First attempts

Instant Pot whole butternut squash

Posted by annauk1 on January 29, 2023
Posted in: basics, Family recipes, First attempts, Instant Pot Recipes. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

I’m so impressed with this idea to cook a whole butternut squash in the instant pot.

If you’re like me, it feels like such a palaver hacking away at that tough skin.

How much easier to place the unpeeled squash, whole, into the bottom of the pot, with a little water and cook until tender.

Today I was after a purée, but I can see how easy it would also be to cook for less time and get slices or cubes of perfectly cooked tender squash.

The recipe was from this blog:

https://sandhyahariharan.co.uk/how-to-cook-butternut-squash/

Thank you for what I’m sure will be my go to way for cooking butternut squash from now on.

Flaounes (Easter cheese breads)

Posted by annauk1 on April 20, 2020
Posted in: Baking, Cypriot recipes, Family recipes, First attempts, pastry. Leave a comment

These are highly traditional Cypriot cheese breads which are always made around Easter time. Most people love them, some make them with lots of raisins, some with none. Some like them sweet, some don’t. Do as you see fit.

You can make them with a mixture of cheeses, I chose Edam, cheddar and haloumi. In Cyprus they use a cheese which is specially made for flaounes, but that’s really hard to come by in the UK, unless you are lucky enough to live by a Cypriot grocer and talk very nicely to them 😉

Makes approximately 10.

(For the pastry)

250g strong bread flour

110g plain flour

1 sachet (7g) dried yeast

25g fine semolina

1tsp. Baking powder

1tsp salt

2tbsp sugar

5 stoned mehlepi & 4 mastic tears ground to a powder with a little sugar (put two thirds of the ground mixture into the dough and a third into the filling) 

1tsp ground cinnamon

4tbsp vegetable oil

150ml warm milk (approximately)

(For the cheese filling:)

450g mixed cheeses, grated

1tbsp dried mint

1tsp baking powder

1 sachet (7g) dried yeast

4tbsp sugar (or, to taste)

1tsp. Ground cinnamon

2tsp vanilla extract

50g fine semolina

60-100g raisins (or to taste)

2 large eggs

(For the glaze:)

1 egg beaten

50g sesame seeds.

 

Method:

Place all the ingredients for the filling into a bowl and mix well. The filling should be firm, not wet. Cover and set to one side.

Place the pastry ingredients into the bowl of a mixer with a dough hook attachment, knead for 7 minutes. You should be left with a non sticky, firm dough. If not, add a little more milk or flour. Place to one side to prove, ideally in a nice, warm spot in your kitchen, until doubled in size. This should take 1-2 hours.

Punch down the dough, divide into an equal 10 pieces.

Roll into very thin, almost see through circles, about 12 centimetres in diameter. Save any scraps of leftover dough for later (cook’s treat 😉)

Place a gold ball sized amount of filling into the centre and fold the sides of the pastry in, leaving the centre exposed. You can shape them into triangles or squares. Don’t flatten the filling down, you want it high and raised.

Crimp the sides where they join each other with a fork.

Brush the pastries with beaten egg and sprinkle liberally with the sesame seeds, patting them in.

Place them on a non stick baking tray and leave to rest for 30 minutes.

Bake at 180 deg C for 20-30 minutes until golden brown.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

* The flaounes freeze very well. Place them individually into sandwich bags and freeze. Use within one month.

* Make koulouria (breadsticks) with any left over dough. Cook alongside the flaounes  

Flaounes are definitely a labour of love 💕But try making them and see how smug and satisfied you feel afterwards.

 

PiP Instant Pot Steel Cut Oats for One or Two.

Posted by annauk1 on November 15, 2019
Posted in: Breakfast, Family recipes, First attempts, healthy recipes, Instant Pot Recipes, Oats, porridge. 2 Comments

Now, I was debating whether to call this recipe for one, or two and I just couldn’t decide!! I would say it feeds one very hungry person (me!) or two people who like to top their porridge with lots of fruit and nuts (not me!)

This is the first time I’ve tried the PIP (pot in pot) method with my Instant Pot, and I must say, it worked really well 😊

I’ve been getting a few ‘burn’ messages lately on my Instant Pot, usually caused by tomato based sauces, sugary things, or milk based things. So rather than risk this happening again and because it’s such a small amount, I thought I’d use a Pyrex bowl to cook the porridge in (standing on the trivet provided in the Instant Pot when you buy it)

I used steel cut oats for this recipe. They’re the least processed porridge oats you can buy, basically the groat which has been cut into tiny pieces, rather than being steamed and flattened (rolled oats)

Steel cut oats done the ‘normal’ way take about 40 minutes of constant stirring and while the Instant Pot method is not necessarily shorter, it does mean that you can walk away from the pot and get on with your morning until it’s done.

