'Dish of the month' June - Nigel Slaters Chicken and apricots

You might be reading this after eating a salad or enjoying a barbecue...lovely stuff...but a few days ago it was cold and one of those evenings where something warm and spicy and comforting was needed to keep the cockles warm. Nigel Slater does great recipes of this nature and last month I made a spicy lentil dish that was fabulous for all the same reasons.

When I was reading the June chapter of Kitchen Diaries II earlier this week I kept thinking I was reading about July, or August as the recipes in the chapter just did not reflect the current weather, all that writing about cherries and soft fruits just didn't seem to ring true. This just shows what poor weather we have had this year...however we are having some sunshine this weekend so I'm not complaining.

This dish is based around a sauce, which is an aromatic spicy mix of fresh chilli's, lemongrass, garlic, tomatoes, limes, fish sauce, soy sauce, coconut milk and CORIANDER. You will see that mine hasn't one flake of the horrid green stuff (coriander) anywhere near it because I detest coriander with a passion. To me it tastes like washing up liquid...for years I ate indian food and thought they hadn't rinsed the dishes well enough and had left soap suds on the pans and dishes and that was were the taste came from, until I realised what it was. And...I am not alone there are lots of other folks that cannot bear the stuff either, and its all down to genetics if you have the coriander tastes like soap gene you are stuck with it. Thanks to Alicia over at FoodyCat who explained this to me on Twitter last week.

Anyway coriander dislike aside, leaving it out of this recipe didn't do it one bit of harm, in my view. The sauce makes a lovely comforting, spicy, tasty, blanket to wrap the chicken and the apricots in (I used dried apricots as I had them to hand, and when they plumped up during cooking in the juices they were heavenly).

You can eat this with rice or couscous or fresh bread dunked in the sauce...its delicious!

Last month was another quiet month in the challenge but we still had some delightful entries, you can refresh your memory over at Janice's blog here, or you can see a pictorial version of where we are since we started in January on Pinterest here, and there have been some brilliant interpretations of Nigel's recipes since we began.

If you'd like to join us in 'Dish of the Month' you'd be very welcome, this is how to get involved...

• Make a 'Dish of the Month' from ANY recipe by Nigel Slater
• Link back to THIS blog OR to 'Farmersgirl Kitchen' 
• Use the Dish of the Month logo (below) in your post
• If you use twitter, tweet your post with @Heavenona_Plate OR @Farmersgirlcook and #DishoftheMonth hashtag and we will re-tweet it to our followers AND post your pictures on our special Pinterest board. 

Rules:

• If you own a copy of The Kitchen Diaries II please do not publish the recipes on your blog without permission, they are copyright.
• If you are using any Nigel Slater recipes from the BBC Food website, please link to the recipe on BBC Food rather than publishing the recipe.  Likewise with any of Nigel's recipes on the Guardian website.
• Only one entry per blog please.
• Recipes must be added to the linky by the 28th of each month.

And remember to add your Dish of the Month to the linky below this post:

Fresh Bruschetta with parsley pesto - recipe

If you have ever ordered bruschetta in an Italian restaurant and haven't made your own at home you must. The combination of fresh flavours is amazing...these are so easy to make and will impress everyone. Just the thing when the weather is getting warmer (at last!).

I used a parsley pesto for my bruschetta, handy when fresh basil is not so accessible and I used walnuts instead of pine nuts (helps with the cost as pine nuts are so expensive). This parsley pesto is great tossed in freshly cooked pasta, 'if' you have any left over put it in a jar with olive oil and pop it in the fridge to keep for a few days.

