I also felt however, that it would work well insead of the raisins asked for in these scones. I decided it would add a really festive touch to them.
I was totally right!
It worked perfectly in them. It is a tiny bit spicy and filled with dried vine fruits and candied peel and . . . umm . . . brandy. A bit naughty, but it cooks out.
You only need one cup of dried fruit, so I would use 3/4 cup of raisins (Golden and regular) and then measure out 1/8 cup dried currants and 1/8 cup chopped candied peel.
I think those proportions would work well. I would use 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp each ground cloves and nutmeg. You could also add some grated orange zest.
These are wholesome and hearty because of the oats. I love oats in baked goods.
Do use the old fashioned oats if possible. I think quick oats would not be very suitable and you would get somewhat mixed results.
Again, the biggest challenge I had with these was photographing them. I found myself running around the house like a blue arsed fly trying to find the right spot.
I finally dug out a TV Tray from downstairs and set them up on there. I then carried the tray all over trying to find the right space.
It's not just space either. It is also finding the right time when the light is at its best. I could buy a light box, but then where would I set it up?
I don't know. Its all a matter of guess work at the moment.
I love this plate of my sisters. It is one of her Yard Sale Finds. She sells this stuff on her IG page. The pattern for this is "Check" by J & G Meaken of England.
I might ask her if I can buy them. She has two of them. I really like them and they go well with things like this.
They very much have a "country" feel to them, which I am quite fond of. I love anything rustic and countrified.
I used to buy Country Living magazine many years ago and really loved the primitive style of furniture and decor that they shared with their readers.
That's where I first got acquainted with Susan Branch and her artwork. She used to do an illustrated recipe in the magazine each month.
I fell in love with them. The artist in me thought they were just precious. I had a huge collection of the magazine at one time, but they all got destroyed in a move.
Christmas Oat Scones
Ingredients
- 2 cups (280g) all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tp salt
- 1 cup (80g) old fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup (120g) cold butter, cut into cubes
- 1 cup (150g) raisins (I used David Leibowitz's quick mincemeat)
- 1 cup (240ml) butter milk
- buttermilk and granulated sugar to brush
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 225*C/425*F/ gas mark 6. Line a baking tray with some baking paper.
- Sift the flour, soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Stir in the oats. Drop in the butter and cut it in with two round bladed knives or a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
- Stir in the raisins or mincemeat.
- Stir in the buttermilk to make a soft dough. Knead gently a few times to bring it all together.
- Tip out onto a lightly floured surface and pat out to a rectangle about 12 by 10 inches in side.
- Using a sharp knife, cut into 10 squares.
- Place onto the baking sheet, leaving space between each. Brush each with a bit of buttermilk and sprinkle with some sugar.
- Bake for 15 minutes, until risen and golden brown. Remove to a wire rack to cool slightly.
- Serve warm with butter and jam.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
From the simplest to the most decadent, festive desserts are one of the reasons we save up all of our calories to splash out at Christmas. With this in mind, the dessert specialists at the cake shop Jack and Beyond were curious to find out what Christmas treats are posted the most by sweet-toothed Instagrammers.
After surveying 2,861 Brits to find out which festive sweets won’t be missing from their Christmas dinner table this year, Jack and Beyond reveal the top 10 Instagrammable Christmas treats by finding the most tagged desserts.
Top 3 Most Instagrammable Christmas Treats
First place as the ultimate festive treat is Gingerbread. The flavourful spiced biscuit received a whopping 2,388,738 hashtags.
Christmas Cake is second, with 947,903 hashtags. Although it’s often compared to fruitcake, the two traditional British desserts are slightly different.
The cake consultant at Jack and Beyond, Sophia Zimmer, explains: "Both festive cakes contain dried fruits and nuts as their principal ingredients. Christmas cake has a richer flavour and is normally covered with marzipan, whilst fruitcake tends to be moister and lighter, as it's usually covered with fruits glacé".
Third place is another traditional British treat, a Mince Pie. The crumbly pastry filled mixture of dried fruits and spices was tagged 341,525 times by foodies.
The 3 Least Instagrammable Christmas Treats
Fruitcake ranks eighth. Surprisingly, it seems to not feast dinners’ eyes enough to Instagram as it received only 8,635 hashtags.
