Gordon Ramsay's Blueberry and Honey Pots

So today was my first half marathon since bringing my little sproglet into the world two years ago.  In fact, it was my first race since just before I fell pregnant back in 2009.  And boy, did it show.

I could go on and on about all the things I did wrong, but most of you aren't runners and would find it tedious.  And those of you who are should just be content in knowing that I broke every single rule in the runners handbook and will be paying the price for it for some time (running in too new shoes, running just days after having a chest infection, running after not having run for four weeks....blah blah blah...)

However, I made it round all 13.1 miles in the blazing sunshine.  I have a fetching tan-lines (damn those 3/4 length tights) and the blisters to prove it.  And more than anything, I had the support of Aan amazing bunch of people who encouraged me to get out there, do it and made me feel good when I finished, even though I was much much slower than last time I ran the Bath Half.

There are raspberries in there...somewhere...

I managed to raise just under £200 for Guide Dogs but another two promised sponsorships should take me beyond my target which makes it all worthwhile.  Most of the people that sponsored me wouldn't even know my blog existed so a big group thanks to them.  And special thanks to my three lovely Twitter friends @KateSelwood1, @DickyBundock and @Tarb2010.  All people who I've only ever met in the Twitterverse and haven't known that long, but they all generously sponsored me and kept me going with their support.  Amazing people.  And if you're on Twitter and don't follow them, do so now.  Because they're such a funny and caring bunch.  A little cheeky now and again, but they brighten every day.

Anyway, having spent the day first gaining aches, pains and blisters and then the rest of it mincing around trying not to make things hurt too much, I didn't really have time for anything elaborate.  Even Miss A's ministrations to get into the kitchen for some egg cracking, rolling and cutting fell on deaf ears.  So I've had to settle for a dead simple recipe from Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food.

It feels like one of those lazy recipes that I probably could've thought up myself if I liked honey and if I'd ever eaten Greek yogurt before.  So there's a tick on my list of goodness for having tried a new recipe and a tick for having tried two new ingredients (okay I've put honey in things before, but generally if it's in it's "raw" state in a recipe, I'll always use maple syrup).

I made one pot to eat after tea and another for my breakfast tomorrow.  Dead simple and nice tasting, however there was far too much honey in it for my liking and I found it drowned the taste of the berries.  If I did it again, I'd definitely use a spoon of maple syrup instead - a personal preference.  Or maybe it would be better with different honey, but as I'm not a fan I generally buy the cheapest I can find as it only goes into hot toddies.  I also used a mix of berries because normally I find blueberries quite bland but these ones for a change had a real bite to them which I'm sure much enhanced the dish. 

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp flaked almnds
• 150ml Greek yogurt
• 2 tbsp runny honey 
• 250g blueberries (I used a mix of blueberries and raspberries)

1. Dry toast the almonds in a frying pan, taking care not to burn. Remove and leave to cool.
2. Starting with the berries, layer the berries, honey and yogurt in four individual pots.  Top with the toasted almonds and serve.

Aldo Zilli's Pancake Tagliolini

Two years ago, I was stuck home on my second day of maternity leave.  I'd gotten it into my head that if I worked up until 38 weeks, I'd give birth a day or two later and all would be well with the world.  I was so rotund on my last day that my work colleagues were convinced that I would end up giving birth whilst stuck in the rush hour traffic on the A38 and naming the baby Filton.

Little did I know that it would actually take a further four weeks for her to put in an appearance.  Four very loooooong weeks.

I hate cleaning with a passion.  The husband spent most of my pregnancy not praying for the safe arrival of our unborn child, but that the nesting instinct would kick in.  The closest I got to nesting was watching back to back episodes of Location, Location, Location followed by A Place In The Sun and Come Dine With Me.  Interspersed with other foodie programmes.  I don't normally get to choose what's on the telly so this was my bit of self indulgence.