I haven't really included much in the way of quantities for this as I just go with the flow to suit how many I am feeding or what I have in.
Ingredients:
slices fresh sourdough bread (see last post)
chopped vine tomatoes
olive oil
sea salt - black pepper
small tin stoned olives (black or green) - chopped
grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
Modena Balsamic vinegar
torn fresh basil leaves
for the parsley pesto
bunch fresh parsley (stalks included)
1 clove garlic
olive oil
sea salt
handful broken walnuts

Method:
1. Start with the parsley pesto. In a food processor add the parsley, a generous pinch of sea salt, the walnuts, clove of garlic (grated). Blitz until smooth then add olive oil until you get a spreadable paste.
2. Take the slices of sourdough bread, lay on a board then spread one side with the fresh pesto.
3. On top of this add the chopped tomatoes, chopped olives, torn basil.
4. Season with salt and pepper and finish with a drizzle of olive oil, a drizzle of Modena Balsamic vinegar and top with a generous grating of fresh Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

The freshest/tastiest snack or starter or nibbles for drinks...ever!

'Levain de campagne' bread - a random recipe

This months random recipe challenge from Dom at Belleau Kitchen is all about bread and I just had to join in as I have been trying very hard to improve my bread making and if you follow this blog you will have seen some of my recent efforts.

The challenge this month is to choose a recipe from a book with breads in it...I only have two books and so it was in a bit of a 'dip dish dash...my blue sash...' fashion that I chose 'How to make bread' by Emmanuel Hadjiandreou. I bought this book fairly recently as it was recommended to me by Vivien Lloyd, not only an expert in preserves but a keen and skilled bread maker...I know I have eaten her amazing home made breads!

A quick flick through the book and I opened a page at this recipe for 'Levain de campagne', this is described as a French country sourdough loaf. There are several sourdough recipes in this book as one of the chapters is completely given over to sourdough breads; this covers white sourdough, wholegrain sourdough, grissini, polenta sourdough, tomato, beetroot, spiced cheese and herb, potato, fig, walnut and anise sourdoughs, hazelnut and currant, chocolate and currant, caraway rye sourdoughs. Every loaf looks outstanding!

Luckily I had some sourdough starter on the go, I have been nurturing the thing for weeks now and have attempted a couple of recipes using it but with varying success. My sourdough starter was made using rye flour this recipe called for a white starter but I took the risk.

This was definitely the best sourdough loaf I have made so far. The flavour was amazing and it had a lovely sweetened taste from the addition of the rye flour in the recipe. I am not sure the texture of my loaf is as light and airy as it should be, though it did look just like the finished loaf in the book.

I would certainly make this loaf again and I would recommend this book, not only for the lovely recipes and great bread making instructions but for inspiration alone it ticks all the boxes. The kneading techniques for this recipe are really easy as long as you are staying in the vicinity of your dough. I haven't described what these are as I think you should buy the book for that, trust me you won't regret it if you love good bread.

Stand by your jam - 22nd May 2013 is the jammie deadline

Say goodbye to jam as we know it...its about to happen.

You might have missed the latest about the change in jam regulations in England, that are about to be decided upon in the coming days and weeks.

DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs ) have launched what can only be described as a non publicised ‘public’ consultation about suggested changes to the ratios of sugar to fruit in the making of jam.

These are known and the Jam and similar products (England)Regulations 2013. This consultation is not restricted just to jams as it also affects marmalade and curds (similar products). 

The Regulations will incorporate four main changes:

·       Option 1: Reduce the permitted sugar level for jams from 60% to 50%

·       Option 2: Reduce the permitted sugar level for jams from 60% to 55% with an ingredient specific exemption for Bramley apples to a level of 50%

Additional deregulatory measures under both options:

·       Remove the UK national limit for ‘reduced sugar jam’

·       Removing national provisions for curds and mincemeat

It is worth noting at this point that the government favours the 50% option.

You might think that lessening the ratio of sugar to fruit in jams, marmalades and curds is a good thing…but let me assure you its not! The impact of such a proposal will change jam as we know it, no longer will you have the lovely sweet jewel-like fruit laden goodness you spread so lavishly on your cake sponges and breads, but instead you will have something more akin to a sweet spread. Don’t get me wrong I like a spoonful of jelly-like spread on my bagel when I’m in the USA but this is not the USA and I love and want to keep my British jams. They are part of our heritage in this country and I want to keep that heritage and British jam tradition alive.

Marmalade is affected by these new proposals and mincemeat too, its not just jam.

