Sweet Ham with Red Cabbage

I even ate the fat

getting closer to christmas and i start to crave that deep salty cloviness that finds it's way into every dish - time for ham. classic and festive, with little musty twangs of heat and a glossy cryalised honey finish - the parsnips cook in the ham fat and absorb all those lovely salty juices while camamalising ever so slightly from the melted honey. the sweet and fresh crunchiness of the red cabbage cuts through the saltiness of the ham and adds a nice bright lift to the dish.

Ham

650g Smoked gammon joint

10-12 cloves

3 tlbsps honey (manuka)

3-4 tbsp mustard

2 shallots

100g sliced parsnips

1 pear (quartered)

fresh tymne

1 tsp salt

black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180degrees. Chop the ends of the shallots and cut them in half width wise. Place on baking tray with sliced pear and some oil. Pierce the ham with little holes - put a clove in each hole. Cover the ham with a little olive oil, mustard, honey, sprinkle with tymne and salt and pepper.  Place on top of the sliced shallots on the baking tray (shallots should act as a platform). Place the parsnips around the ham, drizzle with Olive oil. Cook in the oven on the middle shelf for 35 minutes. Check a couple of times during cooking, add a little more honey and mustard if looks dry. Let stand for 20minutes before carving.

Red cabbage

2 handfuls of finely chopped red cabbage

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp salt

50g butter

2 sprigs of fresh tymne 

2 handfuls of spinach

Heat butter in a pan. Add red cabbage and salt and pepper. Cooked with lid on pan for 5minutes. Add spinach and balsamic vinegar and a drop more butter. Cook for 2 minutes. Serve.

Steamed Mussels

I ate a kilo of mussels

Every menu I came across in my 24 hours in France last week had em on it, and now that I've noticed, they're everywhere. It's mussel season. 1 kilo later, I'm still craving drinking white wine sauce out of tiny  crescent shell. Super quick but with that visage of fancy, cooking mussels is a sinch. Especially good if you make a big bucket full to share.

1 kilo of mussels 

175 mls white wine

5 shallots (finely chopped)

2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)

2 tblsp butter

100ml of single cream (this is controversial)

handful of parsley

squeeze of lemon

Scrub the mussels in cold water and pull the beards (thin stringy bit) off. Give any open ones a hard tap. If they close and stay closed keep them, if they stay open chuck them out. Heat the butter in a big pot, when it starts to foam add the chopped shallots and saute for 10mins (ish). Add the garlic. Turn the heat up. Add the wine (it should sizzle). Add the cream. Add the mussels. Cover with a lid and cook for 5 minutes. They should all have opened. Squeeze with lemon and sprinkle with parsley. Ready.

Marinated Aubergine

I need food to wake me up

The sprightliness of the lemon and chili gives a lovely little wake up call on a Sunday afternoon. The aubergine which just came into season gets all tender and smokey in the oven and after being doused in the marinade for a couple of hours makes the most tangy and heartwarming post all nighter hangover cure.

 

1 large aubergine (sliced in half width wise, then each half in half again and sliced into crescents)

Marinade

Juice of 1 1/2 lemons 

2 cloves of garlic (thinly sliced)

1 red chili

handful of fresh basil

4 tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 220 / gas mark 7. Cut up the aubergine and put on baking tray, drizzle with some olive oil. Bake for 15-18minutes, should turn golden on top. Make the marinade by combining all the ingredients in a big bowl. Add the cooked aubergine and leave for 2 hours. Eat whenever

Lemon Drizzle Cake

It's probably wrong to give a cake as a birthday present and then sneak a slice for the road.

Summer tastes like lemons. The only way to eat cake in summer is to make it so light it floats and so sweet and tangy you squint.  This cake is just like that.

115g unsalted butter
2 cups caster sugar
3 medium eggs
Juice and Zest of 2 lemons

2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Lemon Drizzle
Juice and zest of 2 lemons
1 cup Castor sugar

Lemon Icing
Juice and Zest of 1 lemon
2 cups icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Butter a 9inch cake tin. Cream the butter and sugar in a blender until fluffy. Add the eggs and 2 lemons and their zest. In separate bowl sift the flour and baking powder and salt. Fold this into your wet mix. Pour into cake tin and put in the oven for 30-40mins (until golden on top and a skewer comes out clean). Take out of the over and prick all over with a cocktail stick or a fork. Pour over the lemon drizzle. Let the cake cool out of tin. After 30 Min's add the lemon icing on top.

