So today is my birthday and I wanted to enjoy one of my favourite foods. Steak.
I could quite happily be a vegetarian, except for the fact that every now and then I enjoy eating a good steak.
When I was a much younger woman, in another lifetime, I used to love being treated to a meal out at Ponderosa or Bonanza, both chain steak houses in North America.
You could get a decent steak cooked to your idea perfection . . .
Along with your favourite sides, be they fat steak cut chips, or baked potatoes, fried onions, grilled mushrooms, onion rings . . .
there was also a salad bar that came free with every meal.
The salad bars were crazy delicious. The trick was to NOT fill up on the salad bar before you got your meal!
At that time I would have shuddered at the thought of eating Stilton cheese, let alone enjoying it melted on top of a juicy steak.
Boy oh boy . . .
I was missing out on a delicious piece of steak heaven! This is fabulous and what I choose to enjoy on my 64th Birthday this year!
A tender sirloin steak . . . seasoned with a tasty steak seasoning rub (my friend Lura sends me it from America) and grilled to perfection . . .
then topped with some crumbled Stilton cheese, which melts and gilds the top . . . .
Pure taste perfection . . .
Next to that a fluffy pile of mashed sweet and white potatoes, flavoured with cream and butter and garlic . . . don't judge me . . . lol . . .
The sweet potato makes this mash slightly better for this diabetic than a mash that would have been just white potatoes . . . but
there is so much flavour in that that I will be happy with only a small amount.
Again, flavour perfection . . .
On the side Frenched runner beans, fresh from the garden . . . love them too . . .
Altogether this is a beautiful birthday meal. Nummity Nummity!
Stilton Steaks with Sweet Potato & Garlic Mash
Yield: 4
This dish is all about delicious. From tender perfectly cooked steaks with that melted Stilton on top to the lush sweet potato mash, it is a winner all round!
ingredients:
For the potatoes:
- 1 1/2 pounds floury potatoes, for mashing, peeled and cut into chunks
- 1/3 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
- 2 to 3 cloves of garlic, peeled
- knob of butter
- 60ml cream (1/4 cup)
- salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste
For the Steaks:
- steak seasoning
- 4 sirloin steaks, each about 1/2 inch thick and weighing 225g/7 ounces
- 70g Stilton cheese (2 1/2 ounces)
- Chopped fresh parsley and thyme to garnish
instructions:
How to cook Stilton Steaks with Sweet Potato & Garlic Mash
- First make the mash. Place the white and sweet potatoes and garlic into a saucepan of lightly salted water to cover. Bring to the boil, then simmer until the potatoes are fork tender. Drain well and then return the pan and shake over the residual heat of the burner to dry them out a bit. Mash well with a potato masher, adding in the cream and knob of butter. Season to taste with salt, pepper and freshly grated nutmeg. Cover and keep warm while you cook the steaks.
- To cook the steaks, season them well on both sides with your steak seasoning. Preheat the grill to high. Cook the steaks under the hot grill for 8 to 10 minutes, turning them over halfway through the cook time, according to your preference. (We like our steaks medium rare and so opt for the shorter time.) A minute or so before they are done, crumble the Stilton cheese over top and pop back under the grill at which time the steaks should be done perfectly and the cheese melted. Sprinkle with the chopped herbs and serve immediately along with the hot mash.
OH boy, but this is some good. A new favourite combination. I hope it will be for you as well!
Up tomorrow: Chicken Schnitzels
Yay!!
One thing I really missed when I first moved over to the UK was Baked Beans. Beans that tasted like my mom's always did, and indeed like mine did through the years. The dry beans were hard to come by, as was Molasses and to this day, Salt Pork does not exist here.
This recipe is my nod to my mom's original Boston Baked Beans, and all the Baked Beans of my ancestors, albeit a bit easier to throw together. They use cooked tinned Haricot Beans (navy beans) and streaky bacon. I like to use the dry cure bacon, and nitrate free if I can find it. We love bacon, but its not very good for you, fat aside . . . its the chemicals. Not good for you at all, that's why I use nitrate free if I can find it.