You can read more about this issue on Vivien Lloyd's blog here. And also at Rosie’s blog here. These two are proper jam and preserves experts and know their stuff so I’m taking my lead from them and I am supporting the 60% sugar in my jam and making my views known to DEFRA.

The consultation closes on a few days on 22^nd May 2013. This means you still have time to make your opinion heard and noted.

Please take a few minutes to support our heritage and preserve traditional English jam etc.

You can do this by e-mailing DEFRA at this address foodpolicyunit@defra.gsi.gov.uk

All you have to do is say something like this…

Dear DEFRA,

RE: THE JAM AND SIMILAR PRODUCTS REGS 2013 – PROPOSED CHANGES

I know you want to change the sugar content of jam in this country to decrease the permitted sugar levels, but actually I quite like English jam it as it is.

I want to keep English jam at a permitted sugar level of 60%.  I do not agree with either proposal to reduce the permitted sugar levels to either 50% or 55%.

Thank you for taking my views into account.

Regards

(Your name goes here)

THANK YOU!

Changes will affect curds too if they come into force.

A taste of Italy (in Lancashire) - Pumpkin risotto recipe

There are many staples in my store cupboard/fridge and these include some products of Italian origin. My often run to emergency meal is very often made from a lump of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, risotto rice, decent stock and other bits and pieces, in this you have the makings of a delicious supper in the form of a comforting risotto. Takes a bit of patience but worth the result and the ingredients peak for themselves, without the cheese its nothing.

I also have olive oil and balsamic vinegar in my store cupboard (always) and use them frequently in my cooking (see my lovely fresh Brushetta as one example, below). I was recently asked to try out a recipe using Italian foods from a region within Italy covering the provinces of Bologna, Ferrara, Mantova, Modena, Reggio Emilia, Rovigo and the Park of Po Delta, all known as Quadrilatero deli'UNESCO. What a feast for the palate it turned out to be!



The items originating from these provinces are so versatile, as well as the Bruschetta above, the olive oil and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese was used on a homemade sweet chilli and salmon pizza I made last weekend to make both the dough and to add flavour to the finished dish.

The Quadrilatero deli'UNESCO region is being promoted by Rediscover Italy on Facebook who sent me some of the towns produce to try at home in my kitchen. The suitcase of items I received came with a lovely recipe for a pumpkin risotto and although not usually a fan of trying the recipes sent with such items, this one seemed too good to miss.

I made the risotto above, and it was fabulous...you can find the recipe after the page break...the Brushetta and pizza recipes are for another day...worth the wait though.

Cinnamon and brown sugar bagels - recipe

After my recent bread making day I have been making all sorts of different breads and just generally having a stab at whatever I fancy...all gung ho like! We made bagels on the bread making day and when I brought them home they were eaten in a flash, so a few days alter I made another batch.

Bagels are a bit unusual as they are boiled in water prior to the final bake and after proving/rising. This gives them the unusual texture. With home made bagels you don't tend to get that shiny, smooth perfectly round exterior or the dense/tough chewy texture you get from shop bought. The home made variety may be a bit lumpy on the outside (this is where the dough has proved and then been placed into boiling water), they won't be a uniform shape and they will be much lighter...and they do taste miles and miles better.