Karahi Panneer & Lamb Bhuna

Midweek Feasting Not Advised

Lately I've got all obsessed with Madhur Jaffrey and Anjuman Anand their dishes are all brilliant yellows and pomegranate dew but with a homeliness and warmth that shines through as though the dishes have a history back to forever. Time to learn how to cook Indian food (although I wouldn't recommend making the amount I have listed here, unless your ready for some serious overeating mind highs, where you literally roll around and squirm on the floor pathetically for about 1 - 2 hours post feasting)

Naan Bread (makes 6)

Cucumber Raita 

Mango Chutney

Their recipes are really easy to follow, Madhur Jaffrey's naan bread was so mellow it was almost creamy in taste. My Raita didn't work out as well as planned, but I didn't quite follow the recipe as I was really craving cucumber and went for it instead of the beetroot twist.

Karahi Paneer

The Karahi Paneer, is heavy on oil. Which was kinda of exciting (8 tbl spoons). There's hardley ever a recipe I use that's not for cake that actually allows me to use that amount without niggling guilt. It looked fantastic, the oil draws the flavour out of the spices and it became rich and glossy. Unless you are serving it as a main as a vegetarian dish I would ditch the paneer (if it's shop bought like mine, kinda bland) and add some more peppers in.

Lamb Bhuna

Lamb Bhurna. Star of the show. So I learnt that Bhuna is a method where a sauce is cooked and cooked and cooked (1 hour 1/2 ) until it reduces and becomes so thick it just clings to the meat and you end up with a dry-ish dish. It really works, the lamb was cooked to perfection and packed right the way through with flavour and wowness. I'm speechless.

In no way does this photo do justice to the food
(I promise it did taste kinda out of this world)

Chorizo and Butterbean Stew

I got home from Valencia a few days ago, full of food gossip, but all my mum wanted to talk about was Rick Stein's Spain (BBC2, Wednesday's 8pm). I can't really blame her, I caught my first glimpse this evening, and within a few minutes I could smell pimento spice and taste that Iberico ham melting in my mouth, I got pang's for the salty sticky bit that attaches itself to the paella pan and you have to scrape off with a spoon. So, all swept up in his enthusiasm I made this lovely little stew, and if you close your eyes (for a second) while it's cooking you could be right there leaning over your table in a tapas bar, with loud chatter and red wine, as this is set down before you and you tuck in with a sweep of bread and a dollop of alioli.

2 tblsp olive oil
2 -3 cloves of garlic
1/2 hot red chili
2 tblsp paprika
2 tblsp pimento powder (key ingredient)
1 tin of black eyed beans
1 tin of butter beans
1/2 aubergine (finely diced)
2 cups of chicken stock
50mls boiling water
1 tblsp tomato puree
200g thick sliced chorizo

Heat olive oil, add garlic and chili. sizzle. Add paprika, add pimento powder. Add the black beans and the butter beans. Then add the aubergine. Add the stock, water and puree. Cook down for 10-15minutes. Then fry up the chorizo separately and add that to the pan leave to cook for another 15-20minutes, or as long as you can bare. As the flavours cook and the sauce thickens is created smokey depth and infused the beans with heaps of flavour, so the butter beans slightly darken in colour and creates a lovely sweet and spicy kick.

BBQ Shack, Worlds End Pub, London Road, Brighton, UK

Reviewed 05/08/2011
World's End pub, 60-61 London Road, Brighton (01273 275 757)

Well, I'd been hearing these rumours for a while, slowly I was building up this weird ' I wish I knew' crush for BBQ shack. I'd talk to total strangers about how 'I'd heard' they did these mouthwatering 18 hour slow cooked ribs. Homemade BBQ sauce. The best slaw this side of 'the pond'. It was getting desperate. The final blow, Jay Raynor from the gaurdian writes a review - I felt left out.

QUICK. The ques will be un heard of.

