In my quest to create more small batch recipes, this week I created a small batch Gingerbread Cake, built for two with leftovers. Not enough leftovers that you have it hanging around for a week or two or three.
Just enough so that you can enjoy it once as a dessert with something lush spooned over top, and once as a teatime treat, served warm, split and buttered. I hope that I am not the only person who enjoys my gingercake buttered!
This is a lovely ginger cake, lacking none of the delicious flavours of a full sized ginger cake. It may be diminutive in size, but it is not diminutive in flavour!
It packs every bit as much of a flavour wallop as a full sized ginger cake/bread. There is plenty of warm baking spices in there and plenty of everything else we enjoy about this lush treat!
I have always been fond of gingerbread, probably since I read the story of Hansel and Gretel and the witches Gingerbread House. I don't blame those two children for being tempted, I really don't.
I find myself wondering what did the forest smell like around the witch's property? Was it the smell of the gingerbread that lured Hansel and Gretel to venture close?
I confess that a huge part of the pleasure from a ginger bread or cake comes from that fabulous smell which permeates the air of your home while it is baking.
There is something really special about the combination of warm baking spices and wood smoke. It is really quite, quite intoxicating!
It really doesn't matter if you are baking a full sized one or a small sized one, the smell is the same. Comforting. Welcoming. Home Sweet Home. Hugs and family.
When I lived in Canada and had a wood stove, I confess I used to keep a pot of water with the warm baking spices simmering on the back of the stove all day in the winter months. People always thought I was baking.
For this cake I used the warm baking spices of ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground cloves and ground cardamom.
I was tempted to add a bit of vanilla and lemon extracts, but I didn't this time. They would be nice, however I would not add more than 1/4 teaspoon of each.
It also has a small amount of molasses, which is another ingredient which makes ginger cakes and bread so beautiful. Moist. Warm. Inviting.
You know back home in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island most people keep a pouring jug of molasses on the table at all times, and for all meals. If you grew up on the East Coast of Canada (or American for that matter) you had a jug of it in your cupboard.
People back there eat it with bread and butter. It has a long, long culinary history. This is largely due in fact to the history of Maritime trading between these Eastern provinces and states and the West Indies.
People back there eat it with bread and butter. It has a long, long culinary history. This is largely due in fact to the history of Maritime trading between these Eastern provinces and states and the West Indies.
Back in the 1870's Lorenzo Crosby started an import/export business in Yarmouth Nova Scotia. In the late 1890's he moved the business to Saint John, New Brunswick.
He transported Maritime fish and lumber to the West Indies and the ships returned loaded to the gunwales with barrels of fancy molasses.
At first it was used to make rum, but Maritime Canadians developed a taste for it and before too long it was finding its way into many culinary delights such as baked beans, brown bread, cookies, and yes, gingerbread.
.
We cannot help it. We Maritimers have molasses running through our veins. My grandmother and mother made the best molasses cookies and gingerbread you could ever want to eat.
If you want a full recipe for a great gingerbread/cake you can find it here. Grandmother's Gingerbread. It is rich and moist and incredibly tasty.
If you want a full recipe for a great gingerbread/cake you can find it here. Grandmother's Gingerbread. It is rich and moist and incredibly tasty.
Ginger bread and cakes have a wonderful infinity for the flavour of lemon. I sometimes make a lemon sauce to serve with our ginger creations. You will find a recipe for another delicious Gingerbread and a lucious Spiced Lemon Sauce here.
I do have quite a few recipes for gingerbreads and cakes on this blog actually. You can see it is a real favourite of ours. Just because we are only two that doesn't mean we can't still enjoy it.
This lemon cream goes beautifully with this cake. It is rich and lush and lemony. I could eat it with a spoon on its own.
Its also relatively simple to make as well. As simple as whipping some cream and folding in some lemon curd. Easy peasy, lemon squeasy!
If you are only two like us, or even if you are only one, I do hope that you will be tempted to bake this lovely dessert/cake/indulgence. I don't think you will regret it.
