Chocolate Cola cake

I was first introduced to this cake from someone on a forum I use and have made it many times and its a firm favourite here at home.
However I happened to be looking through my recipes books and came across it in one of my books, so here it is.

Ingredients

• 250g/9oz self raising flour
• 300g/10½oz golden caster sugar
• 3 heaped tbsp cocoa
• generous pinch bicarbonate of soda
• 250g/9oz butter
• 250ml/8½fl oz cola drink
• 125ml/4¼fl oz milk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 5ml/ltsp vanilla extract

For the topping Double quantities if you like a thick frosting

• 100g/3½oz butter
• 2 tbsp cola drink
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• 200g/7oz icing sugar
• To Serve:
• caramel chocolate bar (king size)
• a splash of double cream
• warm water
• 2 tbsp mini marshmallows (optional)
  
  

  Preparation method

  1. Heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas4.
  2. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Melt the butter and cola drink gently in a pan then add to the dry ingredients, together with the milk, eggs and vanilla.
  3. Mix gently but thoroughly and tip into a buttered, loose based cake tin (24cm/9½ in diameter).
     
     Don't be alarmed by how runny the mixture is, its supposed to be like that.
     
     
      Bake for about 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave for about 15 minutes while you make the topping. Put the butter, cola drink and cocoa into a pan and melt slowly. Bring the mixture to the boil and then pour onto the icing sugar. Beat until smooth and pour over the cake while still warm. Cool the cake in the tin.
     
     
     
  4. Serve with the sauce, made by melting the chocolate bar gently in a pan with a splash of cream, you may want to add a little warm water to achieve a pouring consistency, stir in the marshmallows if using. The sauce is rich and sweet, as is the topping, you may want to serve with one or the other rather than both.
     
     I have never made the sauce to go with this as it is so rich I think it would be too sickly for me.
     
     
     Absolutely THE best chocolate cake you will ever eat.
     
     
     Taken from James Martins Desserts
     
     
     
     
     
     http://www.whsmith.co.uk/CatalogAndSearch/ProductDetails.aspx?productId=9781844004638&shop=10004&type=Froogle
     
     

Lasagne - Weight watchers friendly.

I've been absent from my blog for quite a while as I've been dabbling rather unsuccessfully at losing weight.
But I've finally (I think) got my brain in gear and am ready to get back to it.
And I think part of the secret which will hopefully lead me to lose weight is if I can eat 'normal' food.
So I plan to continue exactly the same way, but pointing the recipes and making lower fat substitutions where necessary.


Anyway Lasagne is one of mine and my families favourite meals so it seemed only natural that I start with this one.




(Serves 4-6)
Ingredients
For the Bolognese Sauce
2 rashers of streaky bacon
2 medium onions
2 cloves of garlic
2 carrots
2 sticks of celery
olive oil
2 heaped teaspoons dried oregano
500g good quality minced beef, pork, or (even better!) a mixture of the two
2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
a small bunch of fresh basil
50g Parmesan cheese [I replaced this with low fat cheddar]

For the lasagne
250g dried egg lasagne sheets
1 x 500ml tub of creme fraiche [replaced with half fat creme fraiche]
100g Parmesan cheese [low fat cheddar used]
1 large ripe tomato


To make your Bolognese sauce
Finely slice your bacon
Peel & finely chop the onions, garlic, carrots and celery - don't worry about technique; just chop away.
Place a large casserole-type pan on a medium to high heat, add 2 lugs of olive oil, your sliced bacon and the oregano and cook and stir until the bacon is lightly golden.
Add the veg to the pan and stir every 30 seconds for around 7 minutes or until softened and lightly coloured.
Stir in the minced meat and the tinned tomatoes. Fill one of the empty tins with water and add to the pan . Stir in a good pinch of salt and pepper.
Pick the basil leaves and place in the fridge for later. Finely chop the basil stalks and stir into the pan . 
Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer with a lid on for 45 minutes, stirring every now and again to stop it catching.

To finish the sauce

Preheat the oven to 190C / 375F / GM5. Remove the Bolognese sauce from the heat. Finely grate the Parmesan and stir a quarter of this into the sauce . 
Tear and stir in any larger basil leaves, keeping the smaller ones aside for later. Have a taste of the sauce, and season with a little more salt and pepper if you think it needs it.
Boil some water in a kettle and pour it into a pan, then add all your lasagne sheets with a drizzle of olive oil and blanch (slightly soften) for 3 to 4 minutes.
Drain the sheets in a colander and carefully pat them dry with some kitchen paper to absorb any excess water.

To make your lasagne

Spoon a third of your Bolognese sauce into the bottom of an earthenware ovenproof dish. Follow with a layer of lasagne sheets.
Dollop over a third of your creme fraiche and smooth it out to cover the lasagne sheets. Sprinkle with a good pinch of salt and pepper and another quarter of your grated Parmesan. Add another layer of lasagne, and repeat the layers twice more, finishing with a layer of creme fraiche and the remaining Parmesan.
Top with some slices of tomato, scatter over the small basil leaves and drizzle with olive oil. 
Cover with foil, place in the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes.
After that, remove the foil and cook for a further 35 minutes until the lasagne is bubbling and golden. 

Serve on the table with a fresh green salad and let everyone help themselves.


I was suprised how yummy this was especially as I made some low fat substitutions.
Definately one I would do again.
And for those on Weight watchers 1/6 of it is 14 pp.


Taken from the much used and loved Jamies Ministry of food book.

Fish on Friday

I  must confess that this isn't the first time I have used this recipe but each time I make it,I love it and wanted to share on here.


