Italian Breadsticks

Most of my bakes are inspired by the Great British Bake off!
These bread sticks are created by Ali, one of last year contestants. They include unusual but delicious flavors and are fun to make!!
Follow the link to find the recipe to make these bread sticks!  http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/italian_grissini_86213

 

Home made whole meal bread

This bread is a simple recipe that can be made using a bread maker or just simply by hand (when kneading you can just use plain white bread flour) I prefer the old fashioned hand method because I feel I get more of the satisfaction when the final result comes out of the oven!
Secret to success:
It may sound like cheating but you get the same satisfaction by using a supermarket bought bread mix! There are loads of different varieties, whole meal, plain white, granary. All you need to add is butter and water (and some elbow grease when kneading!)
I am going to enjoy a slice or two of my bread with some salmon and boiled potatoes with lots of lovely butter on top!

Banana scotch pancakes!

This simple recipe can make a filling and fun to make breakfast!
Scotch pancakes (also known as drop scones) are North American and the raising agent is baking powder.

These pancakes have such a wide variety of toppings to choose from! But the classic is lemon and sugar, or for scotch pancakes banana and honey!
Some other ideas for toppings for toppings are:

• Fruit and cream
• Blueberries (jam or compote) 
• Ice cream
• Chocolate sauce
• Caramelized bacon

Ingredients for Scotch Pancakes 

1. 200g of plain flour
2. 1 level tsp of Bicarbonate of soda
3. 2 level tsp of cream of tartar
4. 50 grams of castor sugar
5. 1 egg
6. 250 ml milk
7. 50 block butter or margarine

Method

1. Put flour, bicarbonate of soda and cream of tar tar into a measuring jug
2. Add in sugar, egg and milk
3. Using a stick blender, blend the mixture until smooth. Make sure all the mixture has been mixed in
4. Warm up a frying pan and wipe with the butter or margarine
5. When the fat begins to smoke, drop a spoonful (or more if you would prefer) onto the pan
6. When the top begins to show bubbles flip and the under side should be a nice golden brown
7. Put onto a plate and add your chosen topping!

Winter soup

For this tasty soup you will need:

6 floury potatoes

1 turnip

6 carrots

1 large onion

chicken stock cube

3 cups of water

salt and pepper to taste

herbs to flavour

2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil

 

 

 

Handy Cheese biscuits

These 'handy' biscuits are very simple and  desirable for the cheese lover! They recipe is also very simple: 120g plain flour, 120g cheese (grated) and 120g of butter. Mix all the ingrediants together and roll into a ball and roll out and cut into shapes. Bake for 10 - 20 minutes. You can add some more cheese on top if you want and even cheesier bake!

 

Seville

Recently in the half term break I went to Seville. Our hotel was very near the bull fighting ring. I couldn't stand going and watching it - the building was very grand to look at and the horses were also magnificent with thier riders. In most restaurants I went to thier were bulls heads from previous fights. The heads are treated as almost trophies from when the Matador kills the bull.

 

In Seville they are more excited about Tapas than Paella. I mostly enjoyed the anchovies on toast (tostadas anchovie) and the garlic prawns (gambas al ajillo). The really good Tapas places are on the outskirts of town. The family run ones produce wonderful home cooking at reasonable prices. In one bar I went to it had a big, long breakfast bar where you ordered you food and they called your name and you went up to collect it. You could see the kitchen in the back and it was about a metre square - yet producing such wonderful food!

 

Trying different cuisines

 

Eating different types of cuisines can improve your tastes and ideas for cooking! Even just going to your local Chinese takeaway can help you to taste other ideas of cooking.

Or if your taste buds are really tingling you can go to the true cuisine then you could go to the country, Italy for pasta and pizza, Spain for Paella, India for the smells of pungent currey or England from fish and chips and a good old roast dinner!

 

I wanted to try an Asian fusion dish so I took myself off to Wagamamas and tasted a mini ramen. A simple salty broth with sweet corn, bbq chicken, noodles, carott and wild water cress. It's a really simple meal you could make yourself or to just have it in the restaurant!

The dish as it came to me.