Here is how I made mine...I made 3 variations, all with a white dough - plain poppy seed topping, plain with a cinnamon/brown sugar topping and raisin and cinnamon. Bagels will keep quite well for a few days in a container, they freeze well and are amazing toasted if they start to loose their freshness.
Ingredients:
500g strong white flour
10g salt
1 sachet fast action yeast
1tbsp honey
1tbsp olive oil
250ml warm milk
Flour for kneading
2tsp poppy seeds
2tsp cinnamon
3tsp brown sugar
1 beaten egg
2tsp semolina
Method:
1. Begin by putting all the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix together with a spoon to combine. Add the oil and warm milk slowly and mix as you go to form a dough. Once the mixture is holding together, cover with a damp tea towel and leave for an hour to settle and to rise.
2. After an hour take the dough and put onto a floured worktop and knead until smooth, between 5 and 10 minutes.
3. Roll the dough into a fat sausage and cut into 6 or 8, depending how large you like your bagels.
4. Take each piece of dough and make into a small bun then roll this into a ball. Poke a finger or the end of a wooden spoon through the middle of each ball of dough. Whizz this around your index finger to stretch the middle of the bagel.
5. Place the formed bagels on a greased baking tray to rise...leave plenty of space between each bagel. Cover with a damp tea towel and leave in a warm place for about 45 minutes.
6. After the bagels have proved, just make sure the centre hole is still there and if it has shrunk with proving use your finger to make the hole a bit bigger.
7. Put a pan of water on to boil and then once it reaches boiling point lower the heat to a gentle simmer.
8. Use a large spoon or slotted spoon to lower the bagels into the water - you might need to do them in batches of 2 or 3 at a time. They should float on the water. After a minute simmering on one side turn them over carefully to boil the underside for another minute.
9. Pre- heat the oven to 220C fan.
10. Use a slotted spoon to remove each bagel, drain them as much as you can and place on the baking tray ready to be baked.

N.B. Bagels stick like glue to baking sheets so I used bacoglide on my baking tray and sprinkled fine semolina over the bacoglide in readiness for the bagels.

11. Once on the tray use beaten egg and a pastry brush to glaze the top and sides of each bagel, sprinkle the tops with cinnamon and brown sugar, poppy seeds or raisins and cinnamon and brown sugar. Or top with sesame seeds, dried onions, garlic flakes, chill flakes, nuts, dries fruit or any seeds are good.
12. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Turn the bagels over and bake for a further 3 or 4 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

If you want to see another version of gorgeous bagels op over to Choclette's blog to see the ones she made recently...

Learning a new skill - Bread making with 'Cracking Good Food'

Bread! Its the new black in baking isn't it really, with Paul Hollywood's recent series on BBC 2 getting us all a bit keen and interested? My bread making hasn't been up to much to be honest, I made bread years ago and it was pretty OK but of late my attempts haven't been too good. I have thought my problem was the kneading (I can't knead for toffee) but even with a stand mixer and a dough hook I couldn't hack it. So I did no more than took myself off to a bread making course a few weeks ago on the outskirts of Manchester to try and improve my limited bread making skills.

Granary breads.

I spent the day at a school kitchen in Manchester with a number of other keen potential bread makers and in the company of Rob our very knowledgeable tutor, and not just up to speed about bread making either.
My knowledge of nutrition and some aspects of digestion improved too thanks to Rob's tuition/advice. On the day we made a loaf (with our choice of flours), a rye cob, sourdough starter, soda bread and bagels. We had a delicious lunch of freshly baked pizza with a nutritious salad.

My bread making day was run by Cracking Good Food, a non for profit organisation, they put on various courses connected to food and foraging, well worth a look if you live in the north west. I paid £75 for a full day's course and I thought that was an excellent price, a lot of other courses locally are much more expensive. One of the aims of Cracking Good Food is that the courses they run should be as accessible as possible so everyone has the opportunity to learn how to cook.

Milk loaf.

I didn't take any pictures of the day as I just wanted to enjoy it and learn as much as I could. You can see photos of the type of things that go on at these courses on Cracking Good Foods Facebook Page.

Since the course I've been making bread like a good 'un and we haven't bought bread since. I have made sourdough and I have my sourdough starter which began life on the course, I have made white breads (tin loaves and cobs), malt loaves and bagels. Of everything I was most pleased with the bagels as they always seemed a bit tricky to make and not worth the effort but trust me they are! Apart form those you can buy fresh in the USA these are THE BEST I have tasted in this country. My confidence in bread making has improved a great deal and I understand so much more now about yeasts and flours and kneading and proving and how to make a pretty decent loaf and a bagel!

Watch this space for my bagel recipe and tips, which will be coming up in a future post.

A selection of home made bagels.

Testing Paul Hollywood's malt loaf recipe.

NB. I am writing this review because I enjoyed my day baking breads with Rob at Cracking Good Food. I paid for the day myself and was not asked to write a review and Cracking Good Food did not know I was a food blogger when I went on this course. All opinions are my own.