Fish Pie


serves 4-6


Ingredients


 sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
 1kg potatoes
 1 carrot 
 2 sticks of celery
 150g good Cheddar cheese
 1 lemon
 ½ a fresh red chilli
 4 sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley 
 300g salmon fillets, skin off and bones removed
 300g undyed smoked haddock fillets, skin off and bones removed
 125g king prawns, raw, peeled
 olive oil
 optional: a good handful of spinach, chopped
 optional: a couple of ripe tomatoes, quartered

To prepare your fish pie
 Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6 and bring a large pan of salted water to the boil
 Peel the potatoes and cut into 2cm chunks
 Once the water is boiling, add your potatoes and cook for around 12 minutes, until soft (you can stick your knife into them to check)
 Meanwhile, get yourself a deep baking tray or earthenware dish and stand a box grater in it
 Peel the carrot
 Grate the celery, carrot and Cheddar on the coarse side of the grater
 Use the fine side of the grater to grate the zest from the lemon
 Finely grate or chop your chilli
 Finely chop the parsley leaves and stalks and add these to the tray
 Cut the salmon and smoked haddock into bite-size chunks and add to the tray with the prawns
 Squeeze over the juice from the zested lemon (no pips please!), drizzle with olive oil and add a good pinch of salt and pepper
 If you want to add any spinach or tomatoes, do it now
 Mix everything together really well

 By now your potatoes should be cooked, so drain them in a colander and return them to the pan
 Drizzle with a couple of good lugs of olive oil and add a pinch of salt and pepper
 Mash until nice and smooth, then spread evenly over the top of the fish and grated veg 
 Place in the preheated oven for around 40 minutes, or until cooked through, crispy and golden on top
 Serve piping hot with tomato ketchup, baked beans, steamed veg or a lovely green salad

Now if your expecting a traditional style fish pie with lots of sauce then you couldn't be more wrong.
But what you do get is a very easy delicious pie . You may have heard chefs talking about different flavours with each mouthful and think 'yeah yeah' but I could definately say that with this pie, especially with the chilli,lemon and cheese.
It really was easy and everything thrown together. The 1st time I made this I followed the recipe exactly however we all found the taste of salmon over powering so I've used just plain white fish since, but I guess this is just down to personal taste. I also added some sweetcorn and I'm sure you could add other veg too.
Truly delicious.


The recipe is from this book http://www.jamieoliver.com/jamies-ministry-of-food/

If I could pick only one recipe book to own then this would be it. It is fantastic with many adaptations on simple dishes, and almost fool proof.

Be cautious when changing ingredients in recipes.

Well I've been looking forward to my next blog post and obviously my next recipe to follow and write about.
I chose chicken and leek stroganoff (I shan't post the recipe- read on to find out why).
So I got all my ingredients ready and decided to substitute the single cream for milk as I'm always looking for low fat alternatives.
Other than that I followed it to the letter and to my horror the milk curdled, and left me with a disgusting looking mess!!!!!

Only problem is that I had the rice cooking and now no dinner to eat.

At Robs suggestion I picked out the chicken and rinsed. I'm pretty sure this is not a tactic used by Gordon Ramsey or Jamie Oliver and is obviously not something you would recommend doing.

And then I used my trusty old faithful that never lets me down........................................

Not quite what I had planned but I'm sure Nigella had a few disasters in her early days.

I'm now planning a fish pie for my next blog. Fingers crossed for that one!!

Slow-roast beef brisket with potatoes and onions.

Serves 6-8


2-2.5kg piece of boned,rolled beef brisket,tied with string
4-5 cloves of garlic,coarsley chopped
A good handful of thyme sprigs
2-3 tablespoons rapeseed or olive oil
1-1.2kg potatoes,peeled and cut into 3-4cm chunks
500g small onions or shallots,peeled
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.



 Slow-roast Beef Brisket: Brisket’s open-grained texture and depth of flavour make it
perfect for slow-cooking. Don’t let the butcher trim off too much fat – a certain
amount is needed in order to achieve the final, full-bodied result. Preheat the oven
to 200C/gas 6. Put the tied brisket in a large roasting tin and tuck the garlic and
thyme inside and under it. Massage the oil all over the meat, then season well. Roast
for 30 minutes, then reduce the heat to 140C/gas 1, cover the meat with foil and
return it to the oven for 4 hours, basting from time to time. Add the onions and turn
them in the meat juices. Turn the oven up to 160C/gas 3 and cook, uncovered, for a
further hour, until the joint has crisped up. Serve the beef in thick slices, with any
juices spooned over the meat. 
 Remove from the oven and rest in warm place for 30 minutes before
carving.


I pretty much followed this recipe exactly, except for the final hour of cooking I put the beef in a separate dish as there wouldn't have been enough room for the onions and potatoes in the original tray.

The beef was fantastic and crumbled when carved. It literally melted in the mouth and while the potatoes weren't crispy( I don't think they are supposed to be) the were full of flavour from the meat juice, oh and I added some parsnips in there too.
There were 5 clean empty plates by the end of the meal and also enough meat for Rob and the children and their lunch tomorrow.


This is one I will most definately be doing again and the meat cost about £8.50........bargain too!!!!!!!


I know I'm a woman and usually I can multi task, however this time I couldn't and forgot to take pictures of the preparation and the final dish so I will endeavour to do better next time!


Oh and a link to the book used 
http://www.rivercottage.net/shop/product/river-cottage-everyday/

So this is my first ever blog post.

After chatting to my lovely local butcher about how expensive a decent joint of meat was he suggested trying brisket. Now being fairly new to this cooking malarky, I had of course heard of it but had no idea where it was from or indeed how to cook it but he assured me that as long as its cooked for a long time it will be lovely.
So I left him to source some for me.(Brisket isn't something he usually buys in as most people want quick cuts of meat not something that takes hours)
I had a call from him on Friday to let me know he had got some in so it was time for me to find a recipe and start my blog.