Amongst all this goggleboxing, I watched some programme or another where Aldo Zilli made Pancake Tagliolini.  I duly Googled the recipe and saved it to my favourites but I never got around to making it - until today.

In essence, it's just strips of pancake in orange sauce with some warm berry coulis and ice cream on the side.  It's very tasty.  But it's not really pancake day fayre - it's too poncey.  Pancake day is all about pancakes with lashings of lemon and sugar.  And nothing else.  Call me a 'Creature of Habit' or 'Old Skool' but pancake day is about proper pancakes.  And if I want something poncey, I'll go with Crepes au citron et sucre thank you very much.

Berry coulis

My favourite foodie destination (so far) is France because they cook perfect steaks, sell proper patisserie in service stations and make amazing pancakes.  As a child, I spent many summers in Brittany, home of the galette.  I haven't made them for a while, but we would regularly have galettes for dinner - stuffed with jambon, fromage, oeufs and champingnons.  Anywhere else in France, savoury pancakes are just regular pancakes with a savoury filling, but in Brittany, they are made from buckwheat flour which lends a beautiful, crisp, nutty flavour to the pancakes.  Sublime.

And if you're ever in London Town, and you love pancakes as much as I do, you should go to My Old Dutch  in Holborn - a favourite haunt of mine from my days working in the Big Smoke.  Here, you can get both sweet and savoury pancakes.  But not just any savoury pancakes.  How about Chicken Curry in your pancake?  Or Lamb Stew?  Or Marinated Artichokes, Sundried Tomatoes and Mozarella?  And their thirteen inch pudding pancakes served on beautiful Delft pottery plates are worth every calorie - and then some.

Multi-tasking

Anyhow, returning back to the pancake dish in hand, my only criticism of it was that the pancake batter was a little rubbery.  I guess this is so that it holds itself once cut into strips and then tossed about in the orange sauce.  It definitely wasn't a great pancake mix to eat as just pancakes.  I'm still on the search for the perfect pancake batter recipe.  Delia is not a contender and neither is Mr Zilli now.  Ah well, the research will be pretty tasty.

As I didn't have enough raspberries in, I made the coulis with a mix of strawberries and raspberries. It made for an interesting 'coulis' as it was more just warm, softened berries.  In my mind, a coulis is a sweetened, fruit puree but this one was warm and the seeds were left in.  And as I used strawberries, they didn't break up well enough, but it was really nice to have the contrasting texture with the raspberry sauce and the strawberry chunks against the soft pancake strips.

I served it all with a scoop of the strawberry meringue ice cream that I made with Miss A at the weekend.  Definitely a fun dinner party dish and great because you can prepare it all up front and just heat the sauces to serve.  Just on the right side of the 'I'll make it again' list.

Serves 4


For the pancakes:

• 1 egg, medium size
• 150 ml milk
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 65 g plain flour

For the coulis:

• 450 g fresh or frozen raspberries, thawed
• 4 tbsp brown sugar
• 4 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp butter
• 200 ml fresh orange juice

1. First make the pancakes. Break the egg into a jug and add the milk and half a tablespoon of oil and whisk together. 

2. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and gradually beat in the egg mixture to make a smooth batter. 

3. Heat a 17.5cm thick-based frying pan and wipe some of the oil all over the pan. Pour a quarter of the batter into the pan, swirling around to spread the batter. Cook for 1-2 minutes until the batter is set and golden on the base. 

4. Flip over and cook for a further 1-2 minutes. Place the pancake on a sheet of greaseproof paper. Repeat the process to make a further 3 pancakes. Thinly slice the pancakes in strips. 

5. For the coulis, place the raspberries in a saucepan with the brown sugar and simmer for 5 minutes until the raspberries break up to make a sauce. Set aside to cool. 

6. Meanwhile, place the caster sugar, butter and orange juice in a frying pan and heat gently until the sugar to dissolves then bring to the boil. Boil for 3-4 minutes until quite syrupy. 

