Feast

Nigella’s Snow flecked Brownies

Posted by annauk1 on June 6, 2012
Posted in: brownies, chocolate, Feast, Nigella, Off the Shelf. 20 Comments

My girls, if you’re reading this, one day you will no doubt have need of a really, really good brownie recipe – fudgy, squidgy, chocolatey and with that ‘proper’ crackly top that good brownies have.

Listen to your mother!  I have found just that recipe for you both…..These are just The Best!

I’ve made brownies which are too ‘cake-like’, too under-cooked, too over-cooked, but these beauties really are perfect! And how apt that they come from my most loved cookbook of all time, Nigella Lawson’s awesome masterpiece ‘Feast’.
I have halved Nigella’s recipe, as otherwise it makes far too many (Can one have too many brownies?)

Snow-Flecked Brownies
Adapted from Nigella Lawson’s ‘Feast’.

190g butter
190g dark chocolate
3 eggs
175g Caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
115g plain flour
Half tsp salt
125g white chocolate chips or chunks
icing sugar for dusting.

1. Preheat oven to 160degC (fan oven)

2. Line the sides and base of a small rectangular brownie pan (mine is 24cm x 27cm) with foil or baking parchment.

3. Melt the butter and dark chocolate (I do it in the microwave in short bursts, stopping before the chocolate has completely melted. It finishes melting in the residual heat)

4. In a bowl beat the eggs with the caster sugar and vanilla.

5. Allow the chocolate mixture to cool a little, then add the egg and sugar mixture and beat well. Fold in the flour and salt, then stir in the white chocolate chips/chunks.

6. Pour the mix into the prepared tin.

7. Bake for 25 minutes.

8. When cool dust with icing sugar.

Apricot, white chocolate & macadamia cookies

Posted by annauk1 on July 11, 2011
Posted in: Baking, Feast, Nigella, We Should Cocoa. 18 Comments

These cookies constitute my first ever entry into the ‘We should Cocoa’ monthly chocolate challenge. So I’m really excited to be entering!

‘We should Cocoa’ was set up by two food bloggers – Choclette of  ‘Chocolate log blog’ and Chele from ‘Chocolate Teapot’
They take turns to select an ingredient, which along with chocolate, should be used in the entry.

July’s added ingredient is APRICOT. Fresh or dried.

I decided to make apricot, white chocolate and macadamia cookies based on Nigella Lawson’s ‘Cranberry and white chocolate cookies’ from her book ‘Feast’.**
Snowy from ‘Cookbooks Galore’ has entered a very similar cookie, so thanks for the inspiration!

**I love that book.
I adore it.
Not to be morbid, but I want it buried with me.

I’m not joking.

I think this was a wholly successful experiment!

Here’s my version:

Apricot, white chocolate and macadamia cookies (Makes 25-30)

140g plain flour
half a tsp. Baking powder
half a tsp. salt
75g rolled oats
125g soft butter
75g dark brown sugar
100g caster sugar
1 egg
half a tsp. vanilla extract
75g dried apricots, chopped
50g macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
140g white chocolate chips.

Preheat the oven to 180deg.C (160deg.C Fan oven)

1. Put the flour, oats, baking powder and salt into a bowl.

2. In another bowl beat the soft butter and both sugars together, add the egg and vanilla and mix.

3. mix both bowls together, then fold in the apricots, nuts and chocolate chips. Put the bowl in the fridge for about 15 minutes.

4. Roll tablespoons of dough onto greased baking sheets, flatten down very slightly with a fork.

5. Cook for about 15 minutes, by which time the cookies will be pale golden. Let them harden for about five minutes before removing from the tray.




The meatballs that morphed

Posted by annauk1 on June 24, 2011
Posted in: curry, Feast, Recipes using mince. 6 Comments

So….
I made the meatballs and rice from Nigella Lawson’s brilliant book ‘Feast’. The ones from the kiddie chapter.

Nigella’s meatballs & rice

 I slaved over them. treasured them, made each little ball with love.

This is how my youngest daughter reviewed them a few years ago…..

But now the family ask ‘What’s for tea?’…..then turn their noses up. Won’t even try them.
Nada. Zilch.

what to do…..what to do……

Sudden light bulb moment!

Turn them into a curry**.
then everyone eats them, raves over them, wants them again.

Crisis averted.

Sigh….my family are Curryholics.