I guarantee it will be destined to become a family favourite. A smaller family favourite to be exact. Oh but we both enjoyed this today so very much. It will be baked again, and again.
Small Batch Gingerbread Cake with a Lemon Cream
Yield: Makes one 5 inch square cake
prep time: 10 Mincook time: 30 Mininactive time: 15 Mintotal time: 55 Min
This is a beautifully moist and perfectly spiced Gingerbread cake perfectly sized for two people. Its wonderful served warm, split and buttered with a nice hot cuppa, or as a dessert with a nice dollop of lemon cream on top.
Ingredients:
- 2 TBS caster (granulated) sugar
- 2 TBS butter, softened
- 1 large free range egg yolk (Freeze white for another purpose)
- 1/4 cup (88g) mild molasses
- 2/3 cup (90g) plain flour
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1/8 tsp ground cardamom
- pinch salt
- 1/4 cup (60ml) boiling water
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a 5 inch square baking dish really well and set aside.
- Sift together the flour together with all of the spices and soda. Stir in the salt.
- Cream the butter and sugar together unil smooth. Beat in the egg yolk and then the molasses. Add the flour mixture and mix well to combine. Add the boiling water, combining well and then pour into the prepared baking dish.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes until risen, golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- Let cool for at least 15 minutes before cutting into squares to serve.
- This is lovely split and buttered, or served warm with some ice cream, or whipped cream. I really like it with a lemon cream. See note.
notes:
To make a delicious lemon cream, beat 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream until soft peaks form. Fold in a heaped dessert spoon of lemon curd.
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I think if there is no dish on earth more beautiful or delicious than a perfectly roasted chicken. It is one of my absolute favourite things to cook and to eat. I am always on the lookout for a new way to prepared it.
You cannot have too many recipes or ways of roasting chicken in my opinion. This recipe I am sharing with you today is a really good one and comes from the Katie Stewart Cookbook which was published in 1983.
Its actually a really excellent cookbook. Its filled to overflowing with recipes selected by Katie Stewart that are her favourites, for every day meals and for entertaining.I don't think you can really go wrong with a book that contains someone's favourite recipes, do you?
Katie Stewart is actually no longer alive. She passed away in 2013 at the age of 78. During the 1960's and 1970's her cookery columns in The Times made her a household name here in the UK.
Her wherewithal equipped the middle classes with all that they needed to be able to entertain successfully by providing them with delicious foolproof recipes. And she did it all without a cookery show, a blog, or much else in the way of bells and whistles.
I first became aware of her when I worked at the Manor down South in Kent. My boss had several of her cookery books. I liked them so much that I purchased several for myself. They are filled with good solid recipes, cookery tips and ideas.
This roast chicken is a bit different than most roast chicken recipes you might see. The chicken actually begins cooking with one breast side down in the roasting tin, and then is flipped over to the other side and finishes with being roasted right side up.
The end result is a succulent, perfectly tender and moist roast chicken that you can be proud to serve to anyone.
I would suggest that you begin with a good roasting chicken. The last few times I have bought a free range whole chicken from The Thoughtful Producer. I purchased them through Ocado the online grocery store.
The Thoughtful Producer specialises in free range and forage fed chickens. I was so impressed with the first one I bought that I didn't hesitate to get another one.
They are very well packaged, and come wrapped with a sturdy bag on the outside (not flimsy cling film you can punch your fingers through. Inside they are wrapped in paper and then inside that is a chicken in a cooking bag.
You can either cook the chicken in the bag, (rosemary is included to insert in the cavity) or outside in a roasting tin. It also has a pop up timer to tell you when the chicken is done and comes with a bag of giblets to aid in making your gravy.
Aside from starting with a really good chicken, you will need to make an herb butter which is insertd into the cavity of the bird. I used finely chopped fresh chives, parsley and thyme, along with a quantity of freshly grated lemon zest and some seasoning.
TOP TIP: If your butter is hard, but it into smaller bits and pop into a bowl. Rinse out another bowl larger enough to cover the intitial bowl with some boiling water and then invert it over the bowl of butter. You will find that within one or two minutes you have perfectly softened butter.