7. Add the strips of pancake and stir into the sauce; cook for 1 minute. 

8. To serve, spoon the raspberry coulis onto 4 chilled serving plates and top with scoops of ice cream. Then spoon over the pancake tagliolini. Serve immediately.

Breakfast Bruschetta

I woke up this morning in a bit of a panic.  We're off to see Father Christmas at Longleat later today.  Once I've worked 1.5 hours (daft fake flexi-time rules!), we're heading out for a jaunt around the safari park, a trip on the Santa train and to see Europe's largest singing Christmas tree.  Indeed.

Who wouldn't want to eat this? Well other than a berry-phobe...

That means no chance to cook during the day and quite frankly, I know the husband will end up twisting my arm to let him have a takeaway when we get back because I have a feeling we'll all be exhausted, cold and as I still feel pretty rubbish from the lurgies, I won't be in any mood to cook multiple different dinners (excuses excuses!)

So I bounced out of bed, looked around my kitchen.  Ocado are arriving at 10am or so with next week's goodies.  Yipes!  The fridge is full of half open jars of jam, curd and pickles, some grapes as it's the only thing Miss A will eat at the moment and some berries.  The bread bin turned up a third of a stale baguette. Double Yipes!!

Les ingredients

Hmmm....  I was thinking bruschetta.  But would I be able to find myself a recipe for sweet bruschetta?  I've been making eggy bread or pain perdu for as long as I can remember so that was out.  And then I happened across the Noble Pig blog.

Okay so I had the wrong kind of bread, the wrong kind of fruit (I know there were some strawberries in the fridge yesterday - the husband was obviously peckish) and no fresh basil, but I made a pretty good stab at a very similar recipe to this one with what I had at my disposal.

It worked really well with blackberries and raspberries and I used lime juice with the berries and lime zest in place of the basil.

In fact, I was thinking of doing a brunch at some point over Christmas and these will make a really great alternative to the usual pastries - something else I intend to master in the next couple of weeks with the help of the lovely Joanne Wheatley from the Great British Bake Off's recipe :)

And as I had time this morning, I even managed to take a slightly more artistic picture of the finished dish.  You'd think I'd be better at this photography lark being married to a pro photographer, but I'm all about the eating of the food.  He drives me  potty if I make something he considers worth of his artistic bent and often dinner is cold by the time he's finished photographing it!


This is my take on the original recipe

Breakfast Bruschetta with Strawberries and Tangy Creamadapted from Noble Pig
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 small French stick, sliced diagonally and buttered on one side
150g mixed fresh berries

A work of art

2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp chopped fresh basil leaves
Zest of one lime and juice of 1/2 a lime
6 tbsp creme fraiche cream
2 tbsp plain yogurt
2 tsp maple syrup

Garnish Bruschetta With:Sprigs of fresh basil

Preheat gril to High with rack 6" from the heating element.

Combine sugar and cinnamon in a dish.  Sprinkle mixture on buttered sides of bread, then broil on a baking sheet until toasted, 2-3 minutes.

Toss fruit with sugar and lime juice.  Stir creme fraiche, yogurt and maple syrup together in a separate bowl.  To assemble bruschetta, spoon a few berries with juice on each piece of toast; dollop with 1 teaspoon creme fraiche mixture.
Garnish with lime zest before serving.

Bitter chocolate and raspberry tartlet

Bake without trimming the edges

Today's recipe is from one of the challenges set by Michel Roux Jnr in Masterchef: The Professionals.  But that wasn't specifically why I chose it.  I still had a little pastry left over from my mince pie fest earlier this week and I wanted to have a go at making a small tartlet in one of my little loose bottom tartlet tins.

Every time I've tried to use them before, during blind baking, the pastry has receded into a disc in the middle, leaving me with no retaining edges.  But this time, it was going to be different.


I'm sure it was some random TV watch during my maternity leave when I was in the middle of a marathon breastfeeding session or another (altogether we kept it up for15 months - how proud am I of that!) that I happened across Cookery School on Channel 4 with Gizzi Erskine and Richard Corrigan.