So, into the Pyrex bowl went 1/3 cup of steel cut oats, 1/3 cup of oat milk (though you could use ordinary milk or other milk alternative) 1/2 a cup of water and a pinch of salt.

Sit the bowl on the trivet in the pot, into which you have poured a cup of water which will produce steam to seal the pot and enable it to pressure cook.

Put the lid on the pot, set to sealing and set to pressure cook for ten minutes.

When the time is up, let it release pressure naturally (NPR)

You should be left with perfect porridge, toothsome, creamy, filling and delicious.

If you don’t have an instant pot, you will need more liquid and a strong arm to stir constantly while gently simmering in a saucepan, until the oats are cooked (about 40 mins)

I topped mine today with peanut butter and honey ❤️

Yes, there’s a lot of honey. And yes, I’ve got a sweet tooth.

Try it and let me know please, you won’t be disappointed!

China Modern

Posted by annauk1 on August 13, 2011
Posted in: Chinese, Dom's Challenge, First attempts, Recipes using mince. 18 Comments

Do you ever go through phases with your cooking?
I do.
I may go through a Greek cooking phase (natch!)
An American South phase (regularly)
And sometimes, an Asian food phase.
What got me into my Chinese cooking phase was a cookery challenge on another food blog  ‘Belleau Kitchen’, where a book and recipe are randomly chosen off one’s bookshelves.
 In order to make sure that I didn’t cheat in any way, shape or form I asked my daughter to choose a book with her eyes closed, then open the book randomly, put her hand on a page and I would cook the recipe on that page.
The book she chose was Ching-He Huang’s ‘China Modern’.
And the recipe? Well, you’ll have to wait another day for that.
But that’s how I got into the Chinese cooking phase….luckily Birmingham has a thriving Chinese community, near to the town centre, there are numerous Chinese supermarkets within walking distance, so off I went clutching my pennies, with a vague idea of what I wanted and walked out with spring roll wrappers, wanton wrappers, Chinkiang black vinegar, yellow bean paste, panko breadcrumbs, glutinous rice flour, noodles and a pretty bowl….
Yup, a good haul!

Maybe one or two of these will be used in the monthly challenge….maybe…..:-))

But here’s what I made this time- my first attempt at anything vaguely sushi-ish.

Duck Nigiri:

Which were a huge hit in my house, I have orders to make them again! I even had one daughter search in the fridge for them the day after ‘Mom, are there any more of those sushi duck things?’

Fat chance.

All gone.

Here’s the recipe….

Peking Duck Nigiri Sushi


1 large duck breast fillet, skin on (I used 2 smaller ones)

For the marinade:
half a teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
1 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp hoi sin sauce
3 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp dark soy sauce

For the Sushi rice:
150g shortgrain sushi rice, washed until water runs clear
240 ml water
half a teaspoon salt
2 tbsp mirin
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp hot water

12 fine slices cucumber
12 fine slices spring onion.

Mix marinade ingredients in a bowl, place duck in bowl and leave to marinate for as long as possible, ideally overnight. Unfortunately I left mine in the marinade for all of ten minutes, but it was fine.

Drain the marinade into a pan and bring to a boil, this makes an amazing dipping sauce for the duck, yum, yum!

Preheat your oven to 220 deg. C.
Place duck, skin side down in a wok or grill, cook for 1 minute on both sides until golden-brown. Place on a roasting tray and cook for about 15 minutes.
I let mine cook for 20 minutes as I have an extremely anti-pink-meat husband!

Put the rice and measured water in a pan with a tight-fitting lid, boil the rice until only a little water remains, reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes until water is completely absorbed.
Remove from the pan and let it cool down for about 10 minutes, mix the seasoning ingredients in a bowl and pour into the rice, mix with a flat wooden spoon or spatula.

Take a tbsp of the sushi rice and shape into an oval mound (the rice is extremely sticky, so try wetting your hands beforehand, place a cucumber slice on top.

Slice the duck into lovely pieces, place on top of the rice mounds, shove a few into your mouth while no-one’s looking.

Yep, you read right. Oh my Gosh! Are they GOOD!!

Place slices of spring onion on top.

Serve with that yummy dipping sauce.

Serves one. Erm, sorry, serves 4.

Zheijiang Mein:


An uncomplicated and tasty noodle and minced beef dish.

