Happy New Year! I wish for all of us a very prosperous and happy 2023. May it be filled with lots of the people and things that we love, and here in the English Kitchen that means delicious recipes and good food to eat! (Focus being on DELICIOUS!)
I hope the coming months will be filled with lots of tasty traditional recipes intermingled with some new, some old, some healthy, and everything in between.
More and more I want my focus to be on smaller sized recipes, geared towards the smaller family, singletons, and empty nesters. But you larger families never fear, there will be plenty stirred into the mix for you as well, and as always, I am happy to give you the measurements for a larger sized recipe if you ask!
Everybody is doing this so I thought I would just jump on the bandwagon and share what were the most popular recipes on the blog over these past twelve months! I am sure you will be acquainted with many of them, but there may be a few that you have missed out on.
In any case, I can promise you this. All are delicious!
Coming in at #20: GINGERBREAD MUFFINS.
No surprise here. Moist and gingery with a bit of crunch from the demerara sugar sprinkle on top. A great basic gingerbread muffin that you can adapt by making a few additions if you like such as dried or candied fruit, etc.
Number 19: OLD TIME BREAD PUDDING
This is also not a surprise. This is an old traditional recipe for a solid bread pudding that cuts like a cake and is stuffed with plenty of spice and loads of fruit. Delicious warm, but equally as delicious cold. You will see this sold by a single serving slab in many of the bake shops in the UK. Perfect to enjoy with a mid morning or afternoon cuppa.
Number 18: PAN FRIED COD
I was really happy to see this one and not at all surprised. This is one of my favorite ways to prepare one of my favorite types of fish. This simple recipe boasts wonderful flavors and a really simple cooking method. Using very few ingredients, you can be enjoying perfectly cooked and delicious fish in less than fifteen minutes.
Number 17: GRATIN OF CHICKEN
Who doesn't struggle with using up all of the cooked chicken leftover from a roast chicken or a rotisserie bird. Struggle no more as I have the perfect solution and it is perfectly delicious! This creamy chicken gratin recipe is also perfect for those nights when you are starving, and you want to feed your family something warm and comforting. There is nothing like a creamy chicken gratin to tick all the boxes when it comes to creating a delicious and yet simple supper dish.
Number 16: TRADITIONAL SEED CAKE
I am really excited about this one as it is one of my absolute all-time favorite cakes to enjoy with a hot cuppa. It was also said to be the favorite cake of William Wordsworth's sister Dorothy Wordsworth! A good seed cake recipe would have been included in any Victorian era cookbook! They are very traditional.
Number 15: MARY BERRY'S MINCEMEAT BUNS
And there is no more perfect time of the year to bake them than now, with some of us having leftover mincemeat in the larder that we be wanting to use up! These may be baked in a muffin tin, but they are as far away from muffins as they can be. Instead they are dense fruited cakes, meant to be enjoyed with hot drinks. Not a dessert, but an indulgent teatime treat!
Number 14: NIGEL'S POTATOES
I absolutely adore this simple potato dish which comes from Nigel Slater. this one is such a simple dish. It's basically just layered raw potato, fried onions and chicken stock. You don't even need to peel the potatoes. And you can adapt it up or down to serve as many or as few people as you like. I can't think of anything that this tasty side dish wouldn't sit well next to!
Number 13: BLUEBERRY BUTTER SWIM BISCUITS
If you are a fan of North American style Biscuits you are going to just love this version of Butter Swim Biscuits. Butter swim biscuits are soft and fluffy biscuits that bake in a pan loaded with butter. There is no butter in the biscuits themselves, but with plenty of butter in the baking tin, you don't need it. These bake up light and fluffy with a lovely buttery crust, and crispy outside edge. This version is particularly nice as it is stuffed with sweet blueberries and glazed with a sweet glaze.
.JPG "Banbury Cakes")
Number 12: BANBURY CAKES
A close cousin to Eccles cakes these delicious pastries are not cakes at all but a round shaped flaky and buttery puff pastry turnover filled with a filling of dried fruits, butter, spices and brown sugar. They are melt in the mouth delicious. Another very traditional recipe from the UK.
