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Posts Tagged ‘Recipes’

Panna Cotta with Raspberry and Blueberry Coulis

Posted in Desserts, Fruit, Recipes, tagged , , , , , on March 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »

This dessert is perfect for dinner parties because you can do all of the preparation work earlier in the day or even the day before. Some people like to get the panna cotta out of the ramekin for serving, but I don’t see the point – it might fall apart, and the ramekin needs to be washed anyway.

Panna Cotta with Raspberry and Blueberry Coulis

Serves 4.
Preparation time: Can be done in 20 minutes if you make both at the same time. Serving time: 2 minutes.

For the panna cotta
300ml double cream
300ml milk
60g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod
2g agar agar

For the coulis
200g blueberries
200g raspberries
50g sugar
1 cinnamon stick
40ml water

Preparation – Panna Cotta

1. Slice the vanilla bean in half lengthways and scrape out the seeds. You could probably substitute vanilla essence for the seeds.

2. Put the vanilla seeds, double cream, milk, sugar and agar agar in a pan and warm on a medium heat until the mixture is hot. Simmer for 5 minutes – do not let the mixture boil. You can tell when it’s boiling because of a) the bubbles and b) the noise, which sounds like a kettle.

3. Remove the pan from the heat, leave to cool for 5 minutes and then divide the mixture between 4 ramekins. Remember to leave enough room for the coulis! Leave to cool for a further 5 minutes and then put in the fridge for at least a few hours.

Preparation – Raspberry and Blueberry Coulis

1. Find a pan with a lid.

2. Put the blueberries, sugar, cinnamon stick and water in the pan and cook on a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved.

3. Reduce the heat to low, put the lid on the pan and simmer for 3-4 minutes.

4. Remove the lid, turn the heat back up to medium and cook for a further 4-5 minutes. At this point you should have something that looks like a sauce and the berries should have collapsed slightly. If it is very thin you might want to leave it for longer until it thickens up.

5. Remove from the heat, retrieve and discard the cinnamon stick, add the raspberries and stir well.

6. Transfer the mixture to a suitable bowl or dish, leave to cool for 5 minutes and then put it in the fridge next to your panna cottas.

Serving

Simply retrieve everything from the fridge and spoon the coulis on top of the panna cottas.

Nutritional information: if you care, you should not be making this dish

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Roasted Garlic, Thyme and Beetroot

Posted in Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegetarian, tagged , , , on February 1, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Another great recipe from delicious Magazine..

Mom, I think you’ll like this one.. yummy roasted garlic and beets. Two of our faves!

Roasted Garlic, Thyme and Beetroot

I made this recipe a few months ago but it was so good I have been meaning to add it here for ages. I thought the flavours worked really well, and a bit of roasted garlic never goes awry.

I hadn’t used beets in quite a while and had forgotten how wonderful they look on the inside. I couldn’t resist taking a picture of them before I cut them up. Since I had the camera out, I thought I’d document the pan before and after it went in the oven. Unfortunately, they looked so good when they came out of the oven that I completely forgot about taking a picture and served them up immediately.

Click here for recipe @ delicious

Beets with magical colours.

Beets with magical colours.

All ready to go in the oven.

All ready to go in the oven.

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Seafood Risotto

Posted in Grains, Main Courses, Recipes, Seafood, tagged , , on November 10, 2008| Leave a Comment »

This is one of Rob’s all-time favourites. It’s always a joy to watch his eyes light up when we’re on the way home from work and he asks “what’s for tea?” and I get to say “Seafood Risotto”. I usually make it with Sainsbury’s Seafood Collection which is a mixture of cooked mussels, king prawns and squid rings, because its easy and relatively cheap, but I’m sure it would be wonderful with lots of other seafood too.

I’ve been experimenting with this recipe for ages. Sometimes I add a bit less lemon or a bit more cheese. I’ve also used red wine as a substitution for white, which I don’t recommend. Apart from turning it a wierd colour, it just didn’t taste right. The parsley isn’t essential, and could be curly rather than flat if that’s what you have. If I have some asparagus on hand, I like to grill it with some olive oil, salt and pepper, cut it into one inch pieces and stir it in at the end.

Seafood Risotto

Serves 2.

Seafood Risotto

2 1/2 tbsp butter
1 medium onion, chopped
fresh ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
150g arborio rice
1/2 cup white wine
2 1/2 to 3 cups of stock, chicken or vegetable
235g (or more) mixed seafood, cooked
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan
2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley

1. Melt the butter in a large heavy-bottom saucepan over medium-high heat. When the butter is melted add the chopped onion and cook until almost translucent. Add a few grindings of black pepper and the minced garlic.

2. Just before the garlic starts to brown, add the rice and stir well. Keep stirring until the rice has absorbed most of the butter and the pan is almost dry.

3. Add the white wine and turn down the heat a notch. When the wine is almost absorbed, add 1/2 cup of stock. Stir frequently adding the rest of the stock in approximately 1/2 cup portions until the liquid is almost all absorbed. If the rice is still a bit hard, add any seafood juice from the packet or some hot water and cook until it is absorbed.

4. Add the lemon juice and stir for a few more minutes. Add the seafood and a bit more pepper.

5. Just before serving, stir in the parmesan and the parsley.

6. Serve up in bowls with some extra parmesan and a bit more parsley as a garnish.

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Banana Bread

Posted in Baking, Breakfast and Brunch, Desserts, Recipes, tagged , , , on November 3, 2008| 2 Comments »

This weekend I decided to tackle the growing collection of frost in the freezer. At the back of the freezer, long forgotten about, I found two ripe bananas which I had been saving for banana bread. Since it was a lovely fall weekend, I thought some baking was in order.

This recipe is based on Quick Banana Bread from The Joy of Cooking with a few modifications. When my brother and I were growing up, the Joy was one of our favourite cookbooks. With instructions on how to skin a squirrel and recipes that make 200 cookies, the Joy is sure to be a hit with young chefs. We would pore over it for hours before deciding to make some obscure cookies, candies or a cake. Mom never questioned our choices and was always supportive of our efforts, even when we really did make 200 German Honey cookies.

This recipe requires less cooking time than many others I have seen and is very easy. Enjoy it while it cooks and fills the house with a wonderful aroma, hot out of the oven with butter melting on it or the next day for breakfast (if there’s any left!)

Banana Bread

Preparation time: 15 mins + 45-60 mins cooking time.
Makes one loaf.

1 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup butter or margarine
2/3 cup brown sugar
Grated rind of one lemon

2 beaten eggs
1 to 1 1/4 cups of ripe banana pulp

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C.

1. In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

2. Blend the butter, sugar and lemon rind in a large mixing bowl until creamy.

3. Beat the eggs and banana pulp into the butter and sugar mixture.

4. Add the sifted ingredients to the sugar mixture in 3 parts, beating until smooth after each addition.

5. Fold in the walnuts.

6. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.

Bake for 45 – 60 mins until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool slightly before sneaking the first hot slice.

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