Cadburys Chocolate Buttons Owl Cake

After the rush of back-to-school this week, it has been nice to have a weekend with very little to do. This Sunday it was just me and the girls and we chose to do some baking together. Using a mountain of Cadbury Chocolate Buttons, we created this awesome Owl Cake using a recipe from the Cadbury website.

First we made a fairly simple square chocolate sponge (one of the finest sponges we've ever made!) and once it was cooled, I drew a fairly rough owl template and cut around it. I used the offcuts to make wings.

Next we made a ganache with sumptuous dark Bournville chocolate, cream and a bit of butter. We slathered it over and Lara spread it all over the owl to hold the cake together.  Then I let the girls loose with Cadbury chocolate buttons (both milk chocolate and white chocolate) and giant buttons. Holly enjoyed bashing some Cadbury Flakes to make the sprinkles for the feathers.  For the finishing touch, we used a pink raspbery from a bag of Marvellour Mis Ups to make a nose. Perfect.

Of course, after we had finished decorating, the girls snaffled a few of the spare chocolate buttons and then licked the spoon of the ganache (getting it all over their faces in the process).

The cake was a resounding success - not only was it fun to make, but it was incredibly tasty and there were lots of bonus leftovers to snack on!!!  And as an awesome added bonus, you can find 2 for 1 days out vouchers on grab bags of Cadbury buttons at present which is perfectly timed as we are planning a trip to Legoland this week. Hurrah for cake. Hurrah for chocolate buttons.

Cooking with Kids :: Summery Chicken Curry

This weekend we were experimenting with our new Cuisinart Soup Maker plus - we were challenged to try out some non-soup recipes in it so Lara, Holly and I cooked a really light and fragrant chicken curry.  I will admit that I need a little bit more practice with the soup maker - it needs less liquid than if you were cooking in a pan and my curry paste was a little grainy because I used cashew nuts (not something I normally do) but I really liked the fact that I could see into the jug as it was blending and cooking and make decisions about what ingredients to add, or what temperature to use. Being able to see all of the ingredients in the pan is a little luxury!

Our summery chicken curry served four people easily and I was very happy that the Soup Maker Plus could hold all of the ingredients for a family meal.

INGREDIENTS
3 large chicken breasts, chopped into 1-inch chunks
A handful of green beans, chopped in half
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled
1 tablespoon cashew nuts
1 tablespoon ground almonds
2 medium onions, peeled and roughly chopped
1 fresh chilli
The seeds from 4 green cardamom pods
2 teaspoons mild curry powder
1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
1 teaspoon ground corriander
1 large handful fresh basil leaves (thai or traditional basil is fine)
250ml chicken stock
200ml coconut milk
1 teaspoon black onion seeds
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

METHOD

1. Place the oil, garlic, ginger, cashew nuts, ground almonds, half of the onion, ground corriander, the chilli, basil leaves, cardamom seeds, chilli flakes and half of the coconut milk into the soup maker, or if you don't have one, use a traditional blender. Blend for 1-2 minutes on a high speed until the ingredients form a paste.

2. Add the chicken and then heat the paste gently for 5 minutes on the 'SAUTE' setting.  You can also do this in a large saucepan.

3. Add in the rest of the onion, the chicken stock, the rest of the coconut milk and the green beans. Bring the liquid to the boil by using the 'HIGH' setting for 10 minutes, this will cook the chicken through.  Stir occasionally using the gentle stir function.

4. Now turn the liquid down and 'SIMMER' for 30 minutes, stir regularly to make sure that the chicken doesn't stick.

5. To serve, sprinkle with black onion seeds and fresh mint for a really summery hit.  We served our summer chicken curry with fresh mint, steamed rice and a salad of banana and raisins.

I enjoyed cooking the curry in the soup maker - I need a bit more practice to get it just right but I think the thing I enjoyed most was the fact that the girls can get a bit more involved in the cooking element than they would do when using the hob; it is a little safer for them than using a gas flame.

Disclosure: I was sent the Cuisinart Soup Maker Plus to review and help me create new recipes.