For the sauce:
250ml chicken stock
3 tbsp hoi sin sauce
2 tbsp Shaosing rice wine or dry sherry
1 tbsp chilli bean sauce

1 tbsp groundnut oil, or other flavourless oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
350g minced beef
200g dried vermicelli rice noodles (I used ordinary wheat noodles)

To garnish:
1 spring onion, finely chopped
small handful coriander leaves, finely chopped
1 small carrot, finely sliced into matchsticks.

Combine sauce ingredients in a bowl.
Heat a wok over high heat, fry garlic for less than a minute, add beef and fry until browned.

Pour in sauce, bring to a boil and cook for about 4 minutes.

Cook the noodles, drain then divide between 2 bowls, sprinkle over meat sauce, then garnish with spring onion, coriander and carrot sticks.
(I mixed the noodles and meat sauce together)

Serves 2.

Both recipes adapted from ‘China Modern’ by Ching-He Huang.

‘Throw it all in the slow cooker’ soup!

Posted by annauk1 on July 9, 2011
Posted in: Family recipes, First attempts, Pulses, soup. 7 Comments

Do you use a slow cooker?
I’m asking you because it seems to me that slow cookers are a bit like the ‘marmite’ of the  small kitchen appliance world….one either loves them or hates them.

There doesn’t seem to be an in-between.

I love mine.

I’m aware of it’s limitations, but I try and work with them as much as I can and give it a gentle, helping nudge along the way.
Treat it (the ingredients) properly during their pereparation and your slow cooker will reward you with hearty, warming meals, notably flavourful soups and stews.

I was reading the ‘Claytons blog’ and Coby was, this time, making a ‘freestyle’ soup.
Coby has a basic soup ‘recipe’ which she varies depending on what she has in the house and of course, what she feels like eating that particular day!
If you read my comment to her, you’ll see that ‘freestyling’ a recipe actually scares me. I worry that what I will end up with will be neither delicious nor pleasing to the beholder.

Coby’s soup post is here.

But, I decided to be brave and give it a whirl in my slow cooker. This is what I ended up with..

A really gorgeous, nutritious, colourful, filling soup, which we really enjoyed!

The first thing I did was to soak a handful of dried Porcini mushrooms in a little marsala, put to one side.

Anything you can do to add more flavour, DO.
Think savoury.
Think frying off the vegetables and chicken to give them an appealing appearance and more flavour and to aid hugely in the cooking process!
Think TASTE.

I began by sweating off in a little olive oil, some chopped onions (2), garlic (2 cloves, grated), carrot(1), celery (2-3 stalks) and yellow pepper(half).
When they had softened, I poured them straight into the slow cooker. In the same pan I fried off some chicken thighs (4 skinless and boneless) , which I’d cut into small pieces,when the chicken was golden, but before it was ready to come off the heat, I added a couple of slices of chopped up bacon and fried them together for a few minutes. This also went into the slow cooker.

I’d already put (at a guess) about a litre of stock in the slow cooker, made by adding a couple of teaspoons of Bouillon powder to some boiling water.
After throwing in the veggies, chicken and bacon, also add the mushrooms and the marsala, 1 tin of butter beans (or what ever pulse you like) and 1 tin of chopped tomatoes.
Strain the marsala through a tea-strainer though, as little gritty pieces tend to collect in the bottom of the bowl and you don’t want those of course.
Add a little salt (Bear in mind the stock already contains salt) pepper and about a teaspoon of dried, mixed herbs or whatever you have at home.

I put mine on ‘high’ for about 5 hours…

Let your slow cooker work it’s magic. And you will be repaid with empty bowls.

Now doesn’t that gladden the heart?

Thanks Coby for the inspiration!

Good Food’s Sweet and Spicy Wings with Summer Slaw

Posted by annauk1 on June 22, 2011
Posted in: Chicken, First attempts, salad. 8 Comments

Need something quick and easy for a mid-week meal? Run out of ideas? Bored?
Then I think I may have found an answer. Actually ‘Good Food’ magazine found the answer for me.

My family loves spicy food and especially the combination of spicy and sweet, so when I came across this recipe it went straight into my ‘Recipes I’m going to try one day’ folder.

That day came sooner than I thought….



Sweet and Spicy Wings with Summer Slaw (Serves 4)
Recipe adapted from ‘Good Food magazine’ July 2011.