Well, nah, not really. BBQ shack run's out of the Worlds ends pub,  up London Road, you'd feel out of place with anything other than a flat shoe and even wearing a clean t-shirt felt like I was pushing it. But who cares. I'm in a pub. It's gonna be good and it's gonna be straight to the point, no prissiness's just really good meat, cooked to perfection.

Well. I was half right. The 18 hour slow cooked ribs, smoked over apple and hickory arrived and they were dam good, the meat fell off the bone with a little bite and they tasted sweet and sticky - but they arrived nearly an hour after my boyfriends dinner (pit smoked beef burger) did. So we ate separately except for the slaw when 3 arrived at once, each bland, in need salt. The dumb waiter broke down during service, but there was no compensation or words from the staff, they mostly just mumbled and tried to avoid eye contact, which leaves you feeling kinda of cheated. It's a shame because when these things happen you don't get a true indication of how good a place can really be and that moment when I bit that first bite of rib I knew something great was happening on my taste buds. I couldn't appreciate it though, and ended up just being glad to finish.

Maybe another time, eh.

Pea Soup w/ cumin toasted pumkin seeds and olive oil croutons

3 bowls of soup at a time is fine, right? 

Sweet Summer time Soup

I thought it being summer and all I would try a butterless soup, closer to a blitz broth, one that's cooked only briefly to maintain all the goodness and can be whipped up super quick for instant sunshine lunchtime treat.

5 sprigs of tymne

2 handfuls of fresh basil

2 cloves of garlic

2 bay leafs

1 carrot

2 big potatoes

3 cups of frozen peas

salt / pepper

1 tsp tahini

1 handful of pumkins seed

2 slices of crusy bread (broken into little bits)

3 tsp of cumin

Add all the soup ingredients to a large pot, fill it with 1 kettle full of boiling water. Add salt and peper, boil for 15mins (until potatoes are soft). Remove the carrot and the bay leaves. Blitz the soup a couple of ladel fulls at a time. Return to the heat and cook for a further 10mins. Turn on the grill, add the torn bread, pumpkin seeds, cumin, some salt and pepper - drizzle lots of olive oil over and grill untill golden. Adjust seasoning to soup and serve with a handful of the your crouton mix and some fresh basil or watercress on top.

Guinness Gingerbread Cake w / Ginger Whisky Crumble

A Whisk in the Mix

It doesn't take much to set me on a cake making agenda... a birthday is a better reason than most. This cake tastes like Christmas in a brewery, playful boozy and syrupy with a heady lift from the stout. Easy too, just keep adding to the pot whisking in as you go - my exuberance to get it done quick broke the whisk in two - but somehow this made me think to add some whisky to the mix - crumble on top?? Yes please.

Ginness Gingerbread (Originated from Nigella Lawson)
200g dark brown muscovado sugar
160g salted butter
3tsp ground ginger
3tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
320ml Guinness

300ml golden syrup

300g plain flour
2 tsp bicarb of soda

2eggs
300ml sour cream

Whisky Crumble (makes more than you need)
2 handfuls plain flour
40g caster sugar

2tsp of ground ginger
40mls of whisky (or so)
100g butter

Grease a cake tin. Pre-heat the over to gas mark 3. Place the sugar, butter, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, Guinness and syrup in a pan and heat gently. When melted, add the bicardonate of soda to the flour and gradually whisk in to the batter. When combined, whisk the eggs and the sour cream together. Whisk into the batter. Pour batter into cake tin, put in over for 45mins. Make the crumble. Combine flour, sugar, ginger. Add the whisky to and rub it into the flour with finger tips. Add the cold butter and rub into the flour mix. After 35mins sprinkle on top of the cake (really quickly, open oven door, sprinkle over cake). After about 10mins remove from oven (you can grill for a few mins to make the crumble more golden on top.

Chocolate and Cookie dough tart

It's begun - my friends are getting married

Biscuit, darkest chocolate and flaky buttery pasty. This combo is about as perfect as my friends chip and Sam. This pastry recipe is fail safe - replace the icing sugar with a little extra flour and some salt to make it savoury. Yes, it's totally labour intensive, but the end result is magic - so take your time and enjoy learning the routine. Adding the cookie dough gives a new dimension and the added butter to the chocolate mix creates a kinda brownie ganache, equally the goldenness of the flaky pastry and cookie dough crumble against rich dark chocolate depth looks so pretty.