#Knorr #ProductOfTheYear Thai Chicken Laksa with Sweet Chilli Rolls

I'm not a great fan of the cold and at this time of year, I turn to warming soups and hot bread rolls.  I had been stuck in a bit of a soup rut (curried lentil or parsnip soups are my staple diet) so I found the lastest Knorr blogger challenge to be a good way of inspiring me to create something a little different.  This warming soup and rolls has a bit of a twist - it is a spicy oriental chicken noodle soup that uses a few of the different flavours of Knorr Flavour Pots, this year's Sauce & Seasoning Product of the Year winner.  It was a bit too spicy for Holly, but her older sister very much enjoyed making and eating this soup and bread.

THAI CHICKEN LAKSA with SWEET CHILLI ROLLS (Serves 4-6)

INGREDIENTS

For the bread:

500g strong white flour

1 tsp fast action dried yeast

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

350ml tepid milk or water

1 Knorr Mixed Chillis Flavour Pot

1 tblsp clear honey

For the laksa:

1 tblsp vegetable/sesame oil

1 large chicken breast

1 Knorr Ginger & Lemongrass Flavour Pot

1 small sweet potato

1/2 a head of fennel (you can use 2 sticks of celery as an alternative)

1/2 a butternut squash

1/2 a red onion

1/2 a can coconut milk

1 Knorr Curry Flavour Pot

1 tblsp crunchy peanut butter

1 pint chicken stock (Knorr stock pots work well here too! but I had some homemade stock available)

200g rice noodles

1 tblsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp sugar

1 lime

4 spring onions

A handful of fresh corriander leaves

METHOD

• Make the bread by combining the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a bowl and then slowly adding the warm milk until it forms a soft dough.  Place on a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes.
• Make a well in the centre of the dough and place the contents of one Mixed Chillis flavour pot into the hollow.  Fold the edges of the dough over carefully and then squish and knead for another 3-5 minutes until all of the chilli mixture is well combined into your dough.  Leave the dough in an oiled bowl, somewhere warm (but not hot) for 1.5 hours until it has doubled in size.

• Place the chicken breast on a piece of greaseproof paper or cling film and then spread the contents of the Ginger and Lemongrass Flavour Pot all over it, covering both sides.  Leave to marinade for at least 1 hour.

• Once the dough has risen, knock it back by kneading gently for a minute.  Break it into 8 equal sized pieces and roll them into neat balls.  Lara (5) absolutely loved helping me do this, and between us, we could have taken on Paul Hollywood with our rolling skillz.  Place the rolls onto a baking tray (I sprinkled some polenta onto mine to stop the rolls from sticking) and leave to rise for another 30 minutes while you pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees (or a little less for a fan oven).
• Put the rolls in the oven for 15-20 minutes until they are golden brown and sound hollow when you tap the bases. 
• As the rolls cool, brush them with a little honey on the top of each roll.  The combination of spicy, savoury chilli with the sweet honey is delicious.

• Peel and grate the sweet potato and butternut squash.
• Slice the red onion and fennel (or celery) and fry for 2-3 minutes in a large saucepan with half of the vegetable oil.  Add the contents of a Knorr Curry Flavour Pot and stir to coat.

 

• Add the grated vegetables, soy sauce, sugar, peanut butter and then the stock.  I also needed to add about 1 pint of boiled water to fully cover the vegetables.
• Bring to the boil and then simmer for 15 minutes.

 

• Meanwhile, prepare the chicken.  Fold the paper or cling film over the chicken and bash with a rolling pin until it is flattened.  Lara LOVED this!
• Heat the remaining oil in a frying pan and then fry the chicken well on both sides until well-blackened.
• Once fully cooked, place the chicken breast on a chopping board and slice thinly.

• To finish the soup, add the coconut milk and the juice of half the lime.  Add the rice noodles and simmer for about 3-5 minutes.
• Serve the noodle soup into bowls and then sprinkle the chicken pieces, spring onions and fresh corriander over the top.  Squeeze over the remaining fresh lime for an extra kick!
• Serve the soup with the warm chilli rolls.  Nom.

#FlavourOfTogether - Kashmiri Blackened Sea Bass, Fragrant Dahl and Beetroot & Carrot Bhajis with Minted Pea Puree - Recipe!