Not as ‘Insta-worthy’ as other treats, the sweet and sour-tasting Cranberry Cake is ninth with 5,444 hashtags.
The least enjoyable and controversial dessert is Christmas Trifle. With only 3,101 hashtags, the decadent-looking festive version of the traditional English dessert is not as popular on the 'Gram.
Methodology:
1. To get to the results, the cake shop Jack and Beyond surveyed 2,861 people, asking them what type of Christmas sweets they will have for Christmas dinner in 2020.
2. The Hashtag data represents live Instagram figures, collected on 26/11/2020. All hashtag variations of desserts are included to increase the validity of the results.
I don't know about you, but all of these goodies appeal to me. I am not really the kind of person who judges a book by its cover, nor do I only cook what is the most popular recipes on Instagram. I do, however, find these kinds of surveys interesting. Many thanks to Jack and Beyond for sharing it with me!
How do you usually pick a recipe from online which you want to cook? What are the values you use to measure acceptability or cookability or even popularity? I really want to know!
I was a tiny bit afraid that my father would turn his nose up at this. He is a man of very simple tastes. For years my mother was only allowed to use salt and black pepper.
Surprisingly he didn't say too much about it. He just ate it. He did dip each piece in ketchup however. Men!
Mary recommends marinating the chicken in the herb and olive oil mixture for ten minutes. I marinated them for a bit longer as I felt it would enhance the flavours even more.
I also added some garlic and onion powder for a bit more oomph. (Now you know why I was worried about my father, lol)
He always worries if he eats anything with garlic in it that he is going to have bad breath. In all truth after he leaves here, he goes straight home and watches the news, falls asleep in his chair and then goes to bed.
So, nobody would actually be smelling his breath except for us. As we ate garlic as well, we probably wouldn't notice.
Men are often quite resistant to change of any kind. I get that. I am not fond of change either in most things. But I am open to trying new flavours and things when it comes to cooking.
So long as my protein comes from a source with fins, legs, etc. I am not overly fussy about things reptilian or that crawl on their belly.
For instance you would never get me to try frog's legs. I don't care how much you tell me they taste like chicken. And snake is definitely off my menu.
I also won't knowingly eat insects or rodents. I know in some spots of the world these are great delicacies, but not in my little world.
Having said that, I am open to most other new flavours. Whew!
Mary likes to do this with chicken thighs. I have to say I found chicken thighs to be a bit greasy and if I make it again (and I will) I would make it with breasts. This is just a personal preference.
We are so lucky these days and have a variety of quick side dish options available to us. I love the pouched of ready cooked rice.
If you opened one of those and popped it into the microwave along with some steam pouches of vegetables you could have supper on the table in not much more than half an hour, which would include the marinating time for the chicken.
I think these herbs would also work well with cubes of salmon or cod, or even cubes of pork. That makes this quite a versatile recipe all told.
Tonight we are having the leftovers chopped up even smaller and then fried with some rice as a stir fried rice side dish. I will add some peas and corn, and possibly some scrambled egg.
There I go again with the garlic! It does sound good however!! Or maybe with some Tzatziki sauce.
I think it would also make a great salad topper. A hot salad. I love salad in any way shape or form. Hot, cold and in between.
Mediterranean Chicken Bites
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken (thighs or breasts)
- 2 TBS olive oil, divided
- 1 TBS butter
- 1 tsp dried oregano flakes
- 1 tsp dried thyme leaves
- 1 tsp dried basil leaves
- 1 tsp dried parsley leaves
- 1/2 tsp dried rosemary, rubbed to break it up
- 1/2 tsp dried marjoram leaf
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- the juice of a lemon
Instructions
- Trim any fat off your chicken and then cut it into 1/2 inch cubes.
- Whisk together 1 TBS of the olive oil along with all of the dried herbs. Add the chicken cubes, tossing them to coat them in the oil and herb mixture. Leave to marinate for about 1/2 an hour or so.
- Heat the remaining olive oil in a large skillet, along with the butter. When the butter starts to foam add the chicken pieces.
- Stir fry and cook the chicken until it just begins to brown in places and is cooked through. Squeeze the juice of the lemon over top, give it another good stir to make sure the lemon flavour gets all the way through.
