I love, LOVE the traditional recipes of the UK. They are typically very regional and often historical, having a great deal to do with the farming practices, traditions, landscape and history of the area in which they have been developed.
Whittingham is a small village deep in the moors of Northumberland. The recipe for them is a very local recipe, which might or might not have been discovered by accident. Happy accident or not, they can be found at most bake shops in Northumberland. I have not been lucky enough to taste one in Whittingham, but I do have a very nice cookery book from the National Trust, which shares a multitude of these local, regional and historical recipes . . . and from the moment I discovered the recipe was keen to bake my own at home.
The recipe has been adapted from one I found in the National Trust, Complete Traditional Recipe Book, by Sarah Edington.
The photograph in the book of these biscuit/cookies was very visually appealing. From the moment I saw it I could just envision sitting down to one or two of these along with a nice hot drink, and we are into hot drink season for sure!
The ones in the book look really puffy and I think you can tell by me putting the two side by side, mine and theirs . . . mine did not actually turn out the same, although they are still very delicious.
I used this instead, but I don't think it was exactly the same thing as the Bird's Custard Powder because my cookies were not in the least bit puffie.
They spread out a lot and I actually had to cut them apart with a round cookie cutter, which was not a problem and left us lots of nice crispy trimmings to munch on. I also had to re-poke the holes in the centre, which I did with the smaller end of a chop stick.
At first I thought they were inedible and despaired at the waste of my time and ingredients, but actually, they turned out to be VERY delicious indeed, if not totally the same as those in the photograph. I would not call these a failure in the least, although if you want to have puffie ones I would use the Birds Custard powder.
*Whittingham Buttons*
Makes 12 to 16
Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/gas mark 4. Butter a large baking sheet.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add both the flour and custard powder and mix together with the creamed mixture to form a firm dough. Break off pieces the size of a large walnut and roll into balls the size of a large whole walnut. Place on the baking sheet and flatten slightly, leaving some space in between. Make four button holes on the top with a skewer.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until lightly golden. Cool on a wire rack.
Store in an airtight container.
Note- they will spread so leave plenty of space in between so they don't run together.
These are crisp, sweet, buttery and very moreish. I wonder what Paul would say. I think he would like them, but I'm not entirely sure I would get a Hollywood handshake! Bon Appetit!
Sheet pan dinners have really taken off in recent months and that is not really surprising when you think about it. Everything cooked on one pan at the same time. What's not to like about that!
They are especially popular for the smaller family, like mine. There are only two of us and if I can throw everything onto a baking sheet and cook it all together, that's a real bonus.
The key to their success is making sure that everything is cut approximately the same size so that they cook in roughly the same time. Take note that harder vegetables usually take a lot longer than softer ones.
Interestingly enough, although you might think that broccoli or cauliflower would cook faster than potatoes . . . they don't! In fact you will find that in roasting them like this, you get a crispy tender finish. If that is not something you really like, then I would blanch them first.
The potatoes are perfectly cooked through with just a hint of caramelize edges . . .
The chicken breasts are perfectly cooked through so that they are not over done, or underdone. They end up done just right . . . tender and moist.
The mix of spices and herbs that you sprinkle over top, compliment everything, so each article although cooked the same and in the same time, come out tasting really nice. I think its the cheese. Cheese automatically makes everything better in my books! I know . . . I am such a glutton!
*Sheetpan Chicken Dinner*
Serves 2
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
I really struggle with getting the lighting right this time of year when the days are getting shorter. I like to use natural light if I can and that means with the shorter days I need to do my cooking and photography much earlier in the day. Does anyone else struggle with this? What is your solution? I don't like using artificial light if I can get away without it.
In any case this is really tasty. I appreciate the simple prep and easy clean up. It makes for a truly faff-free dinner for two. Bon Appetit!
Note - you could certainly cook this for more people by using more than one baking sheet and doubling the quantities.
If you are ever looking for a really delicious side dish for a dinner party, or even on a night when you just want to pull out the stops a little bit, or a holiday meal, this tasty dish ticks all the boxes!
Green beans and thyme have a natural affinity for one another. Its like they were meant to be put together!
Likewise shallots . . . with their mild garlic tones . . . also a perfect partner with both green beans and thyme . . .
Throw in some lemon zest, and you have something very special indeed. It highlights all the flavours perfectly! You could also use lemon thyme and leave the lemon zest out altogether, but I have never been able to buy lemon thyme fresh . . . I have grown it in the garden, but someone who shall not be named pulls up my thyme every single year in the autumn, thinking it is a dead plant. Ahem . . .
Parmesan cheese also goes really well with this delicious combination of flavours!! Just a light grating, not a drowing of course . . . all things in moderation.