McCormick are celebrating their 125th year in the food industry with a special anniversary Flavour Forecast. Each year their Flavour Forecast brings together the emerging trends in food and flavours for the coming year.  Schwartz, part of the McCormick group, sent us a selection of the herbs and spices from this year's predictions and I used their 2014 forecast as inspiration for tonight's dinner - Lara had great fun helping me; she is always happy to help me in the kitchen when there is curry on the menu!

I chose to explore the "Modern Masala" flavour trend which allows Indian food to break free of its traditional confines; I also used one of the year's Top 5 flavours (as highlighted by Schwartz) - a homemade Kashmiri masala.  My dish was very much an experimental one (I felt like Heston as I 'invented' the components in the kitchen with Lara) but I tried to capture a good mix of textures and flavours based on traditional Indian combinations but with a slightly modern twist.  This is my recipe for Kashmiri blackened Sea-Bass on a fragrant yellow dahl served with beetroot and carrot bhajis and a minted pea puree.

Serves 4.
Total cooking time 3 hours (approximately)

INGREDIENTS
For the puree
100g frozen peas
150ml chicken stock
1 inch fresh root ginger (peeled and chopped finely)
1/2 small onion (finely diced)
1 heaped tsp dried mint
A tiny knob of butter or drop of sunflower oil

For the dahl
100g red split lentils
100g yellow split peas
1 small onion (chopped roughly)
1 inch fresh root ginger (cut into two big chunks)
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground corriander
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
5 green cardamoms (bashed gently with the back of a knife to bruise them)
2 strands of saffron
A knob of butter
1 tsp sunflower oil
2 garlic cloves (crushed)
250ml chicken stock
250ml water
1 tsp black onion seed
1 tsp whole cumin seed

For the bhajis
2 carrots (peeled)
1 small onion (peeled and sliced reeeeaaallly thinly)
3 small, whole uncooked beetroot (peeled)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground corriander
150g gram flour
1 tablespoon ground rice
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 fresh green chilli (copped)
100ml tepid water
oil for deep frying

For the fish
4 sea bass fillets (skin on)
A knob of butter and a dash on sunflower oil
2 bay leaves
5cm of cinnamon stick
1 whole star anise
4 whole green cardamoms
4 whole cloves
1 heaped tsp whole cumin seed
1 heaped tsp black peppercorns
1/4 teaspoon whole fenugreek seed
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp chilli flakes (I would have used 2 tsp if I weren't feeding a 1 year old and a 4 year old!)
1 heaped tsp ground corriander
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp garlic granules
The juice of one lemon

METHOD
1. Soak the lentils over night in two separate bowls of water.  Drain well before cooking.

2. Make the pea puree well in advance as this is easy to heat up when you are ready to serve.

Fry the onion and ginger in a little oil or butter until softened.  Add the dried mint.  Then add the frozen peas and the chicken stock and bring to the boil.  Reduce the temperature and simmer for 5 minutes.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly before using a hand-blender to blitz it into a smooth puree.  If the puree is too thin, you can return it to the pan and cook gently to allow some of the moisture to evaporate.

3. Make the dahl next.  It will need some time to mellow before you serve it.

Cut the onion in half.  Slice one half very finely and put to one side.  Chop the other half roughly into pieces you wouldn't mind eating whole.

4. Melt the butter and fry the chopped onion and ginger until just softened.  Add the garlic, ground ginger, corriander, turmeric, saffron strands, bruised cardamoms and chilli flakes. Pour in the yellow lentils and the chicken stock and simmer for 10 minutes.

5. Add in the red split lentils and top up with enough water to fully cover the contents of the pan.  Bring to the boil and them simmer on a gentle bubble for around 30 minutes.

6. As the dahl cooks, make some crispy fried onions.  Place the thinly sliced onion into a small frying pan with a tiny bit of sunflower oil and fry REALLY slowly for at least 20 minutes.  The slower the better as this will result in amazingly crispy caramelised onions.  Shortly before you remove them from the heat, add in the whole cumin and black onion seeds to fry for a couple of minutes.