'Dish of the month' May - Nigel Slaters' Spiced lentils and mint labne

This month its over to me to launch May's 'dish of the month'...our challenge to cook our way through The Kitchen Diaries II by Nigel Slater. I'm a few days late as its the 3rd May already...last month was a quiet month in the challenge but we still had some delightful entries, you can refresh your memory over at Janice's blog here, or you can see a pictorial version of where we are since we started in January on Pinterest here, and there have been some brilliant interpretations of Nigel's recipes since we began.

This month I decided to make spiced lentils and mint labne (May 27 and p221 in the book) its not something I have made before but it suited my tastes as unintentionally we have started to eat less meat in our diet, and I find I am more drawn to meals that are more vegetable or pulse based. So this just fitted the bill, I love lentils as it is and use them a lot in cooking, such a great source of protein, brown lentils were used to make this tasty dish.

Its very easy to make, just boil lentils until part cooked then make an aromatic paste with asian spices, fresh ginger and garlic and rapeseed oil. Add this to fried sliced onions and finish with chopped tomatoes and seasoning. The finished dish is dressed with (strained) yoghurt and I used fresh chopped mint as I bought the biggest most fresh fragrant bunch ever from my greengrocers. I used (Cotswold) rapeseed oil to blend my spices - this came in a box of food goodies I was sent to try.

I loved this recipe, it was delicious and spicy it made lots (it was a cheap meal) and I intend to freeze some and take it to work as lunch. I had mine with flat bread for supper. I can only describe as as another stunner from Nigel...but his recipes always are!

If you'd like to join us in 'Dish of the Month' you'd be very welcome, this is how to get involved...

• Make a 'Dish of the Month' from ANY recipe by Nigel Slater
• Link back to this blog or to 'Farmersgirl Kitchen' 
• Use the Dish of the Month logo (below) in your post
• If you use twitter, tweet your post with @Heavenona_Plate OR @serialcrafter and #DishoftheMonth hashtag and we will re-tweet it to our followers AND post your pictures on our special Pinterest board. 

Rules:

• If you own a copy of The Kitchen Diaries II please do not publish the recipes on your blog without permission, they are copyright.
• If you are using any Nigel Slater recipes from the BBC Food website, please link to the recipe on BBC Food rather than publishing the recipe.  Likewise with any of Nigel's recipes on the Guardian website.
• Only one entry per blog please.
• Recipes must be added to the linky by the 28th of each month.

And remember to add your Dish of the Month to the linky below this post:

Retro baking - Sponge Drops recipe

Back in time for this recipe...way back to the future.

My favourite shop bought cake of all time (and they are few) is a 'sponge drop'. When I was a teen, a mere handful of years ago, my mother used to send me off to the local bakery for the seeking out of freshly made, would be called artisan now, meat and potato/steak pies, bread and cakes baked goods. Duly I would set off with list and monies and return with produce and for my own pleasure a 'sponge drop'.

It would be light and fluffy and filled with fresh cream, jam and dusted with icing sugar...though the best sponge drops had a crusty sugar top to them. I'd get home, devour an a steak pie artisan home baked item of choice and tuck into a fresh yummy sponge drop with a cuppa. Have never ever made them until very recently, as the thought one sprung to mind when driving past the said bakery...now gone and replaced with a sunbed shop, of all things!

I am very grateful to Nonna's Kitchen for helping me make sponge drops from her recipe.

In the words of Cher "if I could turn back time..."

..."I'd have another sponge drop"...me.

'Dish of the month' April - Nigel Slaters parfait of orange and lemon

Its not exactly cold dessert weather I know, but my 'Dish of the Month' this month is born form two dishes and two recipes from 'The Kitchen Diaries II' by Nigel Slater.

Firstly, we had half a hot cross bun loaf left over from Easter, so following Kitchen Delights example last month I made a hot cross bread and butter pudding from The March chapter of 'The Kitchen Diaries II'. It was quite good actually, and a particular favourite with chief taster who polished it off with custard.

