Do YOU like jam as much as I like Jam??? I don't think anyone could like jam as much as we do in this house, but . . . I could be wrong!
I hope that I am wrong. I hope that you will love these as much as we do!
WE just LOVE jam. Sometimes we just have a simple supper of bread, butter and jam, which hearkens back to our childhoods . . . and we are completely happy and content with that.
Other times I will bake Todd some Jam Tarts, which he just adores. Other times it may be a cake, or cookies. Today I made these delicious Raspberry Linzer Slices.
I have made Linzer Cookies many times in the past, and to be sure . . . they are just fabulous. But they do take a bit of time . . . with the rolling out, cutting, etc.
Some days I am just lazy. I want the treat . . . but I don't want to do all the faffing and rolling out.
Some days I want near instant gratification. Instant gratification.
That is what these wonderful slices are . . . near instant gratification. Unbelievably delicious.
With their crisp buttery base . . . sweet raspberry jam filling . . . and little buttery crumbles on top, these slices satisfy completely. In fact . . .
I bet you can't eat just one! (Which also makes them pretty near dangerous!!)
Okay it goes beyond pretty near. They ARE dangerous!
*Raspberry Linzer Slices*
Makes 9 to 12
Printable Recipe
Delicious jam bars, lightly spiced, buttery and sweet. Perfect with a hot cuppa!
For the base and topping:
175g plain flour (1 1/4 cup)
50g ground rice (1/4 cup) (you could grind rice in a coffee grinder and make your own
if you can't find it to buy. You want it really find, almost a powder.)
8 TBS golden caster sugar
140g cold butter, diced (9 3/4 TBS)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 TBS milk
In addition:
8 TBS raspberry jam, stirred to loosen
2 tsp caster sugar
Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Line a shallow 8 or 9 inch baking tin with baking parchment.
Put the flour, rice, sugar, cinnamon and cloves into a bowl, whisking well together. Drop in the butter and rub it in with yoru fingertips until fine crumbs form. Stir in the milk with a table knife. Tip three fourths of the mixture into the prepared pan, pressing it firmly into the bottom, evenly. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden and crisp looking.
Spoon the jam over top of the base, spreading it out evenly. Sprinkle the remainder of the crumbs over top and then return to the oven and bake for 5 to 10 minutes longer, until the topping is golden. Sprinkle with the 2 tsp of sugar and allow to cool completely in the tin, before cutting into squares to serve.
I was searching through the archives here the other day and I couldn't believe that I had never done a British Fry Up. That is what they call a big breakfast over here in the UK.
A fry up, and it is what will be offered you for breakfast at any B&B in the country. It may vary slightly from area to area, but the basics are pretty simple . . .
It will consist of one or two British Bangers. In a good place they will use quality sausages, but most restaurants (unless quality) will use cheap and nasty ones. Blah.
Here at home I use only a quality banger. It will also include a couple of rashers (slices) of good quality dry cure smoked or unsmoked British Back Bacon. Both will have been grilled to perfection.
Along with a large free range (in the better places) egg done to your desire (scrambled, poached, or fried). Also grilled fresh tomatoes.
I have seen some places just heat tinned tomatoes, but I like to use fresh tomatoes myself. There will also be fried mushrooms. (Some places will serve tinned, again blah!)
What really surprised me when I first had a big breakfast over here was the addition of baked beans. Back home we would never have thought about having baked beans with eggs.
At least not in my experience, but it works quite well. I enjoy them. I use tinned Heinz, Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce. It seems to be the British preference.
You can also choose to have black pudding if you wish. (We never wish) Toast will often be offered, sometimes at an additional cost, which I just don't understand because to me toast is a must, but to each their own.
You can also get fried bread, which is a heart attack waiting to happen, no matter how good it tastes . . . just thinking about it makes my arteries start to ache.
It's pretty tasty, but you can imagine how much fat a slice of bread being deep fried would absorb!
And thats the Great British Fry Up!
Heat the grill of your oven to moderate. Place the sausage onto a grill pan. Grill the sausage beneath the grill for 15 minutes, turning occasionally. Add the bacon slices for the last 5 minutes, turning them once they are golden on one side. Remove and keep warm.
Place your cut tomato under the grill, bottom sides up. Grill for about 3 minutes, flip over and season with some salt and pepper. Grill for about 3 minutes longer. Remove and keep warm.
Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet until hot. Add the mushroom slices and cook until golden, giving them a stir once or twice. Scoop out with a slotted spoon and keep warm.
Place the beans in a small saucepan and heat gently.
Crack the egg open into a small bowl and slide it into the hot fat in the pan. (You may need to add a bit more oil.) Cook over medium heat until the white is completely set and the egg is beginning to turn golden at the edges. Remove to a warm plate and keep warm. (If you are wanting over easy, then flip it carefully, cook for about 30 seconds and then remove to a warm plate.)
If you are having black pudding, fry it now in the residual fat in the skillet, until crisp on both sides.
Toast your bread and butter it lightly, cut into half diagonally.
Plate
up the sausage, bacon, tomato, egg, mushrooms and beans. Serve with
the toast and black pudding ( if eating.)