Back home, once upon a time we had a butcher who made his own home smoked bacon and it was truly heavenly. His butcher shop always had the wonderful smell of his home smoked bacon. I wish I could make some way for you to smell it here, but alas, you will just have to take my word for it. If you have ever smelt home smoked bacon, you will know what I am talking about.
Back to the beans. Mom always baked hers in a stoneware bean crock. My sister does hers in the slow cooker, both ways take plenty of preparation and all day to cook. You actually have to start them the night before by soaking the dried beans overnight, and then you boil them for a bit in the soaking water with a bit of soda, which is supposed to help them soften. I am not sure if it does. I was always afraid to leave it out just in case!
This recipe cuts out all of that overnight soaking and the boiling. And trust me when I say they taste just as good as they would had you started with dried beans. It uses tinned cooked haricot beans. (Navy Beans) Three cans, drained and rinsed . . .
You make a rich and slightly sweet sauce that you bake them in, along with some onion and streaky bacon . . .
The sauce contains everything that from scratch Boston Baked Beans uses. Molasses . . . tomato ketchup . . .
Seasonings, brown sugar . . . Worcestershire Sauce . . . the original use Cider vinegar, and you could certainly use cider vinegar instead of the Worcestershire sauce if you wanted to. I like the Worcestershire sauce myself.
Chopped onion . . . one medium brown skinned onion, peeled and chopped. No more, no less . . . the perfect amount.
You dump the beans into a casserole dish and simmer the sauce ingredients to come to a boil and melt the sugar . . . into that the onion goes.
Half of that gets pour over the beans in the casserole dish . . . and then the bacon is laid on top . . .
You pour the remaining sauce over top, cover tightly and then bake in a slow oven . . .
Three hours does it fine. No need to have them in the oven or slow cooker all day, and they taste just as if you have . . . I call these perfect baked beans.
Easy Boston Baked Beans
Yield: 8 - 10
These are hands-down the most delicious baked beans and they only take have the time and work of the original all from scratch version. Every bit as good. Trust me on this.
ingredients:
- 3 (400g) (15.5 ounce) tins of cooked haricot beans (cooked white navy beans0
- 1/2 pound sliced dry cure streaky bacon
- 1 medium onion, peeled and diced
- 6 TBS molasses (alternately you can use 3 TBS each golden syrup and dark treacle)
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp dry mustard powder
- 245g tomato sauce (Ketchup) (1 cup)
- 200g soft light brown sugar (1 cup, packed)
- 2 TBS Worcestershire Sauce
instructions:
How to cook Easy Boston Baked Beans
- Preheat the oven to 165*C/325&F/ gas mark 3. Drain all the beans and rinse them in cold water. Drain them again and then put them into a 9 by 13 inch glass baking dish, of small roasting tin. Mix the ketchup, molasses, salt, black pepper, mustard powder, tomato sauce, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil over medium heat, stirring to melt the sugar. Remove from the heat. Stir in the onions. Pour half of this mixture over the beans in the dish. Top the beans with the slices of bacon and then spoon the remainder of the sauce over top. Cover tightly with a sheet of aluminium foil. Bake for 3 hours until the beans are tender and delicious. Serve hot with your favourite accompaniments.
I would be happy with a plate of these and a slice of bread and butter and nothing else. We had them with hot dogs and potato salad. These are a great dish to carry along to a pot-luck or a covered-dish supper! I guarantee you will come home with an empty dish!
Up Tomorrow: Stilton Steaks with Sweet Potato & Garlic Mash
Tasty tasty!
This cake I am sharing with you today is very dangerous. Very, very dangerous, and on several levels. Its rich and chocolaty, and probably loaded with calories that you don't want to think about. You best be making it when you have someone to share it with.
