It’s almost half term. We’re ready. We’re a little slower, a little wearier. We need a few late leisurely starts, possibly with pancakes, to restore us. And as we plod along to half term I find myself pushing green leafy vegetables. I want the boys iron intake higher; their vitamin and mineral quota upped. In short, I want them to eat kale. READ MORE
I am hurtling towards the grand old age of 35. I know many reading this will scoff that really, that’s so young. But I’m worried. Less about the actual say it out loud age and more about my increasingly regular curmudgeon’s behaviour. I can only think my advancing years are to blame. Just a few examples of my new found angry lady status:
It’s hard not to notice that my anger is generally related to modes of transport. Maybe I should just stay in the house and be hermit like? I’d likely be a chirpy little hermit. Anyway, on to the recipe. These meatballs are easy, they’re low carb, they’re delightfully crunchy and they contain chorizo which makes them mighty moreish. My sons love them. I love them. Beware the pinkish colour of the inside of the balls post baking – that’s just the chorizo. They’re not raw I promise. Enjoy.
Lots of recipes like this in my book, Recipes from a Normal Mum, out now… on Amazon, at Waterstones, WHSmith, The Book Depository and many smaller outlets.
Last January: Lemon & blueberry loaf, my Bake Off cherry Bakewell inspired cupcakes, plus Sesame bread sticks
Two years ago: Love cupcakes, White chocolate, lemon and macadamia cake and a perfect wintery Roasted celeriac, carrot and parsnip soup.
Three years ago: Bake me not chocolate cake, Jelly and ice-cream meringue roulade, Good flapjack and Banana, butterscotch and fig traybake.
Four years ago: Treasure hunt ice-cream, Rhubarb and ginger chutney and Carrot cake.
Crunchy pork & coriander meatballs
Makes 15, though depends on size of balls
Ingredients:
In a food processor whizz up the bread and set aside two thirds for later. Add the black pepper, chorizo, coriander, minced pork and ketchup and pulse until combined then roll into meatballs about the size of golf balls. Then dip in beaten egg and roll in the fresh breadcrumbs made earlier.
Oven bake at 180c/gas mark 4 for about 25 mins until sizzling. My boys ate theirs with pasta but they are a delicious little morsel to eat alone.
I have to admit to not having made puff pastry since I practised for the Bake Off. Does that make me lazy? No. Just busy. It actually doesn’t take that much hands on time but you have to stay in and remember to re-fold the pastry and of course squash the butter pack. If you want to know how to do it I wrote a very verbose explanation here. If you want a short cut with layer upon layer of all buttery puffy pastry then read on.
NB: You need some of your butter frozen for this recipe so have a read and prepare ahead if you are planning on making this.)
One year ago: Simple chocolate ganache tart and Meringue roses and Flat vanilla cupcakes
Two years ago: Razzamatazz ribs and Banana and custard cupcakes and After Eight cupcakes
Three years ago: Banana and custard melts
Food mixer rough puff pastry
Makes enough for 30 x 3cm ish sausage rolls
Ingredients:
Put your flour into the mixer bowl and add 50g of the butter then place the rest of the butter in the freezer. Wait for an hour or two allowing the butter in the flour to come to room temperature and the rest of the butter to freeze solid.
Using the flat beater (Kitchenaid) mix the butter into the flour for a couple of minutes until you have a breadcrumb consistency. Remove the frozen butter from the fridge and grate it (yes!) into the floury butter mixture. Using the flat beater mix again until all the strands of frozen butter are coated in flour – this should only take a few turns. Next add the vinegar and the water very slowly with the flat beater at the lowest setting. Just as the pastry comes together into clumps stop! You don’t want too much water in the pastry as it makes it less buttery in texture.
Flour your work surface well and pull the pastry together with your hands forming a square flat shape. Then flour the top of it and roll into a long rectange about 4mm thick. Fold one third of the pastry over like this:
Brush off any excess flour and then fold the other side over like this:
Then wrap the pastry in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Remove and roll out into a long rectangle again like this:
Can you see how I have turned the pastry so that the open ‘ends’ of the pastry are now lengthways rather than at the top and bottom as they were in the previous picture? Then you need to repeat the folding process again:
I then folded the other side over as before, wrapped it and chilled for 30 minutes. I repeated this step twice more, but you can get away with only doing it once more. And there you have it; a beautiful block of home made rough puff pastry with lots of layers. If you’re tempted to try and speed the process up please, please don’t as pastry has to relax between rolling. In fact I would suggest letting this pastry sit for a good hour after the last folding before using.
You can of course use this for whatever you fancy – I decided to make sausage rolls, so rolled to a thickness of 2mm and filled with chorizo and chilli flake spiked, well seasoned sausage meat. I used egg wash (egg with a little salt added to break down the strands in the egg) to seal the sides and also to paint the top, then sprinkled with sesame seeds. Baked at 200C/gas mark 6 for 25 minutes until really well puffed up and golden.