Anyway, making that lovely spicy pudding left me with 3 egg whites, and with a pot of double cream in the fridge, a jar of lemon curd in the cupboard and oranges in the fruit bowl, I made this 'Heavenly parfait of orange and lemon' (p 162) again from 'The Kitchen Diaries II'. With one 'small' exception! In Nigel's recipe his picture of this parfait looked a bit *ahem* 'pale' so I thought I'd liven mine up a bit, and I added some apricot gel food colouring to my homemade meringues. I 'might' have made it a bit too lively...but it tastes fab so what the heck!

This parfait is very easy to make, I just made meringues with the whisked egg whites and caster sugar and once these were baked and cooled, I folded them into the whipped cream and other citrus goodies from Nigel's recipe. Because my meringues were homemade, they were nice and mallowy in the centre and crunchy on the outside, this added to the overall loveliness of the finished parfait.

If you'd like to join us in 'Dish of the Month' you'd be very welcome, this is how to get involved...

• Make a 'Dish of the Month' from ANY recipe by Nigel Slater
• Link back to this blog or to 'Farmersgirl Kitchen' 
• Use the Dish of the Month logo (above) in your post
• If you use twitter, tweet your post with @Heavenona_Plate OR @serialcrafter and #DishoftheMonth hashtag and we will re-tweet it to our followers. 

Rules:

• If you own a copy of The Kitchen Diaries II please do not publish the recipes on your blog without permission, they are copyright.
• If you are using any Nigel Slater recipes from the BBC Food website, please link to the recipe on BBC Food rather than publishing the recipe.  Likewise with any of Nigel's recipes on the Guardian website.
• Only one entry per blog please.
• Recipes must be added to the linky by the 28th of each month.

And remember to add your Dish of the Month to the linky below this post:

I'm also going to add this post to 'Credit Crunch Munch' as these recipes were born from using leftovers from Easter; frugal and tasty, its a win win all round. Credit Crunch Munch is run by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla at Fab food for All. 

This challenge is a great way to see how other bloggers get creative and save money with their cooking, so do look out for the round up of recipes below.

A visit to Dewlay - Lancashire cheese makers

Dewlay shop and museum at Garstang in Lancashire.

Last Monday we had a great morning out at Dewlay Cheese makers in Lancashire, and here lies a bit of a tale. After submitting a photograph to the Visit Lancashire facebook page for a 'say cheese for Lancashire day' my photograph was picked out by Jodie Prenger as the winning snap and my prize was £100 to spend in the Dewlay shop in Garstang. If I tell you this was one of the very few things I have ever won I am not kidding readers, I never win a sausage. I was so delighted to win anything at all, but really pleased with this particular food related prize, and the opportunity to go up to Garstang, to that great rural Lancashire cheese triangle (I made that up, its not really a 'cheese triangle' but there are several Lancashire cheese makers in that area) and to learn more about Dewlay and how they make Lancashire cheeses.

The first thing that strikes you when you visit Dewlay, after the huge wind turbine outside, is the smell of fresh cheese being made. We had a tour of the viewing gallery, and on the day we visited they were making crumbly Lancashire, Red Leicester and Garstang blue cheeses. The gallery overlooks the cheese production area and Conor Daunt from Dewlay gave us a verbal account of how the cheeses are made, the history to the family business, the awards won by Dewlay and how they are moving forward in terms of sustainable energy, and even recycling the water they use. This might be an old Lancashire traditional cheese product (the starter culture used began over 40 years ago) but the technology is current.

Still winning awards for cheese after a number of years, and proud of it too.

Just some of the interesting facts I learned last week...I'm a cheese expert now...ask me anything about Lancashire cheese...anything!