Sweet pastry1/1/4 cup of strong white bread flour
20g icing sugar
200g salted butter
1/4 cup ice water
2 tbl sp lemon juice

Chocolate Filling
300ml whipping cream
300g dark chocolate (broken up into cubes)
2 eggs (1 full egg and 1 egg yolk)
100g butter

Cookie dough 
I didn't follow Dan Lepard's but I trust it more than mine - I'll get mine right eventually

Dan Lepard'sDan Lepard's all purpose cookie dough recipe

Pastry: Freeze flour and butter for one hour. Add the icing sugar to the flour - giving that sweetness to the pastry that this treat craves. Then cut the butter up into cubes and gradually work into the flour. Mix up your sour cream, water and lemon juice. Make a well in the crumbly flour / butter and add half the wet mix. Work this in. As big chunks form, remove them and place to the side. Keep removing the big bitz. Then when there’s nothing left in the bowl, roll all of them together in your hand, just until joined. Wrap in cling film and place in fridge for 1 hour. Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees. Roll your pastry out. Lightly flour a spring based tart tin / or a baking tray - add the pastry. Place in the fridge to chill for 30minutes.

Chocolate Part: Scald the whipping cream in a pan then remove from heat and add the broken up chocolate. When melted, add the butter and put back on the heat for a few seconds. Melt. Whip up the eggs, add some chocolate mix to them to temper them - then add choc egg mix back to main pan.

When the rolled out tart is chilled - make a tin foil ring that reaches to the sides of the tart (or use baking beans) and prick all over with a fork and bake blind for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven (turn heat up to 180 degree). Add lumps of cookie dough and pour over the chocolate part - top with more cookie dough and BAKE 15-20mins until it only wobbles in the middle.

Nothing worse than dry falafal

Baked falafal's w/ zingy lime and pea yogurt

Food at Glastonbury is always on power with the music, but the falafal could have done with a kick and a tad more moisture, to save you having to smother your pitta with mayo (although this is still always a good call). These are are such little beauties to make, you feel that lovely transformation - I have created - magic happened - feeling and who'd a thought pea and lime went so darn well together (I heard once that if foods are the same colour - risk it - nearly always a success).

Falafels
1 400g tin of chickpeas
2 cloves of garlic
1 small onion
4 tsp cumin
handful of flat leaf parsley
handful of coriander
1 chilli (seeds and all)
3-4 tbsp veg oil
1 egg
some breadcrumbs
lots of salt and pepper
spoonful of tahini

Lime and Pea Yogurt
Some half fat creme fraiche
juice of 1 1/2 limes
200g garden peas (cooked in hot water for 2 mins)
1 tsp salt

Add all the falafal mix to blender and blitz. Leave in the fridge for 2 hours. Pre-heat oven to 230 degrees / add some oil to baking tray. Take little handfuls of the falafal mix and roll into little balls (makes about 16-20) - put falafals on hot baking tray and bake for 15-20 mins (until golden). Meanwhile, add all the lime and pea yogurt ingredients and blitz - adjust ingredients to taste and wait for your falafels to cook. Serve with pitta pockets, maybe some beetroot chutney / hot sauce / salad.

I cant speak, so I'll cook

Cumin salted chickpeas w/ sweet neon beetroot dip

Well my best contribution to a conversation seems to be 'uha!' or 'heunm?' (freaky lip cut has made most of my diction sound unrecognisable) - so might as well relocate to the kitchen. Smokey cumin, sticking to a hot pan giving off the air of a late night Moroccan carnival, fire in heaps of pomegranate seeds, that give sweet little rose water notes of freshness and then.. scoop it up with some crusty bread and creamed beetroot and you've got yourself this lovely little mezze selection that feels totally fresh and summery.

Cumin Salted Chickpeas
4 tbsp cumin
lots of salt
1 400g chickpeas (drained)
2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
1/2 pomegranate (the seeds)
1 lemon (juice)
100g chorizo
handful of flat leaf parsley

Sweet neon pink beetroot dip
5 beetroots (pre-cooked)
5 tblsp cream fraiche
1 clove of garlic
2 chilli's
1 tbsp tahini
splash of balsamic vinegar
drizzle of olive oil

Make the dip. Combine all the ingredients and blitz until it's a smooth mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste. Heat some oil in a pan,  add the cumin and salt, don't mix, after 1 min, add the chickpeas, mix a little, leave for a min or two, add the garlic and a little more cumin. Add the lemon juice and parsley. Leave it for a few mins, it will start to smoke. Add the chorizo and the pomegranate seeds. Then toss a few times and serve with the dip and come crusty bread.