4 tbsp curry paste (I used Pataks Tikka paste)
3 tbsp mango chutney
1 kg chicken wings
200g bag radishes, sliced thinly
1 cucumber, halved lengthways and sliced
small bunch mint, roughly chopped
juice of 1 lemon
cooked rice to serve (optional)

Start by preheating your oven- 200deg. C or 180deg. C if you have a fan oven like me.
Mix the curry paste with 2 tbsp of the mango chutney in a big bowl, throw in the chicken wings and mix well.
Put them in a single layer on a large baking tray and roast for 40-45 minutes.
While the wings are cooking, mix the cucumber, radish and mint, remaining mango chutney and the lemon juice.
Serve with cooked rice if you like.

Marks out of ten:      7.

Would I make it again:     The chicken wings – yes definitely. The slaw – yes, with a few changes.

Would I do anything differently:    I’d only use a tiny sprig of mint as it was really overpowering in the salad.
I used about an extra tbsp of mango chutney in the salad as we like things sweet.

Whoopie Pies. Yet another first attempt.

Posted by annauk1 on March 18, 2011
Posted in: American cookbooks, American recipes, First attempts. 13 Comments

I decided to have a go at making whoopie pies (replacing the cupcake in popularity, don’t ya know!) in a rather circuitous way, it was late yesterday afternoon, when I remembered that I had some of the deliciously tangy cream cheese frosting left over from making cinnamon rolls a couple of days ago.
What could I do with it? Use it to top some cupcakes? Naaaaw, yawn, I think I’ve overdone the cupcakes lately, need to ‘miss them badly’ before I make them again.
Use it as a filling in carrot cake? Naaaaw, I love carrot cake, but for some reason the rest of the family (except for hubby) don’t. So that was out.
Then, while looking through my new Hummingbird ‘cake days’ book, I came across a recipe for chocolate whoopie pies.

But. And this is a big BUT.

Son No. 2 had borrowed my kitchen scales. (Long story)

I knew then that I’d have to find an American recipe. So….

Google to the rescue as always. Where I found this great recipe on the:

Joy of Baking site.

I had a slight problem with the sizing of the pies…I should have ended up with about 15 pies, but I only got 7 out of the mixture. They were HUGE!! The size of side plates. And I’m not even joking!
So next time I’ll either have to purchase whoopie pie tins or pipe them onto drawn out circles on baking parchment.

Marks out of Ten?   7.

Would I make them again?   Oh, yes, I’ll definitely give them another go!

Would I do anything differently?  The sizing needs sorting out, my fault. I was measuring them in a quarter cup measure. Far too big.

Elena’s 12th Birthday Cake AKA Lorraine Pascale’s Red Velvet Cake

Posted by annauk1 on February 26, 2011
Posted in: Cake making, First attempts, Lorraine Pascale. 18 Comments
In all it’s glory!

I think you’ll be pleased to hear the following snippets of good news.

1. I have been brave.
2. I have pushed myself way out of my comfort zone.
3. I survived! … and…

4. I’d do it all again!

My first attempt at a two-tiered, fondant covered cake has been a huge success! With the help of Lorraine Pascale’s recipe for red velvet cake and some good forum friends willing to help me step-by-step, it has definitely been challenging. Stressful even. But ultimately worth it.
 just seeing the look on my daughter’s face has made it worthwhile.

Let’s start at the beginning…
Miss decided on a ‘hot pink’ and black cake. I think we achieved the requisite level of ‘hotness’ as it were.
I used Wilton’s ‘rose’ gel paste food colour, which I think has helped turn the ready-made (Tesco) fondant a beautiful colour.

Hot pink fondant

I used small cutters and black florists wire for the cake toppers:

Cake toppers

..and twirled the wire round one of the dowelling rods used to support the top tier, to get the required curliness.

No. 12.

I won’t use the small letter cutters again, they were fiddly and didn’t give me a very professional look, they looked amateurish I think. And the fondant got stuck many times and wouldn’t come out – so much so that I had to make the ‘A’ by hand. If any cake decorators have any ideas for another way of forming letters/names, please, please share them with me!
And if you have any ideas for making the cake topping numbers stand up on the cake, without using the same florist’s wire, please also share that jewel of information with me- one of the wires wouldn’t stay in and I almost stuck it straight through the number 2! By this time I was in the throes of stress, my speaking voice had risen by quite a few octaves AND decibels!

Stunning red-as-red-can-be cake batter

 In the midst of all this my husband came into the kitchen and told me to calm down. Cake making was not meant to be this stressful he said.
I ended up apologising to my daughter, and she to me….

In the lined and waiting cake tin.

A more dignified hue.

The cake was easy to make and it was weirdly satisfying adding a whole bottle of red (Not ‘natural’ red, says Lorraine!) liquid food colouring to it!
Both cakes (9″ and 6″) were split in half before being filled with cream cheese buttercream. I also used the same buttercream to cover the cakes.