I could eat a whole plate of these beans and nothing else. They are really that good! Such a simple thing and yet at the same time almost gourmet!
*Green Beans with Lemon, Shallots & Thyme*
Serves 4
I love the fresh green colour of beans. Of course they are at their best earlier in the summer when you can grow your own. This week however they had them on special at the shops, at three packs for £2. I couldn't resist them, even if they were grown in Kenya. Any leftovers can be reheated gently the next day, but do bear in mind that they will lose some of their colour due to the lemon juice used in the recipe. If you want to keep the really fresh green colour you want to serve these soon after cooking. Bon appetit!
This is something I have wanted to make for a long time, but I never got
around to it, because . . . I either had the peaches and no amaretti,
or the amaretti but no peaches. This week my stars must have been
aligned because I finally had everything in place to do them . . . but
then I couldn't find the recipe I wanted to use.
Grrr . . . I hate it
when that happens, and it happens all too often to me! I need to
create a folder that I save all the recipes in that I want to cook one
day, instead of just mentally filing them in my head. My head is a
notoriously bad filing cabinet, and with each year that's passes it's
not getting any better!
So anyways I kind of just made this up in my head, based upon what I
thought we would like and what I thought would work.
I used beautiful
white fleshed peaches that were just the perfect balance of sweet and
tart . . . they were not overly ripe. If you are going to be baking
fresh fruit to be served in this way, it is probably best that they
still be quite firm.
I crumbled the amaretti biscuits into a bowl and added some ground
almonds to them, along with a bit of sugar, some Disaronno (which is
what I had, but you could also use Amarreto, or any almond flavoured
liqueur), some of the peach flesh which I had scooped out from the
centre of the peaches and an egg yolk to bind it all together.
I stuffed this into the hollows of the peaches and sprinkled them with a
bit more sugar, and I cut a thin slice of butter and laid it on top of
each.
Sprinkled them with a bit of apple juice (or processco if you
happen to have it) or even just water . . . and then I banged them into
the oven to bake.
These were Heavenly served warm with some cream for pouring. Do you hear me? HEAVENLY! Absolutely flipping gorgeous! I can't find enough words to describe how delicious they were and let me tell you I have eaten some pretty delicious desserts in my time.
Hands down this was my
all time favourite. No kidding. I hope you'll try them. If you do I
think you will agree. BLISS ♥♥♥ You may want to double the recipe.
*Amaretti Stuffed Peaches*
Serves 6
To serve:
Cream, vanilla ice cream or clotted cream
Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a 12 by 10 inch baking dish. Set aside.
Cut each peach in half and remove the stones. (I follow the "cheeks" of the peach) Scrape out a bit of the centre of each peach with a small spoon into a bowl, leaving a slight hollow.
Mix in the crushed
amaretti, ground almonds, sugar, egg yolk and liqueur. Place the peach
halves into the baking dish, cut side up. Fill the hollows with the
amaretti mixture, dividing it equally amongst the peaches. Lay a thin
slice of butter on top of each. Sprinkle with a bit more sugar and the
wine.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden. Serve warm with or without lashings of cream or even ice cream, or clotted cream. It depends on how decadent you want to be.
Know what??? If I had to choose between this and chocolate, I'd choose this in a heartbeat. That says a lot. Bon Appetit!
I can remember when my kids were babies and I was feeding them baby food. I used to love, LOVE the chocolate arrowroot custard that you could get for them.
I am sure you can't get any such thing now for babies, but forty odd years ago, you could. And it was very good. Yes, I ate it too. Bad mommy. Bad, bad mommy. Very bad mommy.
I am not a huge fan of chocolate milk, or chocolate ice cream for some odd reason, but chocolate pudding? I am all over it, and in this case I mean pudding in the North American sense of the word, not the British.
I mean that milky dessert that you can spoon into your mouth like a smooth sweet delicacy . . . all chocolatey and milky and rich.
Back home you can buy box mixes for it, much like you can get custard mix over here. They come in a cooked version and an instant version, and pretty much that is what I grew up having.
I think it was in school Home Economics class that I tasted my first from scratch chocolate pudding and it was love, Love, LOVE at first taste!
There is nothing so delicious on earth as homemade from scratch chocolate pudding, with no preservatives or additives . . .
Not unless you are talking about homemade butterscotch pudding or vanilla pudding. They are equally as moreish!
I was reading a very old recipe for it the other day from a Woman's Day cookery book on desserts that suggested pouring a very thin layer of heavy cream on top of the pudding after you put it into the serving dishes to help prevent a skin from forming on the top.
Oh boy, I thought, that sounds really good and so I did . . . just that.
Talk about manna from heaven. This was gorgeous. Every last mouthful.