Squash Mondays (eating not excerising)

Roasted Butternut squash and sweet greens Thai curry

Feeling all inspired from Micky B's sausage casserole, some nutritious hot pot had to emerge after 2 weeks of crumpets and taco chips. Basic Thai green curry recipe, but sweet and garlicky thanks to slow roasted squash, and heavy with vegetables and chilli's, so you can feel all green and superfooded at the start of the week with bikram yoga style heat from your forehead - with 'oh yeah' feelings instead of 'omg nothing is worth this'.

1 butternut squash (halved, drizzled with olive oil, lots of salt covered w / ginger & garlic and roasted on gas mark 4 for 1 hour, plus twenty Min's on gas mark 2)

Vegetables
1 packet (300g) of mixed green (runner beans/broccoli/sugar snaps)
2 handfuls of mushrooms (sliced)
Any other vegetables you feel like popping in

Curry Paste

2 onions (finely chopped)
6 hot green chilli's
3 cloves of garlic
2 inches of fresh ginger
2 spring onions
2 tsp of palm sugar (or 1 of Castor)
big big handful of fresh coriander (and 1 of basil if you have it)
1 tblsp of fish sauce

1 tbsp dark soy

2 tblsp light soy
1 stalk of lemongrass
juice of 1 lemon or lime

1 tin coconut milk
1 tin of water

Roast your butternut squash. Fly the onions in a little oil in a big pan, for a couple of mins. Then add all the curry paste ingredients except coconut milk & water. After 5mins, add the coconut milk and water. Add the sliced mushrooms. Let cook for a 10-15mins, then add the roasted butter nut squash all chopped up. Add the greens and put the lid on the pan. They will steam cook. After about 5-6mins it's ready. 

I had cake and ravioli for breakfast

Parma ham and goats cheese ravioli with chorizo basil infused oil

Well, after waking up to lemon drizzle cake, it felt totally natural to follow (pre coffee) with some impromptu ravioli. Cooked coats cheese is one of the most srcummiest (salty, smooth and rich) of tastes, and squashed all up with parma ham and basil, it becomes one helluva a bite. As the goats cheese cooks inside the ravioli, some of the creaminess oozes out and coats the outside of the pasta with a slightly glossy salty film. Garnish with chorizo oil // its melt in the mouth moreish.

A few sheets of fresh egg lasange sheets
150g of goats cheese (sliced into 10p piece sizes)
4 slcies of parma ham
30g grated parmean
100g chopped basil
1 (really hot red chilli) finely chopped
1 egg yolk (to make em stick)

Infused oil
Chorizo 50 g (diced)
1 clove garlic
1/2 red chili
20g fresh basil

Cut the lasagna sheet into 2inch x 2inch squares (average). Put a little bit of goats cheese in the centre, a little parma ham, squash in a little basil and chili, sprinkle with Parmesan - put a little egg yolk around the edge, place its twin square on top and press down hard (put some egg yolk around the edge as well. Keep pressing down. Add to boiling water (boil for 5 -6 mins). Plate up - heat extra virgin olive oil, add chili garlic, chorizo (30 seconds) - add another splash of ex vi. ol. oil and spoon on top of the pasta. Top with Parmesan.

My favourite food

Home baked Lasagna

Needs no introduction? 