Covering cake with buttercream

After the buttercream had set to the touch, I started worrying that I’d let it dry too much and that the fondant wouldn’t stick to the cake – so I heated up some apricot jam in the microwave until it had become liquid and used a silicone brush to paint a thin layer on the cakes, so that the fondant would have something to stick to.
I used wooden dowelling in the bottom tier to carry the weight of the top tier, each piece was cut to the same height as the cake and placed in a square formation which would be hidden under the top layer and used a pretty pink ribbon to hide the ‘join’ when I sat it on top.
we cut out pink and black hearts of fondant to decorate the cake along with the toppers.
Here’s the finished cake:

All done!

And here’s the inside of it:

Red velvet yumminess

It was moist, tender and delicious.
Definitely a hit!

Thanks to EmmCee, Vicky, Sal and Mrs. KT for all the online help,
Also to Minnie for suggesting I watch Lorraine’s baking programme for ideas and help on making a two-tiered cake.

Biscuiteers coconut biscuits. Hands & Feet

Posted by annauk1 on February 19, 2011
Posted in: Baking, Biscuiteers book of iced biscuits, First attempts. 12 Comments
Little hands & feet

It’s the school half-term holidays here in the UK. Half term=Boredom in our household…Long, dark days of not much to do…
So, what can we do to while away a couple of hours, that’s also sweet and cute? Yup,you’ve guessed it! Bake.
This time, being as I bought a cute little hand cookie cutter from Hobbycraft (To go with the foot cutter which many of us bought a good few years ago now to make Nigella’s cheesy feet of course!) and I, sorry we, were dying to ‘paint’ nails….out came the ‘Biscuiteers’ book again- this time the recipe for coconut biscuits, which again I halved and still finished up with 17-18 biscuits.
We decorated them with nail varnish and jewellery (Well, not really, obviously, just little tubes of ready-made icing.and lots of edible glitter.)
Super cute and just right for the ‘Not-too-sweet-toothed’ amongst us.

350g plain flour
100g SR flour
125g granulated sugar
75g dessicated coconut
125g salted butter, diced
125g Golden syrup
1 large egg, lightly beaten
(This is the recipe before I halved the amounts, so bear that in mind)

Sift the flours together in a mixing bowl, add the sugar and coconut and mix well.
Add the butter, rub together until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
When all the butter is evenly mixed in, add the syrup and egg.

Cover and chill until ready to use, or cut into shapes, then chill for 20-30 mins.
The biscuiteers advise to roll the dough out between sheets of parchment paper , as adding flour will make the biscuits tough.
I just roll mine out between two sheets of those cooking liners that you can get from most supermarkets. What a great invention, don’t ya think?!
170 Deg C for 14-18 minutes.

Let them cool, then decorate to your heart’s desire, the blingier the better! Ours ended up looking like they belonged to Tulisa from N-Dubz….

Cake Pops. Another first attempt.

Posted by annauk1 on February 12, 2011
Posted in: Cake pops, First attempts. 8 Comments
Cake pops

Cake balls for the adults!

Cake pops are little bite-sized balls of crumbled cake mixed with frosting and then covered with a candy covering.
My friend Lea from the USA first introduced me to cake pops, when she posted a photo of her and her nephews making them, curiosity piqued, Lea also introduced me to Bakerella and her blog. I loved seeing photos of Bakerella’s cute cake pops and balls, so when I bumped into a bag of candy melts in a Hobbycraft store…the deal was sealed! I knew I needed lollipop sticks, cake (or cake mix) and a tub of ready made frosting, oh, and decorations, lots of decorations!

Ready-made cake, frosting & candy melts

Pink Vanilla candy melts

Crumbled cake

Cake pop mixture

Naked cake balls!

The cake is crumbled finely, mixed with the frosting, firmed up in the fridge, before either being put onto lollipop sticks or not .
I was going to put them all onto sticks before my husband said that they looked suitable only for children! Personally I think if we don’t have a little child in all of us, then where is the fun in life? But anyway, just in case there are uptight people amongst my giftees, I made some of them in little petit four cases!
They were fiddly to make, mainly because the candy melts, even though melted where thicker in consistency than I’d have liked, so I thinned with a little vegetable oil as I didn’t have shortening at home and apparently water shouldn’t go anywhere near the candy melts as they’d seize up.
I made some of them only half-dipped for people who don’t like their sweets too sweet. Yes, it’s true, such people do exist..;-))
Would I make them again? Definitely. But you do need a spare afternoon…