- Scoop into a serving dish and serve immediately.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
Basically it was a rice dish combined with pasta. You browned the rice and pasta in a skillet and then added water and a seasoning packet. I am sure it was pretty high in salt and artificial flavours and ingredients.
These days I prefer to make it from scratch. Its not very hard to make from scratch when it comes right down to it. Is quick, easy and delicious.
These days I prefer to call it a Pilaf . A Pilaf is a rice dish that originated in the middle east. It usually involves browning or toasting some rice (and in this case vermicelli) and then adding seasonings, vegetables and stock.
You can also add bits of meat or fish. This version is meant to be a side dish and I have added Italian flavours.
Normally I would use vermicelli, which is a very thin pasta. I did not have any of that today. Today I used broken up spaghettini. It worked well.
You can also use orzo. Orzo is a rice shaped pasta. All work in this. You are going to toast it in some butter. This adds flavour, colour and interest.
You brown the pasta in some butter and then toss in the rice. I used Jasmine rice.
I love Jasmine rice. You sometimes will see it called popcorn rice. It is a long grain rice and is perfect for things like pilaf. It has a delicate floral and buttery scent.
Once you have coated the rice in the butter you then add water and a mix of herbs and seasonings. Today I added Italian flavours.
Basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, parsley, etc. You can use fresh if you like. Just double the amounts. I had no fresh today so I used dried.
In the olden days fresh herbs were a real rarity. My mother never used fresh herbs. not ever. Except perhaps fresh chives of parsley. And even that was once in a blue moon.
Parsley was meant as a garnish. My father grew a pot of chives. He liked them in his bologna sandwiches.
My mother didn't use a lot of herbs at all. My father didn't (and doesn't) like wildly flavoured food. He likes things simple. My mom used salt and pepper.
When I was a teenager she discovered oregano. Before we knew it she was sneaking dried oregano into everything!
When I say everything, I mean literally everything. Nothing was safe from her bottle of Oregano. it ended up in our soups, stews, BBQ sauce, Chili, everything.
Bless her heart. She was actually living life on the edge with this discovery. For her anyways. My father accepted the oregano and peace reigned. He is always reminding me however, that he likes simple things.
I am not sure if he will like this or not. We shall see. I hope that he will. I happen to love it.
It goes together really quickly and has fabulous flavours. Flavours that go together with just about anything.
I especially love it with grilled salmon. Salmon is one of those fishes that demands strong flavours to accompany it.
Salmon can be quite a strongly flavoured fish . You want something on the side that will stand up to it, but not overcome it. You want it to complement it.
If you wanted to you could turn this into a main dish by adding some cooked meat or fish to it. It would be kind of like a fried rice then I suppose. With Italian flavours.
I was trying to describe how to make this to my daughter earlier. She thought it sounded really delicious.
My oldest daughter is developmentally challenged. I always try to write my recipes so that anyone can cook them. I try to explain them in simple terms.
I try to write them so that she can make them. Generally speaking that is my criteria. If I think she can cook them. That way I know most people can have success with them.
I really get perturbed when someone tries one of my recipes and they say it didn't work for them. They will say, I cut down this, and I added that and I left out whatnot, but it didn't work!
Like its the recipe's fault. Cooking is very subjective and very much a matter of taste. What I present here have always been tested and tried. I have had success with them, as written.
Anything else is a matter of taste. And we all like different things. In any case, I hope you will make it and enjoy it.
It makes a great midweek side dish and the leftovers reheat very well.
Italian Rice Pilaf
Ingredients
- 2 TBS butter
- 1 cup (100g) short cut vermicelli
- 1 cup (165g) jasmine rice
- 4 cups (960ml) water
- 2 TBS chicken boullion powder
- pinch crushed red chillies
- 1/2 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 2 tsp dried parsley
- salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large skillet. Once it begins to foam add the vermicelli. Cook, stirring until it turns golden brown. Add the rice, stirring it to coat. Add the water, chicken stock, and all of the herbs. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a slow simmer and cover.
- Cook for 15 to 16 minutes until the rice is tender and all of the liquid has been absorbed. Remove from the heat. Taste and adjust seasoning with some salt and pepper if need be. Let rest for five minutes. Fluff with a fork and serve.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
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