I recently received a lovely little package from debbie & andrew's, makers of quality Pork Sausages. They sent me a delicious package of their new Caramelized Red Onion and Pork Sausage and that is what I used here in my fry up, and they WERE very delicious, trust me on this. Also included were the cutest little herb planter that is a pair of red wellies and a little sausage cookbook.
We really did like these sausages. They are wheat, gluten and dairy free. I wasn't sure how I would feel about that, but I was really surprised at how very good they were. They were DELICIOUS! I would and will buy these!
Their sausages come in a variety of flavours including . . . . Harrogate 97%, Perfect Pork, Perfect Cumberland, and of course the Caramelized Red Onion and Pork. debbie & andrews multi-award winning sausages are available in Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda, with the new Caramelized Red Onion Pork Sausages being available in Asda from mid April.
Everything which goes into a debbie & andrew's sausage is prepared from scratch, nothing is brought in pre-cooked and no short cuts are taken. It starts with the pork, using only the cuts that are best for making a really juicy sausage, selected from British farms that meet good welfare standards.
With the Caramelized Red Onion ones, the red onions are pan fried to perfectly ensure that they are caramelized for a really deep flavour, adding muscovado sugar to bring out the natural sticky sweetness as the onion reduces. To really get the taste buds tingling, Balsamic vinegar is also added towards the end of the process, making the onions darker and even more delicious. Altogether this makes for one very delicious sausage indeed.
Many thanks to Debbie and Andrew for sending me this lovely pack. Although I did receive a package of sausages for free, I was not required to write a positive review. Any and all opinions are my own.
Weeknights I try to keep things really simple. I am very busy during the week and after having worked as a chef for many years, I quite honestly don't want to spend all my days in the kitchen cooking. Simple, quick and easy works well for me . . . but simple, quick and easy doesn't mean that food has to be tasteless or even unhealthy. It is more than possible to cook a delicious meal without a lot of effort and from scratch.
Marks & SPencers recently decided to stock a range of branded artisan foods, featuring an array of unique foods from small producers, having been sourced from a select range of food products from across the British Isles. One artisan brand beingfeatured are one of Irelands best loved brands, Sheridans Cheesemongers.
I was recently sent a box of their Irish Brown-bread Crackers to try out. Fundamental to the creation and production of the brown bread crackers is simplicity and integrity of ingredients and process. Apart from sea salt, the crackers are created from only three ingredients . . . butter, buttermilk and stone ground wholemeal flour, all of these ingredients being produced a short distance from the bakery in Clonakilty in rural West Cork.
Traditional brown soda bread, baked daily in the Sheridan Family home, was the inspiration for these crackers. Unsatisfied with the crackers available to accompany the great cheeses of Ireland and Britain, they decided to create their own and in 2012 Sheridans teamed up with artisan baker Richard Graham Leigh and created a unique range of handmade crackers, their Irish Brown Bread ones now forming a part of the M&S heritage range of artisan foods.
We enjoyed these crackers along with some good cheddar and some grapes for lunch the other day. What did we think of them?
They had a nice crispness and texture. They had a slightly nutty flavour, but there were no flavours present which would demean or take away from the integrity or flavour of the cheese we were eating them with. They were not too salty, just right. Cheese itself is very salty so you don't need a really salty cracker to be eating it with. There was the merest tang of buttermilk, but only in the background, which again did not take away from the integrity of the cheese we were eating. In short we enjoyed them very much.
Available now in M&S food shops across the UK.
I have always loved yellow turnips . . . Swede (here in the UK) or Rutabaga (North America) as they are also called They are the ones with the purple skin and the yellow flesh inside.
They were always my favourite part of holiday dinners when I was growing up. My mom used to mash them together with potatoes so that they were not really strong flavoured. Over here it is called Tatties and Neeps. I love them in any way shape or form.
You can blame this all on my sister. My mother had a doughnut pan sitting on top of her kitchen cupboards, gathering dust for years and years . . . she finally sent it to my sister because she had expressed that she had always wanted to have one. For some reason the idea of a baked doughnut had never really appealed to me . . .
I am awfully fond of tea breads or cakes as they are also known. Delicious small cakes baked in a loaf tin, perfectly sized to slice and enjoy at your leisure with whichever hot drink you enjoy. In my case it is lemon and ginger tea . . .
I guess I didn't check the size of the bag of onions I was buying in that online grocery order too closely . . . because it ended up being huge! I decided to create something with some of them that we would both find delicious. We love gratins . . . and so I thought an onion gratin type of dish would work really well.
The other day I found myself with a couple of boneless chicken breasts and some peppers plus a pot of leftover pasta in the refrigerator. I needed to use the peppers and the chicken and I didn't want to have to throw the pasta away and so I decided to throw them all together and make a simple and quick supper for us.
Because of my present eye problems, I did an online grocery shop at the end of last week. I just didn't feel like pushing a grocery cart through a shop with all the poor lighting etc. I don't mind shopping online . . . but this time most of my fresh items arrived with short use by dates. That I DO mind. YES I am one of those annoying people who pick the produce etc. from the back of the row where it is fresher when I am shopping!