• The milk comes from cows nearby (5miles radius) and the local land is renowned for being good grazing land for cattle, the soil (damp), the climate (damp), the grass (green and damp), did I mention damp there? (at least there are some benefits to the Lancashire climate after all!) all help make for contented grazing cattle and good milk production too.
• Dewlay supply cheese to Lancashire schools, if your kids are at school in Lancashire they are likely to be eating this cheese made from local milk etc.
• Dewlay has PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) standard for their cheese. This means its regional, local and made in a traditional way. 
• This is third generation of Dewlay cheese makers, the business was started by the current brothers grandfather George Kenyon in 1957. It *might* just a bit older than me but "age is not important unless you are a cheese".
• Lancashire cheese is a 2 day curd cheese recipe and its made this way for years. The curds are cut by machine and turned by hand, bruised curds does not maketh good Lancashire cheese!
• Which Lancashire cheese you prefer depends on taste, but some are more mature and therefore more creamy, younger cheeses more crumbly and stronger flavour. 
• Dewlay cheese is sold in supermarkets nationwide, lots of local Lancashire markets, a Kosher range is made under strict standards, the cheeses are suitable for coeliacs and vegetarians and the cheese is shipped worldwide.

Cream of cauliflower and Garstang blue cheese soup - recipe

I didn't start out planning to write about the soup that I made for a lunch last week, but it was so good and it is so easy and simple to make I just couldn't resist sharing it with you.

Cream of cauliflower soup with cheese added isn't a new recipe but its new to my kitchen as I have never made it before. I had a terrible yearning for it and with two fresh cauliflowers in the fridge and some amazing local creamy Garstang blue cheese to use it was a great excuse.

Garstang is a place in Lancashire, this blue cheese is a local cheese made in the county but sold countrywide; its fundamentally a Creamy Lancashire cheese made with pasturised (Lancashire) cows milk. It has a lovely creamy texture and a mild blue cheese flavour that goes perfectly with this soup.

Dish of the Month - March Round up

Well folks that was March...blink and you'll have missed it...was it Spring like? No. Were we neck deep in snow in parts of South Lancashire? Yes! Was it another month that went in a flash? Yes! While we've been busy making and cooking lovely recipes from Nigel Slater, Nigel has been in Japan and if you don't follow him on Twitter I would because his pictures have been really interesting, a great insight into the culture and the food too.

For this March 'Dish of the Month' challenge we had a lovely little giveaway/gift form the folks at OXO Good Grips in the shape of a 2.8L Stainless Steel Mixing Bowl and a Medium Silicone Spatula.

And now Janice of Farmersgirl Kitchen is back from cruising round the South of France she has picked a winner at random...and the winner is...Dom from Belleau Kitchen and star of ITV's Food Glorious Food!!!

Well done Dom, enjoy the gift, its on its way :-).

Here's the fabulous March round up...

Easter nest cupcakes - recipe

These yummy scrummy Easter nest cupcakes are just the thing to amuse the kids and to get them busy in the kitchen now they have broken up from school. A combination of a light moist chocolate sponge cake yummy chocolate crispie's, chocolate eggs and more chocolate to keep it all together...its choccie heaven.

These aren't hard to make but its a recipe in two halves, part one, the tops which are crispie cereal chocolate nests with eggs, and part two the lovely light moist little chocolate cakes that support the nest. Top tip; when making these is to make sure you grease the tins for the crispie nests VERY thoroughly (or use cake release spray) as the nests are tricky to get out, thats not a part of this recipe to let the kids do.

This recipe will make between 18 and 24 depending on how generous you are, and if any nests break...there may be nest casualties, no problem just eat those as you go along. If its snowing in your neck of the woods over the holidays add a dusting of icing sugar for authenticity!

PS. If you don't fancy these for Easter and post Easter are overwhelmed with chocolates and sweets, there is always a chocolate pizza to make.

Happy Easter everyone!

Sweet fresh mussel soup - recipe

I have been trying to think of a really 'catchy' name for this dish using mussels but I've failed...miserably.

I made this dish a couple of weeks ago its the easiest thing ever but with such amazing flavours, I made Moules Mariniere using a recipe from the Fish is the Dish website (I didn't add the cream, I kept that for my soup). Then I made a delicious home made soup with a butternut squash and other tasty bits and bobs. It was the most sweetest and tastiest meal ever, the sweet spicy creamy soup topped with the sweet plump meaty mussels was just amazing!

The key to this, as with any memorable dish you can make at them is use the freshest ingredients you can. The mussels I used were really fresh and this made all the difference. I think some people are afraid to cook mussels at home but don't be, they are quick easy and safe if you stick to a few simple rules.