Meatball curry with peas

Mind you it does look quite good right?

**I did this by frying off a couple of chopped onions in a little oil, adding 2-3 tbsp curry powder, which I fried for a few minutes with the onions to take away the raw spice taste. Then, tablespoon by tablespoon, add about 6 tbsp yoghurt, stirring between each addition until it is incorporated into the sauce.
Add the original meatball recipe to the onion, curry powder and yoghurt, add a couple of handfuls of frozen peas, a few chopped fresh green chillies (We like things spicy so I tend to add about five of them!) and about a cupful of water, simmer for about 20 minutes.
A couple of minutes before it’s ready stir in a small bunch of chopped fresh coriander and a tbsp of garam masala.

Serve again.To rapturous delight this time.

Remembrance cake for Pi.

Posted by annauk1 on November 15, 2008
Posted in: Feast. 12 Comments



What better use for the rosemary that Lorraine sent to me but to make the rosemary remembrance cake from ‘Feast’ in honour of her.
I think it was Maria from the Goddess’s kitchen that had the good idea for Pistachio’s friends to cook something in remembrance of her.
Me being me though, I had to find an extra shortcut in the recipe and also for ways of lightening the recipe up. Something stops me nowadays from using almost a whole packet of butter in 1 cake! I’m sorry.
So here’s the lightened up/lazy persons way of making this cake, still unbelievably tasty and extraordinarily moist:

250g (2 small jars) apple puree baby food or ‘American applesauce’ if you’re in the USA.
1 third of a cup of flavourless oil (I used rapeseed oil which is labelled as vegetable oil in the supermarket)
120g fructose
3 eggs
300g plain flour (I used 100g wholemeal flour & 200g white flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder.

So, instead of going the long route and peeling, chopping and coring the apple and then simmering it in a pan until soft, I took the lazy route and used ready made apple puree instead.
Everything is mixed in with the apple in the processor, then placed into a lined loaf tin 170 deg. C for approximately 50 mins.

The cake was only very subtly rosemary infused which I was really pleased about. I’m glad I didn’t simmer the apple with a sprig of rosemary, I think that would have sent it over the top into rosemariness!

Here’s to you Pi.
I never dreamt for a second that you’d be the reason I’d be making this cake.

Curry night

Posted by annauk1 on May 6, 2008
Posted in: Feast, Nigella. 11 Comments





Tandoori chicken is much loved by all of my family. I use a ‘tandoori masala’ spice mix mixed into natural yoghurt and add extra chilli, garlic and lemon juice. It’s best marinaded overnight, but even an hour or so produces deliciously tasty chicken.
I also made the ‘aloo gobi’ or ‘potato and cauliflower’ curry from Nigella’s book ‘Feast’. It’s the first time I’ve made this and I felt it needed an extra colour oomph, so I added some tomato puree to the basic recipe, it worked well.
I made the hearthbreads from Nigella’s ‘How to be a domestic Goddess’ book, I’ve made these before, everyone enjoyed them immensely!

Ilana and the rugelach.

Posted by annauk1 on December 7, 2007
Posted in: Baking, Feast. 8 Comments

My friend in New York, Ilana,recently challenged the readers of her blog to make Nigella’s rugelach from ‘FEAST’, which for those who don’t know by now, is my most favourite cookbook of all time
Now, whenever I look through ‘Feast’, I always think how I really should try making them. I mean even the fact that Nigella says you should pronounce the ‘ach’ bit of the word as if in exasperation, That just makes me smile….When I was small I can’t tell you how many times I heard the ‘ach’ word said in exasperation towards me from one parent or the other!
I must admit to feeling astounded at the fact that a whole packet of butter went into that tender,squidgy dough. Oh, and some cream cheese and some soured cream. No wonder the darn thing was fantastic.
The dough was superbly light, tender, squidgy, think of a new born baby’s bottom before it’s had the chance to grow and fill out. That’s just
 what it felt like!
The dough is cut and filled with a mixture of dark chocolate and brown sugar. Next time I’m going to use a mixture of dark and milk chocolate – I’m not really overly keen on things that are too bitter chocolatey.
The rugelach are rolled up (think croissants) baked and painted with a sugar water glaze to make them shiny.
They really were stunning, the pastry so light, chocolatey,delicious.
So thanks Ilana for challenging me, it was just the push I needed!