoal grill quickly sear pork leg, in a large pot put seared pork leg and cover with enough water, bring to a boil for 3 to 5 minutes, Discard first boiled liquid and rinse boiled pork leg off scum. Now pour fresh water to cover pork leg add the lemon grass, bring to a boil and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes then add the black eyed peas. Continue to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until the pork are tender and the black eyed peas start to disintegrate and the desired liquid consistency is achieved. Take out all scum that rises to the surface and add more water as necessary. Add in the sampalok sinigang mix, onion, tomato, green chili and canned jackfruit, simmer for another 10 to 15 minutes or until vegetables are cooked. Season with salt to taste. Serve hot with rice.

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James Martin's Orange Curd Pudding

Recently I have been adding to my cookery book collection every time I go into my local charity shop - but I've had to stop as I've run out of space on my shelves! One of my last purchases was James Martin's Desserts - James Martin is regularly seen on Saturday Kitchen on the BBC which I do like to watch when I get the chance. I liked the look of his 'fresh orange curd pudding' which looked quite cake-like in consistency and perfect for a cold day. It's also very simple to make.

Serves 4

You need:

300ml orange juice

grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

60g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

90g caster sugar

4 eggs, separated

70g self-raising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

160ml milk

Preheat oven to 180C and butter the sides of a 1-litre ovenproof bowl. Put the orange juice and lemon juice in a saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer until reduced by half, then set aside to cool.

In a bowl, beat the butter, sugar and lemon zest, then gradually mix in the egg yolks.

Fold in the flour and baking powder. Then stir in the orange and lemon juice and the milk.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff and gradually fold into the mixture.

Pour the mixture into your greased bowl and stand it in a roasting tin. Pour boiling water into the tin so it comes half way up the side of the bowl.

Bake in the oven for about an hour - check in the last ten minutes to make sure the top isn't getting too brown. You can cover the dish with foil to stop the top burning if necessary.

Serve the pudding hot. You can sprinkle the top with icing sugar and it would also work well with custard. The texture is like a doughy cake with an intense citrus hit - it was really nice.

I'm entering this in Alphabakes, the blog challenge I host with Ros of the More Than Occasional Baker, as the letter we have chosen this month is O.

The theme for this month's Calendar Cakes, hosted by Laura of Laura Loves Cakes and Rachel at Dollybakes, is puddings, so I am sending them my orange curd pudding as well.

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