Have you ever seen this kind of potatoes before? They are called Pink Fir Apple Potatoes. My friend Tina's husband Tony grew some this year. They are a fingerling variety of waxy potato that is really good for making salads with.
They really are most unusual looking, covered with little nobbly bits. They are also excellent roasted. I washed them really well, dried them and then cut them into halves lengthwise.
I then tossed them in a baking dish along with 1 TBS of good olive oil and 1 TBS of melted butter, along with the juice from the lemon I had zested to use in the herb butter for the chicken. Waste not want not.
Along with a bit of salt, pepper and a touch of garlic, they roasted beautifully in the oven along with the chicken and were done around the same time as it was finished. Beautifully caramelised and flavourful.
They went perfectly with our roast chicken dinner! Just look at how juicy, golden brown and caramel tinted they turned out. Their flavour and texture was amazing.
Just look at how tender and moist that chicken is. I served it with a gravy that I made from the pan juices. Making a tasty gravy is very easy to do.
You begin by pouring all of the pan juices into a measuring cup. There will be a layer of fat on the top. Spoon off 2 TBS of the fat into a saucepan and discard the remaining fat as best as you can, leaving only the chicken juices.
Heat the fat in the saucepan and whisk in 2 TBS of all pupose/plain flour until smooth. Let it cook for several minutes to cook out the flour taste.
Add chicken stock or water to the remaining pan juices in the measuring cup to bring it up to 480ml or two cups of liquid. You want to whisk this slowly into the fat and flour roux in the saucepan.
Continue to cook it, whisking continuously until the mixture comes to the boil and thickens nicely. You should have a really beautiful tasting gravy there.
You can adjust the seasoning as you wish. This will be perfect spooned over your roasted chicken and vegetables. You cannot get a nicer tasting gravy.
What is your favourite part of the chicken to eat? Todd always enjoys the legs, whereas I like the breast meat. I also am awfully fond of those two little nuggets you will find on the bottom of the chicken.
They are like little oyters of dark and delicious meat. Having absorbed all of the chicken juices and goodness throughout the cook time. They are quite delectable
It is the same with any bird, even turkey. I call them the cooks treat! They are reserved for me. Little nuggets of deliciousness.
You can serve whatever vegetables you want to serve with your roast dinner. Today I served the roasted potatoes, some mashed potatoes, baby peas, carrots and mashed swede (turnips/rutabaga).
Normally I would also serve stuffing with a roast dinner like this, but I was too tired today to make any stuffing. If you are looking for a really tasty stuffing recipe I highly recommend my Sage and Onion Stuffing which you will find here.
Normally when I make it I make extra and freeze it, ready to pull out for occasions such as today. Unfortunately I had alread used all which I had frozen.
I think the next day I feel really energetic I will make a big batch and then freeze it in two cup containers, ready to haul out and use when I want some stuffing.
That is my favourite stuffing. I could eat it with a spoon. Its almost dangerous for me to have in the refrigerator because I find myself picking at the leftovers constantly.
When a stuffing tastes just as good cold as it does hot, you know you have a winner there!
All in all this was a most delicious dinner. My husband felt really spoiled. He loves a good roast dinner. I do too actually.
Yes, they are a lot of work to pull together, but think of how very delicious all the leftovers are going to be. In sandwiches, as soup, in a casserole . . .
I never mind paying a premium for a good roasting chicken. I always know I will get at least three meals from a good sized bird, which makes for a very delicious economy indeed.
Roast Chicken with Herbs
Yield: 4
prep time: 10 Mincook time: 1 Hourinactive time: 10 Mintotal time: 1 H & 20 M
Moist, delicious and filled with lovely flavours from the inside out. dapted from Katie Stewart's Cookbook.