Number 11: MARY'S PERFECT SHORTBREAD
Another recipe adapted from Mary Berry. You just know it is the perfect shortbread biscuit/cookie. Crisp and buttery. Not too sweet. Perfect with a hot cup of tea or a bowl of ice cream. If you are looking for a great shortbread cookie, look no further. You just struck gold!
Number 10: CARAMEL POPCORN TWISTS
If you love caramel corn but are not fond of the husks on the popcorn getting stuck in your teeth, this delicious and easy recipe is the perfect solution. It uses a bag of hull-less popcorn, or popcorn twists as they are also called here in Canada, the popular brand being put out by Old Dutch. I know there is also a brand of these in America, but am not sure what it is called. In any case I call this easy to make snack DELICIOUS with a capital 'D!"
Number 9: GREEN BEAN & POTATO CASSEROLE
Cooked cubed potatoes and green beans in a delicious cheese sauce, topped with a buttery crumb and baked until golden brown and bubbling. This is an excellent side dish for any occasion or weeknight supper! Quite simply delicious!
Number 8: HOW TO COOK CHICKEN IN THE MICROWAVE
This is my tried-and-true way of preparing perfectly cooked chicken breasts in the microwave oven. I often buy whole packs of chicken breasts when they are on offer at the shops and poach or cook them, packing the meat into two cup containers, and freezing them. That way I always have a quantity of cooked chicken ready to use in a tasty dish at any given time. One of the easiest ways to cook this chicken is in the microwave. If you know how to cook chicken in the microwave you will never be short of cooked shredded chicken. It is very simple to do and very quick. The chicken always comes out moist and delicious. Perfect for shredding or dicing..jpg "Lemon Posset")
.jpg "super duper bran muffins")
.JPG "Mary Berry's Blueberry Muffins")
I put my had up and admit, I have come very late to the Pulled Pork party. It has been popular for a long time in North America and has gained in popularity here in the UK over the past several years.
Truly authentic pulled pork is actually a barbecue dish, cooked for hours over a charcoal pit until it falls apart, ready to be easily shredded or ‘pulled’ apart to serve.
You also don't want to use a really lean cut of pork. It would dry out too much during the long slow cooking in the oven.
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
Mix together all of the ingredients for the rub. Remove any rind and skin from the pork and discard. Leave a thin layer of fat. Rub the roast all over with the rub ingredients. Place on a plate and then refrigerate for several hours uncovered.
Preheat the oven to 150*C/300*F/ gas mark 3. Put the pork into a roasting pan with a small amount of boiling water. Roast in the oven, turning it every now and then for about 3 to 4 hours, or until the meat is basically falling apart.
While you are roasting the meat, make the sauce. Combine all of the sauce ingredients in a saucepan, stirring to dissolve the sugar over medim low heat. Simmer gently for about 10 minutes. Set aside.
When the pork is done, remove it from the oven. Place it on a plate, lightly tent and allow to rest for about 10 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of water to the roasting pan drippings. Cook over medium heat, stirring to deglaze the pan and get up any scrummy bits. Bring to the boil and reduce by half. Stir the mixture that is left into the BBQ sauce and reheat the sauce over low for about 5 minutes or so.
Place the pork into a bowl and pull the meat into chunks and shreds using two forks. Add half of the BBQ sauce and toss together to coat.
To serve spoon the pork mixture into white buns and pass any remaining sauce on the side. Pickles and closeslaw go very well with these.
Serves 8 to 10
A deliciously cream coleslaw that has just the right amount of crunch and flavour! There is no sogginess here!!