7. Just before the dahl is fully cooked, the lentils will start to stick to the bottom of the pan.  Make sure you stir regularly to prevent sticking and burning.  When the lentils are totally softened, your dahl is ready.  Stir in the fried onion mixture and put the dahl to one side to soak up all the yummy flavours as it cools.  Once cool, you may wish to fish out the whole cardamoms and ginger chunks if you can see them (Mr. B. doesn't like finding large chunks of spices in his dinner).

8. Lara helped me make the Kashmiri masala paste which uses a classic combination of spices from the northern Indian region of Kashmir where red chillis are a particular favourite.  If had been cooking for just grown-ups, I would have used a lot more red chilli in my masala paste!

We dry-fried all of the whole spices in a hot frying pan until they made an awesome smell.  We removed the spices from the heat before they started to pop and placed them straight into a spice grinder (aka coffee grinder) to blend them down to a fine powder.  Lara mixed the blended powder with the ground ginger, corriander and garlic granules before stirring in the lemon juice to make a paste.

9. Next, we made the beetroot and carrot bhajis.  I used a food processor to grate the beetroot and carrots and mixed this with the sliced onion.

Lara sieved the gram flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground rice into a large bowl before stirring in the beetroot mixture and the chopped fresh chilli.  Add a little water at a time to make the mixture soft enough to be able to form balls (don't make it too liquid as it will be hard to make the balls keep their shape).

I cooked our bhajis in a deep fat fryer in batches of 5 at 170 degrees for around 10 minutes for each batch.  My mixture made 12 bhajis.  Make sure you cook the bhajis nice and slowly to avoid burning the outsides before the soft middles have cooked.  Look for a golden coating which is just starting to darken.

Drain the bhajis of fat by placing them onto a sheet of kitchen paper.  The bhajis can be served hot or cold and can be re-heated in a warm oven if needed.

10. About 15 minutes before serving, baste the skins of the sea-bass fillets with the Kashmiri masala paste.

11. About 10 minutes before serving, slowly reheat the dahl and pea puree.

12. The sea-bass fillets only take about 4 minutes to cook.  Heat the butter and oil together in a frying pan until it reaches a medium heat.  Place the fillets into the pan flesh side down for 2 minutes.  Turn them onto their skin side and cook for a further two minutes.  The lemon juice will cause the spices to blacken quickly but don't worry, they won't turn bitter or burned in such a short cooking period!

13. Serve the fish on a bed of the aromatic dahl.  Place the bhajis on a drizzle of the pea puree and finish off with a little freshly grated carrot and beetroot and a sprig of fresh mint.

My girls LOVED this fresh take on a fish curry and I found it to be an elegant and refreshing change.  I've never cooked with beetroot before and I think these bhajis were a triumph!  I loved the overall combination of savoury fish and dahl with sweet beetroot, carrot and peas.  Yummy!

Find out more about the Schwartz #FalvourofTogether anniversary flavour forecast on the Schwartz Facebook page.  Schwartz is looking for people to share their flavour stories on their facebook page and will donate $1 to United Way Worldwide and it's UK partner Focus on Food, for every story shared on the Schwartz website, Facebook page or other social channels

Cooking with Kids : Slow-Cooked Shredded Beef with Honey Mustard Bread Rolls

Unilever Kitchen challenged me and the girls to come up with an inspiring winter warmer recipe using some of their household names such as Knorr, Bovril, Hellmanns, Maille and Flora.  This weekend, the three of us got cooking to make this sumptuous dish of slow-cooked shredded sticky beef with honey mustard bread rolls.  Holly made the beef and Lara made the bread - it was definitely a team effort and the smell of the beef cooking filled the house with scrumptiousness all day!

SLOW-COOKED SHREDDED BEEF (Serves 6-8)

Beef roasting joint (approximately 1kg)

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tablespoons tomato puree

2 tablespoons Bovril

1 tablespoon Maille wholegrain mustard

2 heaped tablespoons brown sugar

A sprinkling of black pepper

1 Knorr Beef Stock Pot

2 tablespoons hot water

• Place the beef joint whole into the slow-cooker pot.
• Mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl and pour over the beef.
• Cover and cook for 7-9 hours on a low setting.
• When you are ready to serve, take the joint out and shred it using two forks.  Put the meat back into the slow-cooker pot and mix it up with all the lovely juices.