Tomato Mince
1 onion (finely chopped)
3 cloves of garlic

500g mince
1 glass of red wine
1 cup of beef stock
2 tbsp of tomato puree (and then some)
6 drops of Tabasco
Some dried chillies / chili powder
handful of chopped chorizo
handful of fresh oregano

handful of fresh basil
few sprigs of rosemary
2 tins of chopped tomatoes

White sauce
100g plain four
100g butter
1 pint of milk

200g chedder cheese and 100g parmesan for layers

Saute the onions and garlic (5mins) add the chorizo and a glug of red wine (2mins) - remove chorizo / onion mix and place in a bowl for later. Add another chopped garlic clove to the hot pan, and a little of the stock and a little of the red wine. Add the mince (1 min) add the rest of the stock and red wine. The stock will reduce so dont worry if it looks watery. Add the tomatoe puree, Tabasco, oregano, basil and rosemary. Add the pre cooked chorizo to the mix and the tins of tomatoes. Let it simmer for 20mins or so. Add salt and pepper to taste. Make the white sauce - heat butter in pan, whisk in the flour, gradually add the milk to the mix taking it off and on the heat as needed (dont let it get too hot or it goes lumpy). Layer up lasange with lots of cheese.

I got all deluded by food

Roasted cauliflower with baked goats cheese and basil pesto

April is being a real joy, what with all this faux summer sun - this roasted cauliflower dish gives Mediterranean loveliness with fresh pesto everywhere you smell - and has that blindfolded subconscious effect of making you think it might not really be a Wednesday. Delish mid week supper // also would be yum as a chilled salad on a Saturday.

1 head of cauliflower
3 cloves of garlic
couple of splashes of ex.vi.olive oil
a few bands of chopped leek
300g of mild goats cheese

handful of little tomatoes

For the pesto

handful of fresh basil leaves
4 - 6 tblsp extra virgin olive oil
handful of grated Parmesan cheese
squeeze of lemon juice
2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
2 tblsp of chicken stock

Turn oven on to gas mark 6, splash baking tray with olive oil and put in oven. Chop the cauliflower into little florets, crush garlic and chop leeks add to the hot oil on baking tray. Roast for 15mins - add the little tomatoes - roast for a further 10 / 15 mins. Make pesto by blending all the ingredients. Pour the pesto over the roasted cauliflower, top with crumbly goats cheese and salt and pepper and grill until perfection (6-8mins/ish).

Buns are Holy

Hot Cross Buns (makes 16)

Driven to food distraction by numbers, these little hot cakes make your house smell all snug and tradition'y. They are sweet and sticky on the outside with lovely soft buttery lightness that goes real nice with cheese and cups of tea.

270mls milk
2 cloves
2tsp Cinnamon
1tsp of all spice
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
pinch of saffron

450g Strong white bread flour
100g butter (cubed)

1tsp salt

20g caster sugar

3 eggs

10g or 1 sachet of yeast (follow directions)

120g currents or raisins

For the crosses

3 tblsp of flour + some water to make a paste. 

some icing sugar and a paintbrush (small and fine)

Put the milk and spices in a pan and scald. Turn off the heat and leave milky spice mix to infuse for a while. Rub the butter into the flour. Add the salt and sugar and yeast (mix with some warm water to activate). Make a well in the middle, add 2 beaten eggs and gradually add the milk mix until you have a soft dough. Knead for 10 mins. Cover and leave somewhere warm for 1 hour (until doubled in size). Knead a wee bit, then stretch out on a work surface and add the currents / raisins. Kneed in so they distribute. Divide into 16.  Put on baking tray. Leave to double in size for a bit. Use  knife and mark a cross on the buns - brush with beaten egg - paint the cross on with flour paste. Place in the oven gas mark 5/6 for 25mins. Mix a little sugar with water and brush each bun - using a fine paintbrush paint the crosses with icing sugar.

I created a Monster

Bitter chocolate and orange cream cheese ganache tartlets 

Mmmmmm. Torn between cheesecake and tart, some delicious half breed was formed. These little digestive based tarts are simple and bitter sweet, the gooey orange pangs fumigate you mouth while the silky chocolate / cream cheese ganache squeezes your face into that mmmmm with squinty eyed happiness expression. N.b. not helpful for waistlines.

Base
150g dark chocolate digestives
100g salted butter

Cream part
200g cream cheese
2 oranges (squeezed)
30g icing sugar

Choc pot
100g dark chocolate (min 52% coco)
150g salted butter
50g light brown muscovado sugar
1 orange squeezed
2 eggs (beaten)

Melt the butter and combine with the crumbled biscuits (blend them or beat them with a rolling pin) to make the base. Grease the inside of 6 ramekin's with butter. Add digestive base to each and press down hard. Place in the friezed for 10mins to set. In a bowl, add all the cream part and whisk. On the heat add the butter and the chocolate (cubed), allow to melt. Add the juice of 1 orange and the sugar. In a separate pan, heat the cream part until it just simmers. Add the beaten eggs to this. Fold this into the melted choc pot pan. Pour this mix on top of your base into your ramekin's. Put in the over for 18 - 22 mins at gas mark 5 / 6. When you remove the centre should be the only bit that giggles.