We eat a lot of chicken in this house. Here in the UK we are very lucky that chicken is probably one of the most affordable source of protein when it comes to meat of any kind.
It is a well known fact that the less your food is handled before it lands in your grocery cart, the cheaper it will be. This is why more often than not I will buy my chickens whole and then portion them myself when I get home.
This recipe today is really a very simple recipe for roasting bone in chicken breasts that results in moist and tender chicken every time.
It's more of a technique really, which involves making a type of compound butter . . .
The butter melts . . . flavouring and helping to preserve the moistness of the meat . . .
Because it is cooked at a high temperature . . . it cooks a bit faster and the skin cooks up a bit crisper. In short it's delicious. Simple. Delicious. Economical. You can't ask for more than that.
I have been wanting to tell you about two lovely products I was recently sent to try out. I've spent several weeks using them and I can't let another day pass without telling you all about them. Sweet Freedom is a company here in the UK which has developed these fabulous little undulgences which taste fabulous but are actually a lot better for you than you might think. Naturally sweetened with fruit extracts combined with other natural ingredients, their products are naturally lower in calories and low GI, which make them a dieter's dream.
These liquid shots of flavour come in a variety of flavours and a convenient flip top container, which is very handy for carrying with you when you are on the run, at work, etc. They have won Great Taste Awards three years running and no wonder!
WE've been enjoying the Sweet Freedom Porridge/Tea/Baking one as a healthy alternative to using other syrups drizzled over our breakfast oats and pancakes. Low GI, 100% natural, GM & Gluten Free, and at only 13 calories per teaspoon this is a great and healthy alternative. It's delicious and because it's made 100% from fruit, it's naturally better for you than artificial sweetners and sugar. You can find it on the sugar shelf in Asda, Waitrose, Ocado, and Holland & Barrett for approximately £2.99 rrp.
The other product
We spent all afternoon today wandering around Tatton Park. What a gorgeous place that is! The gardens were so beautiful and we walked our not so little butts off! (ok . . . hmm . . . MY not so little butt.)
If I had to pick a flavour I love above all else, I would have a very difficult time doing so. I just love sooooo many flavours.
A lot of what I eat depends on what type of mood I am in, or the weather, or even what's in the refrigerator. I guess you could say I just love food, full stop!
I do have a serious thing for ginger though . . . I love it's warmth and spice . . . that peppery heat, that goes so very well with lots of things . . . tart lemons, sweet fruits and berries, nuts, breads, chicken and pork! Dark Chocolate!! (ohhh . . . I am hungry now! Dang!!)
I do love a good gingerbread and I have some great recipes for quite a variety of them. The ones I've already posted you can find here. I have many, many more, trust me . . . but they will be revealed to you one at a time as time goes by, and according to my cravings. (I am such a glutton and a tease!)
I just adore this particular gingerbread. It's light . . . and moist . . . and mild. Just perfect for those times when I am craving a gingerbread, but not looking for anything too heavy.
There are more almonds in this than there are flour, which makes for a very light cake, and also a very moist cake. It's also chock full of lovely little bits of preserved stem ginger. I use Opies, which I like. If you are so inclined you can even get it steeped in a whiskey syrup. Just sayin is all . . .
Anyways, this cake is lovely. You get a fabulous crunch on top from the flaked almonds, all toasty and nutty, and then brushed with some of the ginger syrup when warm, giving them a bit of sweet heat. Moist cake, with tangy little spicy sweet bits of ginger throughout. All in all . . . F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S!
Trust me. Have I ever lied to you? I thought not!
*Almond Gingerbread*
Serves 8 to 10
Printable Recipe
A gently flavoured gingerbread, moist and topped with the wonderful crunch of flaked almonds and ginger syrup.
3 1/2 ounces butter (7 TBS), softened
5 1/2 ounces dark brown sugar (3/4 cup packed)
4 large free range eggs
2 ounces of stem ginger in syrup, plus 4 TBS of the syrup (2 1/2 knobs)
7 ounces of almond flour (2 cups)
3 ounces self raising flour (3/4 cup)
1 ounce flaked almonds (scant 1/2 cup)
Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Butter a 9 inch square baking pan and line with baking parchment. Butter the parchment. Set aside.
Whisk together the butter and brown sugar until light and creamy. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, whisking well after each one is added.
Finely chop the stem ginger. Add to the butter mixture, along with 2 TBS of syrup. Fold in the ground almonds and flour. Spread in the baking tin, smoothing the top over. Sprinkle over the flaked almonds.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until the cake is firm to the touch and a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean. (If the almonds begin to brown too much, cover lightly with a sheet of foil.)
Remove from the oven when done. Gently heat the remaining ginger syrup and brush over top of the warm cake. Leave to cool, then cut into slices to 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!
When I was a child I could hardly wait for Rhubarb Season to roll around. My mom would make us our favourite rhubarb pies. They were so tasty, served warm with vanilla ice cream all melting down into that buttery crust and the sweet/tart juices of that beautiful fruit . . .
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