Ingredients:
- 1 3 lb. (1.4 kg) oven-ready chicken
- 3 ounces (75g) butter, divided
- 1 TBS finely chopped fresh parsley
- 1 TBS freshly chopped fresh chives
- 1 tsp freshly chopped fresh thyme
- finely grated lemon zest to taste
- fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Have a deep roasting tin ready to go. Butter it well.
- Cream 2 ounces (1/4 cup/60g) butter together with the chopped herbs, lemon rind, salt, and papper. Spoon into the cavity of the chicken.
- Place the chicken, resting with one breast down, into the roasting tin. Spread the exposed surface of the chicken with the remaing butter and season lightly. Roast in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.
- Remove the chicken from the oven and flip it over to the other side, baste with the pan juices, return to the oven, and roast for a further 20 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and turn the chicken upright. Baste again. Return to the oven and roast for a further 20 minutes, for 60 minutes in total.
- Remove from the oven, let rest for 10 minutes. Spoon any juices from the cavity over top. Carve and serve.
- A delicious gravy can be made from the pan juices.
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
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These last six months have been huge trial for many of us. When the lockdown began, like many, I had no idea it would last as long as it has and it is ongoing.
Life suddenly got very narrow. I keep busy most days and so time has moved along quite swiftly for me. I've been crafting, cooking and organising!
I recently took on the task of organising my spices. I love to cook and I love putting flavour into foods.
As a consequence of that I have loads of spices and flavourings and I am ashamed to say, this is what they were looking like. (See photo below)
I tried to keep them semi-organised, but to be honest, every time I reached for something, especially something out of the ordinary, I was faced with an exercise in frustration!
I recently received these spice labels from Innoveem, which were a great impetus towards me getting organized. I fell in love with design and practicality of them. Here is a bit about them from the website:
- Other labels for spice jars often have small hard to read text on them. Our 38mm diameter spice jar labels are perfectly sized to fit on any round or square spice jars, with large BOLD clear and easy to read text. Which ultimately means you can always find the spice jar you are looking for.
- This full comprehensive range of herb and spice labels covers the most common herbs and spices used in the UK kitchen today. This consists of 60 colour coded easy to peel pre-printed herb & spice labels, as well as 12 BONUS blank labels so you can label any extra exotic spices or mixes you make yourself.
- Our durable adhesive small jar labels have awesome sticking power on Glass, Plastic, Wood and metal surfaces. The glue has excellent sticking performance so the label will not fall off, ensuring they will last a long time.
- Because our hard wearing labels for jars are waterproof you will be able to wash and wipe them clean without damaging them. This is great because your labels will continue to look as good as the day you put them on. Suitable for both lids or front of jars!
- Do these come with a money back guarantee? YES! Your purchase comes with a full 90-day no-risk, no-nonsense 100% money back guarantee. Either you are thrilled, or we don't want your money!
I have always been thoroughly impressed with all of the labels I have gotten that are from this company. Everything about them has been exemplary and above board. I was so impressed with the spice labels that I got started right away organizing everything.
My spice jars in the wall spice cabinets were replaced with matching jars of a single kind and I labeled them all accordingly.
Green edged labels for the soft herbs. Orange/brown edged labels for the spices. White edged labels for the seeds, etc.
Interestting mixtures and my own homemade mixtures got put into little pots and labeled with the blank spice labels. They were the perfect size for these little pots.
As you know I am a great lover of making my own spice combinations and rubs. You know exactly what goes into them and how old they are. I have a whole page of them here. This is a list that gets added to.
I also have a printable list which you can find here.
I got rid of my minging old stacking spice racks which I had gotten quite tired of and which were looking quite dated and tatty. I replaced them with a more modern looking turntable type of spice unit, and of course the spice labels fit perfectly on the ends of the jars.
Everything is now at my fingertips and easily identifiable. I am so, so, SOOOO pleased with the results!
Everything looks a bazillion times better. And to be honest I feel a bazillion times better. It is amazing at how a simple change such as this can breathe some extra joy and peace into your life!
If you are wanting to buy some of these spice labels for yourself, you can buy them on Amazon UK. They sell for £4.99 and I highly recommend them. With 72 labels altogether, they have all your bases covered!