Talk about manna from heaven. This was gorgeous. Every last mouthful.
Make sure you use unsweetened dark chocolate for this, not milk chocolate candy bars. They would be overly sweet.
As Goldilocks would say . . . this is just right. So there! Rich. Milky. Chocolaty. Just right.
*Chocolate Pudding*
Serves 4
Drop the chocolate bits into a saucepan with a heavy base. Add the milk. Cook, whisking, over low heat, heating it gradually and allowing the chocolate to melt slowly. It may appear somewhat grainy, but don't worry, it will smooth out in the finished pudding.
Combine the sugar, cornflour, salt and egg in a large bowl. Gradually whisk in the chocolate milk mixture, whisking constantly. Return to the pan and continue to cook over low heat, whisking constantly until the mixture is smooth and has thickened, and has begun to boil. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and let stand for several minutes to cool slightly then whisk in the vanilla.
Pour into pudding dishes and cover with a thin layer of heavy cream. (This helps to prevent a skin from forming and tastes delicious.) Refrigerate until well chilled before serving.
Once again, do NOT be tempted to use chocolate chips. They would not give you as glorious a finish as this. Trust me.
Happy eating and Bon Appetit!
Happy eating and Bon Appetit!
Next week, October 9th til the 15th is National Curry Week here in the UK! I was challenged by Tasty Easy Lamb to come up with an Indian Tapas kind of a dish, something quick and easy but also delicious! You know how much I love a challenge. As soon as I was asked, the wheels in my food-loving brain started turning. This is what I came up with!
Lamb is such a diverse meat and its really fun to take it beyond the traditional "roasted and served with mint box" that we tend to pigeon-hole it in. It wasn't really something that I had eaten much of prior to moving over here to the UK, but something which I have fallen totally in love with over the past seventeen odd years.
Curry was also something which I had a limited experience with. I had spent a number of years on an armed forces base in Western Canada, which happened to be the British Army Training Unit in Canada. I was introduced to Curry there by some friends we made which happened to be British and fell in love.
How amazing that I would get to combine these two great loves
in one unique challenge!
Meet Curried Lamb Tacos! I know that Tacos are traditionally a Mexican thing, but bear with me here . . . this is truly fusion cuisine! Indian flavours, with British Lamb . . . put together with a tex mex twist!
Quick, easy and delicious! I used leg of lamb steaks, well trimmed and thinly sliced and then chopped. The meat is lean and fabulous. This gets marinated for about 15 minutes in a fusion of Indian curry spices with splash of hot green pepper sauce (which I have just discovered and love, LOVE) . . . I chose to use a Madras Curry Powder because I wanted some heat . . . but if you are not fond of heat you can use a milder one.
You soften some onion in a skiller and then add the meat and brown it all over. A bit of Indian beer gets poured on top and then the whole mixture is simmered until totally tender while you put together the cucumber raita topping and heat the folded flat breads. This takes literally minutes, no longer than fifteen.
Fill your warm flatbreads with some shredded lettuce and sliced cucumber and then pile on that delicious lamb curry mixture, a nice bit of cooling raitia and a dollop of good mango chutney and Sanjay is your Uncle! They are ready to be scarfed down and enjoyed with some more cold Indian beer! These are sooooo delicious! I have found a new love . . . and it is Curried Lamb Tacos!
*Curried Lamb Tacos*
Serves 4 - 6
1 TBS dried coriander flakes
1 TBS Madras curry powder (if you don't like heat, you can
I semi freeze my lamb steaks prior to cutting. Trim off any fat or sinew and cut them into very thin strips crosswise and then, cut the strips into small bits. Put the meat into a bowl. Add the garlic, ginger, coriander flakes, curry powder, chili powder, salt, black pepper and green pepper sauce. Let sit for about 15 minutes.
Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and cook until softened. Add the seasoned lamb. Cook and stir over medium heat until browned. Pour in the beer. Bring to the boil, then cover tightly and simmer on low for about 15 minutes, or until the lamb is tender and most of the liquid has evaporated.
While the lamb is cooking make the raita. Peel, deseed and grate the
cucumber. Peel and grate the ginger. Stir the grated cucumber, ginger,
coriander, salt and cumin into the yogurt along with the chopped
coriander or mint. Set aside.
Heat your flatbreads or tortilla boats according to the package directions.
Place the heated breads/boats onto a serving platter. Place some shredded lettuce in each and top with the cooked lamb mixture. Garnish with a dollop of raita and some mango chutney and serve immediately.
I also tested some of these in those soft flour tortilla boats that you can buy in the shops now and they were equally as delicious!
Happy Curry Week and à¤ोजन का आनंद लें बोन अप्पेतित! Namaste!
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