10 ounces of white cabbage, trimmed, cored and very thinly cut
(about 1/2 of a medium cabbage)
5 ounces of carrots, peeled, trimmed and juilienned
(1 medium carrot)
4 inches of an English Cucumber, trimmed, seeded and cut into small dice
(Do not peel)
2 - 3 large dessertspoons of good quality mayonnaise
1 TBS of Dijon mustard
2 TBS white wine vinegar
1 tsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp celery salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 tsp onion powder
Place the vegetables into a large bowl. Whisk together the mustard, mayonnaise, white wine vinegar, sugar, celery salt, black pepper and onion powder. Mix well. Pour over the vegetables and toss to coat. Cover and chill for at least one hour before serving.
Note - the amount of mayonnaise you use depends on the cabbage, some cabbages take more mayonnaise than others. It also depends on how creamy you like your coleslaw!
Whether you choose to have coleslaw with these or not, or oven chips or whatever . . . I think you will agree that these BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches are quite, quite delicious! Bon Appetit!
I was recently sent a jar of Yutaka Korean Kimchi to try and I decided to put it to good use in a recipe for Kimchi Mac and Cheese that I had saved some time back. It sounded delicious at the time and I thought it would be a great way to showcase this great product. I was not wrong!
Happy Friday and Bon Appetit!
When I was a child my family lived for a time in a small town situated on the shores of Lake Winnipeg about two hours North of Winnipeg city itself. I have really lovely memories of the time that we lived there. The first house that we lived in was a duplex bungalow. Our neighbors on the one side were the Dukemon (not sure about the spelling) family and Mr Dukemon often made this soup. Borscht. On the days that he made this the amazing aroma of it would waft over to our house . . . it smelled amazingly delicious. I never got to actually taste it, but the smell of it was pretty tantalizing to my tiny tastebuds. Yes. I was a foodie even then.
As you know, or should do by now . . . we are real potato lovers in this house. A day without potatoes in one form, shape or another is just not the perfect day! We just have to have our potato fix!
A few days back I was wanting to make a German Potato Salad. Many moons when I lived in Southern Ontario we used to visit my Brother In Law when he was living in Windsor, Ontario. He had a fabulous butcher there who happened to be German. He made the most gorgeous cabbage rolls and potato salad.
Just thinking about it now, makes my taste buds tingle. They were that fabulous, I kid you not!
Anyways, ever since then I have been on a quest to find the most perfect recipes for both cabbage rolls and for the potato salad. I do believe I have gotten them both down to where I think they are pretty close to the original.
No, this is not an authentic recipe for German Potato Salad . . . so I don't want any purists e-mailing me and telling me I have it all wrong. This is just my idea of what I think is the perfect German Potato Salad.
Simply put . . . this recipe (which is a compilation of the best parts of several recipes I've tried through the years) does it for me and I am quite happy with it. I do hope you'll give it a try as you may just agree!
*German Potato Salad*
Serves 4 - 6
Printable Recipe
This is not an authentic recipe, but one that I came up with for myself, taking what I thought was the best bits of a few others and adding my own twist. The end result was delicious of course!
1 pounds small new potatoes, scrubbed and quartered
1 TBS salt
8 strips of lean streaky bacon, cut crosswise into 1/2 inch strips
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
125ml of white vinegar (1/2 cup)
4 TBS water
1 heaped TBS cornflour
6 TBS white sugar
1 TBS grainy mustard
freshly ground black pepper and fine seasalt to taste
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Place the potatoes, 1 TBS salt and water to cover in a large saucepan and bring to the boil over high heat. Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 8 minutes until barely tender. (There should still be a slight resistance when poked with a sharp knife) Drain well. Keep warm. Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Have ready a shallow buttered casserole dish.
Fry the bacon in a large skillet until crisp. Scoop out to a paper towel lined plate. Drain all but a few TBS of the bacon fat from the pan. Add the chopped onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender. Whisk together the water and cornflour. Add to the skillet along with the vinegar, sugar and grainy mustard. Cook and stir until somewhat thickened. Stir in the warm potatoes, cooked bacon, parsley and salt and pepper to taste. Pour this into the casserole dish.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the potatoes are fork tender and the sauce has thickened. Serve warm.
Social Icons