I believe so much in the Inoveem labels, and I felt so bad about the Brownie giveway being limited to only UK residents, that I have decided to have a giveaway of my very own. I will be giving one of my readers, ANYWHERE in the world, no limitations as to location, a full set of the Innoveem labels.
That's a set of the Freezer labels, the Jam Jar Labels, the Jar Labels and these amazing Spice Labels. Four complete sets in all. All are welcome to enter. You can enter via the giveaway widget below. The giveaway will end in 7 days time. (September 11th, 2020)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Good luck to one and all!
UPDATE - The giveaway is now finished.
Congratulations to Lynn Tondro Bisset who was the lucky winner! Thank you all for playing!
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I confess to being rather lazy at times and most weeknights I will go for an easy option when it comes to feeding us. I did plenty of fancy smancy when I worked as a Chef at the Manor.
In my real life I don't necessarily need to have a gourmet meal every night.
Special occasions are obviously on a different scale and I am very happy to do a special meal, which requires a lot more work.
Holidays, Celebrations, Dinner Parties, Lunch with friends, etc. They are well worth the extra effort and I really do enjoy preparing for those!
This recipe I am sharing today has been adapted from one I found on the Betty Crocker site. I am always looking at the Betty crocker page as well as the Pillsbury page.
I used to buy their little monthly magazines when I lived in Canada quite often.They were always in the stands next to the cash registers in the grocery stores and I was always tempted by them.
Although I did not always cook many recipes from them, due to lack of availability of ingredients, etc. I found them quite inspiring and was always able to glean some great ideas from them.
You can find their recipe here. Traditionally Porchetta (pronounced Por - ketta) is an Italian type of pork roast in which a fattier cut is boned, stuffed with plenty of garlic, herbs and seasonings, rolled up skin on, and then roasted on a spit over an open fire for about 8 hours.
Sounds delicious!This is sort of a riff on that. It doesn't use a fatty cut of pork however. It uses pork tenderloin.
I love Pork tenderloin. It is one of my favourite cuts of pork. If you buy bone in pork chops, it is that tender nugget of meat that you will find next to the bone on theone side. It is so juicy and delicious!
Sounds delicious!This is sort of a riff on that. It doesn't use a fatty cut of pork however. It uses pork tenderloin.
I love Pork tenderloin. It is one of my favourite cuts of pork. If you buy bone in pork chops, it is that tender nugget of meat that you will find next to the bone on theone side. It is so juicy and delicious!
It also cooks very fast in comparison to other cuts of pork. Pork tenderloin is a long narrow muscle of meat that comes from the muscle that runs down the backbone of the pig.
It is one of the leanest, more tender cuts of pork on the market, and so can also be a bit pricey sometimes.
But it is worth every penny. Rated as extra-lean it actually has a nutritional value and profile that rivals that of boneless, skinless chicken breast meat!
It lends itself beautifully to this type of recipe where it is going to be cooked quickly and easily.
Like Chicken breast, it can dry out very easily as well, so you don't want to be doing that if you can help it. Cooking it quickly at a high temperature is the way to go.
In this recipe it gets rubbed in a delicious herb mixture composed of garlic, fennel seeds, thyme and crushed red pepper flakes.
Over here they are called crushed chilis and they do pack a lot of heat, but there is just enough of them in this for you to know that they are there, but not so much as to be obnoxious.
Once you have rubbed the pork all over with the spice mixture, you then wrap it in Prosciutto, which is a type of Italian cured ham.
This helps to keep the flavours of the rub next to the pork and also helps to shield it from drying out too much.
The pork is roasted on a baking sheet with a quantity of vegetables. Sweet potatoes, red onions and brussels sprouts.
I have to confess that this is not my favourite way of cooking Brussels Sprouts. If I made this again I would replace them with another vegetable.
I don't really think Brussels Sprouts lend themselves well to being roasted, or maybe mine were just too small.