Trust me on this. Second . . . the danger level for me is that my husband doesn't like chocolate cake . . . so what am I going to do with a whole chocolate cake all on my own. Oh boy . . . why do I do this to myself. Its a tough job but someone has to do it, right!
Its probably been about 35 years since I have made this cake. When I was in my late 20's and the mother of four young children, I collected the McCall's Cooking School recipes and binders. I never got to finish collecting all of them, but I did collect quite a few.
You could trust the McCall's Cooking School. They were reliable, and this was one of my favourite recipes from the series. Actually they were all favourites, but we won't go there!
This cake consists of a rich chocolaty layer cake . . . filled with a scrumptious fruit and nut caramel filling . . . whipped cream and then frosted with a scrumptious sour cream bittersweet chocolate frosting!
Its not an every day kind of a cake . . . its a special cake.
This is the kind of cake you might want to bake when you have something you want to celebrate . . . occasions like anniversaries, or, perhaps a birthday spring to mind!
Oh yes . . . Tuesday is my Birthday. Happy 64th Birthday to me! That's a great reason to celebrate. Its been a hard year this past year, but I made it.
So, chocolate hating husband's aside . . . I do think a rich, delicious, moreish chocolate cake is due me!
Bear in mind that this cake is so rich and so delicious that, even though it is only 8 inches in diameter . . . it feeds 16 people.
You wouldn't want a really large piece of this!
Trust me on this . . . a narrow slice is quite enough!
The many times I have baked this luscious cake through the years, I have never managed to get the sides perfectly iced on it. But I do my best . . . and nobody really complains.
Least of all me . . . Back in 2001 two of my sons came over for a visit. We had bought them tickets to come, and they were here for my 46th Birthday.
My oldest son baked me a lovely chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache frosting. It really cheered my heart. Other than my mother, not many cakes have been baked for me through the years, other than by myself.
But I am not complaining. I love to bake and so baking myself a Birthday Cake is a real treat for me!
The only way this could get any better would be if everyone who looked at this recipe donated a couple pounds to the blog . . . but that ain't going to happen. Can you imagine?
I'd never have to work again. Whatever would I do with my time! I'd rather bake cakes and cook pies, and create daily tastiness! I can't imagine ever retiring, no matter how old I get . . .
Yield: 16
Creole Chocolate Cake
A sinfully delicious chocolate cake that you will be unable to resist. From the McCall's Cooking School of the late 1970's early 80's.
ingredients:
For the Cake:
- 280g plain flour (2 cups all purpose)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 120g butter (1/2 cup)
- 120ml salad oil (1/2 cup)
- 3 ounces unsweetened dark chocolate (broken into squares)
- 380g sugar (2 cups)
- 2 large free range eggs, beaten
- 120ml sour milk (1/2 cup)
- 240ml water
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
For the Filling:
- 60ml water (1/4 cup)
- 150g evaporated milk (5.3 ounce tin) (NOT the sweetened condensed)
- 150g sugar (3/4 cup)
- 40g seedless raisins chopped (1/4 cup)
- 125g chopped dates (1/2 cup)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 60g chopped toasted walnuts of pecans (1/2 cup)
- You will also need 120ml/1/2 cup of chilled heavy cream
For the Frosting:
- 170g semi sweet chocolate chips (about 1 cup)
- 60g sour cream (1/2 cup)
- pinch salt
instructions:
How to cook Creole Chocolate Cake
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter two 8 inch cake tins and line the bottoms with baking paper. Place the chocolate for the cake, salad oil and butter in a saucepan. Cook, stirring to melt the chocolate and amalgamate everything. Stir in the water. Set aside to cool for 15 minutes.
- To make sour milk, add 1 1/2 tsp of vinegar to a cup and fill with milk to measure. Do this now.
- Sift the flour and soda into a bowl. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the sugar, eggs, sour milk and vanilla to combine. Stir in the chocolate mixture, just to combine and divide between the two cake tins. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes. The tops should spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in the tins for 5 minutes before tipping layers out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Remove the baking paper and discard.