I'd swap my eye for a pizza pie (well i'd get greasy cheese in it)

Goats cheese, basil pesto and sweet roasted pepper pizza (makes 2 pizzas)

Auk for crying out loud, the joys of electricity and an oven have only gone made pizza perfection. The light, crispy base is the source of the woops and yeahs and oos and ahhs - extra fine candian strong flour - you cheeky find - binds to make the softest dough making a truely bouncy bite possible. Basil pesto made with pecoroni rather than pine nuts and parmesan, maintains a nuttiness that sprawls itself snugly over the sweet charcol pangs of roasted pepper and creamy deapths of goats cheese.

Bouncy thin base
180g extra fine canadian bread flour
140ml warm water
7g dry yeast
1tbl sp olive oil

Tomato Sauze ( put all ingredients in a blender and whizz)

1/2 tin baby cherry tomatoes
handful basil
3 gloves garlic
salt / pepper
1 tblsp olive oil

Basil pesto (put ingredients in a blender and whizz)
handful of basil
30g pecoroni cheese
1 tblsp olive oil
1 clove garlic

Topping
100g buffalo mozzeralla
100g goats cheese
1 sweet red pepper (cook in the oven for 20mins gas mark 6)

Okay. It seems like there are lots of things here to refer back to with that never-ending ingredient list. Basically, everything rests on the base. If the base is soggy and without bite it doesn’t matter how delicious your toppings are - chaos will ensue. In a cup add warm water to yeast and salt (Fizz). Empty flour onto work surface and make a well in the middle. Fill the well with yeasty water and 1tblsp of olive oil. Gradually pull flour from the sides into the well and the quickquick keep doing this until the floury water mix comes together. Then knead it for 5-10mins. If its too wet spinkle more flour. If its feels like leather add a little water. If its very liney (with breaks in the dough) a little oil and a little water. Roll into a ball and break in two. Put in slightly oiled bowl and place a damp tea towel over the top and leave somewhere warm for 45mins.

Whiz the tomato sauz ingredients. Then whiz the basil pesto ingredients. Then 45 mins later roll out the dough and assemble your pizza. Place in an over turned floured baking tray (allows heat to cook it from beneath as well as above like a pizza oven). Cook 12-14mins in hot oven.

I salute hotpots

Hot Butternut squash and Coconut Daal 

When everything starts to get a bit much and your eye balls have been physically scratched it’s nice to resort to a one pot dish that breathes warm and spicy fumes into your house and total satisfaction to belly. This daal is draped in sweetness from the cinnamon and coconut combination, but avoids sickly sweet, as it’s cut through by the chilli and the butternut squash, what cushy padding - it's more of a background player, but it gives texture and is so clever at absorbing flavour and creating harmony that it wouldn’t be quite so satisfying without it. 

rather how it makes you feel than what it looks like
(FORGOT TO PHOTOGRAGH MY DISH)

5 handfuls of any type of lentils
2 medium butternut squashes (chopped to 1 cm cubes)
4 handfuls of chopped spinach
4 green chillis
2 large onions
4 cloves garlic
2 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger
1 tsp cinnamon 

1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp ground coriander
4 tsp ground cumin / crushed cumin seeds
3 tsp medium curry powder
2 bay leaves
1 can coconut milk
4 cans of boiling water
50 g butter / ghee 

40 g tomatoe puree
salt and pepper to taste (be generous)

Heat oil in a pan, add onion, crushed garlic / ginger / chilli. Cook for 6 mins. Add butter or ghee and all the spices and the bay leaves. Add the chopped butternut squash and 1 tin of water – leave for 2-3 mins. Add the coconut milk, lentils and remaining water. Cook for 1 hour on a low heat – add the tomato puree - add the chopped spinach. Cook until you feel like eating. If it gets too thick add some more water, it it seems too watery let it boil for a little so it reduces.