I ended up with lots of burnt leaves and chewy over-done sprouts. I think maybe green beans would be a better choice! Or even broccoli florets. Or maybe just really large brussels sprouts.
I don't really think Brussels Sprouts lend themselves well to being roasted, or maybe mine were just too small.
I ended up with lots of burnt leaves and chewy over-done sprouts. I think maybe green beans would be a better choice! Or even broccoli florets. Or maybe just really large brussels sprouts.
The Sweet Potatoes worked beautifully being roasted, as do the red onions. Both ended up beautifully caramelised.
When picking vegetables to roast along side of the pork, you will want to pick ones that will be cooked and lightly caramelised in the appropriate cook times. I think regular potatoes might take too long, but I could be wrong.
The Pork itself ended up beautifully cooked. Just slightly pink, which is okay today. Our modern pork is not as dangerous as it used to be years ago.
A small amount of pink indicates that it has been cooked well enough, but not so long as to have dried it out. Remember it will continue to cook whilst standing.
The flavour were spot on. It was moist and tender and had a lovely garlic kick. I also really enjoyed the flavour of the thyme and the fennel seeds.
Fennel can have a bit of a licorace quality to it, but not overpowering. It is a flavour that works very well with pork.
The prosciutto got nice and crisp without being dried out as well. Both were so yummy. The proscuitto lent a smoky and salty flavour, which is why you don't really want to have any salt in that rub you put on the pork.
I cut the pork into large thick slices as you can see. Just look at how juicy and tender that looks. If I make it again (and I will) I will make a nice sauce to serve with it.
Maybe something creamy and buttery. Nothing too spicy because I wouldn't want to take away from those lovely porchetta flavours.
I served this with some dauphinoise potatoes and baby peas. I buy the dauphinoise potatoes frozen, and they are beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
If you keep a good variety of frozen potatoes and vegetables on hand you can go a bit wild with your protein and spend a bit of time on that because you know your sides are not going to take much of an effort.
The leftovers of this pork were lovely serve cold and sliced thinly with some potato salad. I highly recommend this Potato, Egg, and Green Bean Salad. You really don't need anything else. Its really nice.
At the end of the day we both really enjoyed this quick and easy supper. It fed the two of us for two days running and was not boring in the least.
It was deliciously different and is something I recommend and would/will make again on another occasion, with perhaps some different vegetables on the side. I give it an English Kitchen Two Thumbs Up!
Sheetpan Porchetta Dinner
Yield: 4
prep time: 10 Mcook time: 35 Mtotal time: 45 M
Nothing could be easier. Everything roasts on one baking sheet. If you line that with foil, clean-up is minimal! The meat is delicious, tender and perfectly cooked!
Ingredients:
- 2 TBS light olive oil
- 1 pound Brussels Sprouts, trimmed and halved
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 extra large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1 medium red onion, peeled and diced
- 1 tsp dried minced garlic
- 3/4 tsp dried thyme leaves
- 1/2 tsp bruised fennel seeds
- 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 1/4 pound pork tenderloin
- 4 thin slices of Italian Proscuitto
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 225*C/425*F/ gas mark 7. Line a fairly large rimmed baking sheet with aluminium foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
- Mix the brussels sprouts in a bowl along wih 1 TBS of the oil and 1/4 tsp each of the salt and black pepper. Toss together and then place on the baking sheet.
- In the same bowl toss the sweet potato cubes and onions togeher with 2 tsp of the oil and 1/4 tsp each of the salt and black pepper. Place onto the baking sheet with the sprouts and then roast in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Pat your pork tenderloin dry and remove any silverskin using the edge of a sharp knife.
- Mix together all the spices and the remaining tsp of oil in a small bowl. Rub this mixture all over the pork tenderloin. Wrap the tenderloin in the proscuitto slices, tucking the ends underneath the tenderloin.
- Place onto the baking sheet with the vegetables. Roast in the heated oven for 23 to 25 minutes until the pork is no longer pink inside and the vegetables are tender. Tent with foil and let stand for 10 minutes before slicing.
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: theenglishkitchen@mail.com
Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
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