Wohoo, I have sides

Mr Corrigan is someone who would probably drive me nuts in the kitchen, yet I respect him with equal measure.  I just adore Gizzi for rocking the retro look - I wish I could do perfect eyeliner like her!  Anyhow, they made this very tart but revealed the secret to a perfect pastry edge is to not trim the pastry before you cook it, but to leave it overhanging, bake and then trim with a sharp knife once it's cooled.  How very educational.  I've since seen the lovely Dame Mary do the same on GBBO so I was desperate to give this a try.

And largely, it worked.  I think I should've maybe spent more time pressing the pastry into the nooks and crannies of the mould but Miss A was busy washing my kitchen floor with the dog's water bowl so the pastry didn't have my undivided attention.  But when it was baked, I had a crispy bottom and a passable edge to it.

The finished tartlet.

Only problem was that as the tins are so shallow, the raspberries (despite me lying them sideways and squashing them a bit) poked out of the surface of the ganache so the finished pie looks a bit lumpy.

It's still setting as I type.  I'm off to sample it later and will post a pic of the presented version tomorrow but I came upstairs to write my blog and book tickets to go and see Santa at Longleat tomorrow - wheeee!  Even chocolate raspberry tart isn't as important as your child's first visit to Father Christmas.

The recipe is in this month's Good Food Magazine and there's clip from the programme on YouTube.

Breakfast Bars

So no 'Bread of the Week' this week.  Oops.  Well I might give naan bread a go later today now I have a grill that works.  I usually buy the packet mix but was thinking to myself, how hard can it be to make your own?  Watch this space.

Anyway, healthy has to be the watch-word now.  I *still* have to shift my last stone of baby weight.  Personally I blame my gynaecologist.  He told me a few years ago to run less and put on some weight if I didn't want to go down the IVF route.  That was the best thing I ever heard.  I ran less, I put on weight (btw, I was hardly skinny at 10.5 stones!) and hey presto, free baby!  But that was nearly three years ago and now I have to get back to running and eat less as there will be no more little Crowdeys.  Ever.

Losing weight (for most people) is a simple case of calories in < calories out.  It's hardly rocket science.  You just have to know that your healthy looking salad may just possibly have copious amounts of calories and saturated fat lurking behind that innocent looking rocket leaf and maybe you should eat something else instead - and Bob's your uncle.

And because I'm such an early bird where work is concerned, I really have to watch what I have for my breakfast.  Given all the time in the world, I'd eat porridge or granola and yogurt or Bircher muesli every day.  But I leave for work at 6am so if I ate that early, I'd be hungry again by 8am, thus defeating the object of a good breakfast as I'd be at the vending machine or over at canteen eyeing up the bacon butties.  Nom...nom...nom.

So I try to be good and take breakfast to work and as a rule never eat before 8am no matter how hungry I may be.  This week, I'm out and about so need something portable.  I used to have a good recipe for granola bars which I've lost (it may be on my old blog actually) so I found a new one on the BBC Good Food website.  Very tasty although I would definitely add a pinch of salt to the ingredients if you use unsalted butter like what I do as it cuts through the sickly sweetness of the syrup.  I also found them really hard to cut without falling apart (them, not me!) so I stuck the tin in the freezer for 15 mins to make sure they were properly chilled and it worked like a charm.

Also pretty healthy - here's the skinny: 244 kcalories, protein 3g, carbohydrate 28g, fat 14 g, saturated fat 6g, fibre 2g, sugar 17g, salt 0.18 g

One final note - always line the tin.  I managed to wreck the non-stick on the base of my favourite cake tin with the palette knife.  Really fab product for lining is the Lakeland parchment lined foil.  I have a huge roll in my cupboard and am kicking myself for not using it.  It's great as you can actually fold it into shapes that keep their structure and won't keep curling back on itself once it's in the tin.