HONEY MUSTARD BREAD ROLLS (Makes 16-18 rolls)

750g Strong white bread flour

60g Flora Buttery

7g fast action dried yeast

450ml tepid milk

1 tablespoon Maille Dijon mustard with Honey

1 teaspoon salt

For the glaze

2 teaspoons Maille Dijon mustard with Honey

1 egg, beaten

• Rub the Flora Buttery into the flour with your fingertips.
• Stir in the yeast and salt.
• Make a large well in the middle and pour in the milk and mix in the mustard with a wooden spoon.
• Using your hands, bring the mixture together to make a soft yellow dough.  Turn it out onto the worktop or board and knead hard for 10 minutes until the dough turns smooth and elastic.  Place it into a clean well-oiled bowl, cover tightly with cling-film and leave in a warm place for 1.5 hours to rise.
• Once risen, split the dough into 16 to 18 small pieces and roll them into balls.  Place them onto greased baking trays and leave for another 30 minutes until they double in size.
• Preheat the oven to 220 degrees centigrade while you are waiting.
• Just before you put the rolls into the oven, mix the egg and the remaining mustard together to make a glaze.  Brush over the rolls and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
• Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown.
• Serve warm. 

To serve, spread the rolls with lashings of Hellmanns mayonnaise and fill with shredded lettuce and large handfuls of shredded beef.  We ate our lovely warm beef rolls with Colman's Season & Steam Garden Herb Potatoes.

Butternut Squash and Pecan Loaf Recipe

Over the past few weekends I have been experimenting with autumnal loaves using some of the great produce that the girls and I have managed to forage and using awesome fruits and vegetables from the supermarket - I LOVE this time of year.  We created this recipe for the Panasonic Ideas Kitchen.

I have been testing out the Panasonic SD-ZB2502 Breadmaker to make mess-free no-nonsense loves of bread that embody the smells and flavours of autumn. We have tried bramble bread and maple loaves... all a bit experimental (and not always that successful as I'm not very good at guessing the amount of water I need to add or remove when I add fresh fruit to a loaf of home baked bread). 

The star of the show though has to be this Butternut Squash and Pecan Loaf which uses a mixture of wholemeal and plain flour. I was aiming for a slightly squishy, sweet load which would make a wonderful snack toasted over a bonfire or served for a warming afternoon tea after a walk through the autumn leaves.

INGREDIENTS
200g wholemeal bread lour
200g white bread flour
15g softened butter
1 teaspoon of salt
3 tablespoons golden syrup
100ml tepid water
3/4 teaspoon dried yeast
75 g chopped pecan nuts
500g butternut squash (Seeds removed but no need to remove the skin)

METHOD

• Cut the butternut squash up into big chunks, drizzle with a little vegetable oil and roast on a baking tray at about 180 degrees for about 30 minutes until golden and well softened.  Allow to cool and then scrape the flesh from the skin and mash it up in a bowl to make a coarse butternut squash mash.

• Add all of the ingredients other than the pecan nuts and yeast to the pan of your breadmaker.  I used a whole meal menu on the Panasonic Breadmaker which takes a leisurely 6 hours from start to finish.  The Panasonic SD-ZB2502 has a special dispenser for the yeast which allows it to stay dry and away from the salt and water until the correct time which means you are likely to get a better rise.  If your bread machine doesn't have a dispenser, add the yeast to a different corner of the tin than the water and salt.

• The breadmaker also has a large dispenser for nuts or fruit which carefully drops them into the dough shortly before the main rise so that they don't get crushed during the preparation of the dough.  I chose not to add the butternut squash this way because I wanted it to be well mixed into the dough but I added the peacan nuts using the dispenser and was really impressed at how well intact the pieces of nut stayed and yet how well distributed throughout the loaf they were.

• Leave the breadmaker to do its business!

• As soon as the breadmaker tells you that it is finished, remove the loaf quickly from the tin to stop it from absorbing condensation or sinking.

• I found this butternut squash and pecan bread to be very much like a malt loaf - best served in very thick slices toasted and smothered in butter!  I also tried small cubes of this sumptuous bread sprinkled with icing sugar and dipped in a shallow bowl of sweet and syrupy dessert wine.

Disclosure: I loaned a Panasonic Breadmaker to develop my autumnal loaves!