- To make the filling combine the water, milk and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the raisins and dates. Cook, stirring until the mixture bubbles and thickens. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and nuts. Set aside to cool.
- Whip the cream for the filling until stiff peaks form.
- Place one cake layer on a cake plate. Spread with the filling. Top with the whipped cream to cover and then place the remaining layer on top.
- To make the frosting, melt the chocolate pieces in the top of a double boiler over hot water until smooth. Stir in the sour cream and salt. Beat until smooth and then allow to cool until it is of a spreading consistency. Spread over the top and sides of the cake. Chill one hour prior to serving.
I am in a real quandary now as to what I am going to do with the remainder of the cake. I think my next door neighbour is in for a treat. After all if I want to make it to 65, I don't want to be eating this whole cake all by myself!
Tastes You Can Look Forward to in the Week to Come:
(always subject to change according to my whims)
Monday: Easy Boston Baked Beans
Tuesday: Stilton Steaks with Sweet Potato & Garlic Mash
Wednesday: Chicken Schnitzels
Thursday: Chunky Puy Lentil & Vegetable Soup
Friday: Back to the 60's Shrimp Cocktails
Saturday: Perfect Sticky Toffee Pudding Cakes
Sunday: Lemon Mousse
Now that's a lot of tastiness to look forward to! I hope you will pop back to see how I am getting on with it all!
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Just as promised here I am today with Ten easy and elegant dessert parfaits! Oh, I do so love to make dessert parfaits in the summer time!
For one thing they make great use of all of the fresh fruit that we have available and coming into season, especially berries!
Our strawberries are finished now, but you can still get good local ones in the shops. There are also plenty of blueberries, raspberries and the blackberries are just beginning!
These Raspberry, Ice Cream and Brownie Parfaits are a real favourite and so easy to do. Especially if you have some ready made brownies about.
The berries are sweetened with a bit of sugar and then layered in pretty glasses along with softened vanilla ice cream, crumbled brownies and milk chocolate chips!
What's not to like about that? Nothing! These are so simple to make and oh so tasty!
If you don't have brownies, you could use chocolate cookies, or pound cake . . . crumbled vanilla sandwich cookies, etc. The world is your oyster!
You can let your imagination go wild with these!
If you wanted to you could even macerate your raspberries with a bit of Chambord raspberry liqueur, or drizzle with a bit of Mozart Dark Chocolate liqueur for something really special, especially if you are entertaining!
Raspberry, Ice Cream & Chocolate Brownie Parfait
Yield: 4
A little taste of Heaven on Earth I believe.
ingredients:
- 250g fresh raspberries (2 cups)
- 2 TBS sugar
- 450g vanilla ice cream (2 cups)
- 4 brownies, crumbled
- 2 TBS milk chocolate chips
instructions:
How to cook Raspberry, Ice Cream & Chocolate Brownie Parfait
- Sprinkle the sugar over the raspberries and let sit for a few minutes to macerate. Stir the ice cream until a bit soft and then begin layering the ingredients into four parfait or decorative glasses, beginning with a bit of ice cream, half a crumbled brownie, some of the berries, some more ice cream, more crumbled brownie, more berries and some chocolate chips to finish. Serve immediately.
One of my absolute favourite combinations however has to be these Mixed Berry and Lemon Cream parfaits!
A mix of berries is macerated in orange juice and sugar (you could use Cointreau or Gran Marnier if you wanted to.) You whip some cream and fold in lemon curd.
And then layer the berries and some crumbled shortbread biscuits along with the cream in pretty glasses. Oh boy, so yummy!
Summer Berry & Lemon Cream Parfaits
Yield: 4
So delicious you won't be able to resist!
ingredients:
- 450g mixed summer berries (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries) (2 cups)
- 2 TBS sugar
- the juice of 1/2 orange
- 240ml double cream (1 cup)
- 2 heaped dessertspoons of lemon curd (1/4 cup)
- a few crumbled shortbread biscuits
instructions:
How to cook Summer Berry & Lemon Cream Parfaits
- Sprinkle the sugar and the orange juice over the berries in a bowl. Leave to macerate while you make the lemon cream.
- Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Fold in the lemon curd.
- Crumble the biscuits. How many you will need will depend on how many biscuit crumbs you want in your parfaits. I would calculate one biscuit per parfait.
- Have ready four decorative glasses or parfait cups. Beginning with the cream, layer in the fruit, biscuit crumbs and lemon cream, ending with a dollop of the cream on top, plus a few berries and some biscuit crumbs to garnish. Chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
*Eight Easy & Elegant Dessert Parfaits*
Each serves four
Parfaits
are perfect, quick, easy and delicious desserts to serve! They take
advantage of the natural flavours of fresh fruit and they don't require
baking. A plus in the summer when fresh fruit is readily available!
Here are some suggestions for some delicious combinations!
Strawberry Parfaits:
Sprinkle 450g (2 cups) sliced strawberries with 95g (1 cup) of sugar,
the grated zest and juice of one orange and 1 TBS Balsamic vinegar. Set
aside for 15 minutes. Whip 240ml heavy cream (1 cup) with 95g sugar
(1/2 cup) until soft peaks form. Starting with the fruit and ending
with the cream, make 3 layers in each of 4 dessert glasses.
Ricotta Cheese, Walnut & Honey Parfaits:
Stir enough heavy cream into 250g ricotta cheese (2 cups) to obtain a
soft consistency. Starting with the cheese building the parfaits in 3
layers, drizzling each layer with some nicely flavoured honey (Greek is
lovely) and a sprinkling with portion of chopped toasted walnuts.
Finish with honey and nuts.
Pineapple Caramel Sundae Parfaits: Sprinkle
450g (2 cups) chopped fresh pineapple with a few spoonfuls of soft
light brown sugar, or to taste. Stir 450g (1 pint) of vanilla frozen
yogurt until soft. Starting with the pineapple, layer in the pineapple
and frozen yogurt in four dessert glasses. Drizzle with some prepared
caramel sauce and serve immediately.
Jelly Parfaits: Prepare
a package of cherry or raspberry jelly according to the package
directions and pour into 4 dessert glasses. Add mixed berries, sliced
strawberries, or sliced banana and refrigerate until the jelly is firm.
Top with a dollop of whipped cream or creme fraiche and a scattering of
the fruit you have used in the jelly.
Mixed Berry Creme Fraiche Parfaits:
Sprinkle a few spoonfuls of sugar over 125g (1 cup) of blueberries and
125g (1 cup) of raspberries to sweet them to taste. Add the grated zest
and juice of one lemon. Let sit for about 5 minutes. Whip 120g (1
cup) of creme fraiche with 30g (1/4 cup) sour cream until fluffy.
Starting with the berries, layer the berries and creme fraiche mixture in
four glasses and chill until needed to serve.
Ambrosia Parfaits: Sprinkle
a few spoonfuls of sugar over the peeled segments of 1 orange and 1
grapefruit (with their juices) to sweeten the fruit. Starting with the
fruit, layer wedges with whipped cream and coconut flakes in each of
four glasses. Top with a scoop of marshmallow fluff and a maraschino or
fresh cherry to serve.
Chocolate Sandwich Cookie Parfaits:
Stir a 450g (1 pint) of chocolate ice cream to soften slightly.
Starting with the ice cream, layer the ice cream with crumbled chocolate
sandwich cookies (2 for each parfait) in each of four dessert glasses.
Drizzle each layer of cookie with chocolate sauce. Top with a dollop
of whipped cream and some chocolate chips, chunks or shavings. Serve
immediately.
Its truly amazing what you can do with a bit of imagination and whats in the store cupboard when it comes to creating simple and delicious summer desserts! Happy Weekend!
Up tomorrow: Chocolate Birthday Cake
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