• Before cooking, if they are fully open and don't close when tapped on a worktop, bin these. 
• Once they are cooked if any don't open these also go in the bin. 
• I always use mine as soon after I have bought them as possible, but they will keep in a fridge for a couple of days and 
• I give them a good soak in fresh water and remove any 'beards' before I cook them.

If you think kids won't love these, then think again, when mussels are really fresh they taste very sweet, a real winner with kids. We are currently taking part in the 'Happy Healthy Hearts' initiative with Fish is the Dish, they are setting out to prove the health benefits of eating more fresh fish in our diets...there are lots of useful meal plans on the website (put together by a dietician) to inspire you at home, and brilliant bloggers just like me are doing our bit by being creative in our kitchens with fish.

"Fish is the Dish's Healthy Happy Hearts Challenge has been designed with the aim of getting families in the UK to make a commitment to eating fish at least twice a week. Research has shown that eating fish just twice a week can help raise levels of omega-3 in the body, a 'good' fat that is essential to our diets. Omega-3 has been associated with brain development, joint function, healthy skin and eyes as well as better mental health. It is even believed to significantly reduce the chances of developing conditions such as cancer and heart disease. From healthy hearts to healthy minds, everyone can benefit from increasing their omega-3 intake".

'Delia's Cakes' - book review

Delia Smiths new book called simply 'Delia's Cakes' is out and riding high in the food and drink books charts at the moment. I have a few books in my collection by Delia, I quite like her work and the recipes I have tried from other books seem to work well, she's a bit of an 'all rounder' in the kitchen, but I think it was in 1988 that she last brought out a book just about cakes.

This book has such notoriety it has its own facebook page, worth a look for ideas, recipes and giveaways etc.

The book is divided by chapters into sponge cakes, loaf cakes, family cakes, little cakes (includes scones and the like), muffins, biscuits (since when has a biscuit been a cake though?), chocolate cakes, celebration cakes and dessert cakes. I liked the celebration cake chapter, some good ideas there for adults cakes. There is a section at the front about tools to use in baking and several pages on ingredients and a nod to the gluten free and egg free recipes in the book. (Dear readers please note: always good to have an egg free cake recipe to hand when out of fresh eggs at home)

The appearance of the book is very minimal and almost clinical with its mostly plain washed pastel backdrops to style the cakes; but this way the cakes do all the talking on the pages. Every recipe has a photograph alongside it, great if you are a novice or not that confident at following a recipe without one.

This carnage below isn't from Delias' book, that my kitchen in full baking cake mode.

 From this book and last weekend I tried one of the most simple cakes ever (but its my favourite) a Victoria sponge and in 'Delia's Cakes' this one has a cream cheese and passion fruit filling (see above). The recipe went really well, and without a hitch, the recipe for the cake suggested a 2 egg sponge mix but being the 'gung ho' greedy baker that I am, I doubled the mix. This gave me a very deep cake! It was a great flavour and texture and the filling was really delicious too.

'Delia's Cakes' is linked in to the Delia online cookery school. In the interests of research I had a mosey on over there, to see what the deal was. This site is quite a good resource for home bakers, it has recipes like this 'sticky prune and date cake' and simple and clear tutorials on baking (Delia provides the commentary) and its FREE!

Good things about this book are:

• the recipes are easy to follow
• the recipes cover both basic and traditional bakes
• there is a good and wide range of cakes
• according to the book cover, over 90% of the recipes can be made as gluten free
• the photography is good
• some of the newer and less traditional recipes look very good

All in all I liked the book, it would be a pleasing addition to anyone's recipe book shelf but for someone relatively new to baking it would tick a lot of boxes, and I think that's the market this new 'Delia's Cake' book is aimed at.

The only thing I didn't like was the biscuit chapter, nothing wrong with the recipes there from what I have seen, but in what is claimed to be a 'Cake' book it seemed a bit strange?

Some extracts from the book below...

'Delia's Cakes' is published by Hodder and Stoughton, who kindly sent me a copy to review (my thanks to them).