Whatever you use the rough puff pastry for please always bake in a very hot oven and don’t leave the pastry sitting about to come to room temperature. You need the cold pastry to meet the hot oven to get those layers going. And don’t open the oven during baking either!
Any scraps left over? Don’t roll them up into a ball or you lose all the layers, instead layer them on top of each other, roll flat and use to make little pinwheels rolled with pesto/chutney/marmite/nutella or jam. Delicious.
You only had to ask. And ask you did. I posted a picture of these little beauties on my Facebook page last week and since then I’ve had rather a lot of messages about them. It seems the recipe is in demand. Well all the credit goes to Emma Franklin and the Sainsburys Magazine team. I can confirm they were delicious. I can also confirm I ate two.
One year ago: Wedding macarons and Lemon and almond breakfast rolls and Sticky Bounty rolls
Two years ago: Bakewell tart with a vanilla crust and Father’s Day man-cake
Gluten-free oat-topped chorizo, sweetcorn and tomato muffins
Makes 6
Ingredients:
You will also need a 6-hole muffin tin, well oiled, or lined with muffin cases
Preheat the oven to 200°C, 180°C fan, gas 6. Dry-fry the chorizo until crispy, remove to a bowl, using a draining spoon, and leave to cool. Melt the butter in a small pan and set it aside. Halve the tomatoes, remove and discard the seeds, then chop the tomato flesh.
Using a balloon whisk and a large mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, yogurt, eggs, olive oil and melted butter into a batter. Don’t worry if you have a few small, stubborn blobs of yogurt.
Sift in the flour and baking powder. Add a pinch of salt and scatter the chorizo, chopped tomatoes, sweetcorn and thyme over the top. Using a large metal spoon, fold everything together until combined, but don’t overmix. Divide the mixture among the muffin holes in the tin, piling them up high. Sprinkle a few oats on top of each one.
Bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes in the tin. Loosen around the edges of each muffin with a knife, then tip each one out of the tin on to a cooling rack. Serve warm or cold.
Being busy, or rather people who bang on about being busy, is one of my all time pet hates, up there with people who take their eye bagged ridden children food shopping at 10pm and those who moan about not having any money and then go on expensive holidays.
I think the Busy People think that by wearing this verbal busy badge of honour they sound important, like a latter day version of a business lady from Working Girl who walks to work in her trainers to save time. Well, it doesn’t make me think you’re busy. It makes me think you should be quiet and get on with your busy list of things to do.
Maybe I am just jealous. I used to be a Very Busy Person when I had a proper office job with a time you had to arrive at and a pension plan and private health. Now I have a scrap of paper with a list of things that need doing on it. Some have been on the list for over 5 years. Tirelessly re-written when a new scrap of paper beckons.
At this very moment, a quick glance tells me I need to do some filing (yawn), contact a solicitor about writing a new will (or if I do pop off then my double bed and a silver necklace are going to arrive on an ex boyfriends doorstep in Manchester… not sure his wife would be keen on that or my bedless grief stricken husband come to think of it), sort out passports for both sons (form filling, arghhh no, surely I need to do something more pressing like check Facebook or read the Daily Mail comments on a celebrity story) and eBay a DVF dress I bought 3 years ago and have never worn as it makes me look, quite frankly, hideous. Designer clothes do not magic away hips. Wrap dresses are for my skinny snake hipped sisters.
So maybe I’m not busy with the important things that Busy People are busy with, but I am busy playing Lego, building train tracks, reading stories, helping little boys peel carrots and mix Yorkshire pudding batter and of course I am busy pushing swings. That’s a very busy job indeed, for very Busy People.
This is a recipe for Busy People. I managed to whizz this up whilst playing train tracks intermittently.
One year ago: Bake me not chocolate cake and Joyful banana, butterscotch and fig traybake
Two years ago: Light and sweet carrot cake and Rhubarb and ginger chutney
Butternut squash, chorizo and harissa soup
Enough for 2 very large dinner type portions or 4 smaller ones
Ingredients:
Pop the oven on to the highest setting and roast the butternut squash pieces and the onions in a roasting tin coated in 2 tbsp of the oil until browned and a knife slips through the squash easily, took about 20 minutes in my oven. Then pop into a large saucepan. In the meantime fry the skinless slices of chorizo until browned. (Can be easier to remove the skin once cooked, up to you… or don’t remove the skin at all! Adds a slightly grainy texture to the final soup though.)
Throw the sausage into the large saucepan with the veggies and add the stock cube and harissa, then pour boiling water over the top until it comes to about an inch above the veggies. Pop onto a low heat to simmer and after 15 minutes blitz with a handheld blender or pop in a regular blender if you prefer. Check for heat (our harissa is homemade by Mr B and is fiery), add a little more harissa if you like and then some black pepper too. Probably won’t need salt as the stock cube provides a fair amount of that. Then add the beans and heat through on the stove for 5 more minutes. Serve with crusty bread and butter.
Holly Bell 