Loco for Cocoa

22nd July 2012

I’ve had the pleasure of sampling Cocoa Loco chocolate once before, and after seeing on their Facebook plans to launch some frankly amazing sounding handmade chocolate bars I re-kindled my contact with the brand (I actually wanted to know if they needed any official taste tester, but you know!) and they ever so kindly sent me a box of their new look chocolate buttons. Result!

Coming in a Dark, White and Milk varieties, the 100g bags are perfect for sharing (if you want to) and make a tasty treat straight from the fridge or at room temperature (a great divide in our house, the temperature at which chocolate should be served…anyone else?)
These are beautifully rich, perfectly sweet and dangerously moor-ish. There is something pleasingly nostalgic about eating chocolate buttons at any age, often a child’s first taste of chocolate I am yet to meet anyone who doesn’t like them!

Everything on Cocoa Loco is handmade and organic, and they are proud winners of numerous awards including Sussex Food Producer of the Year.

If your looking for a gift, or a special something for you, you can’t go far wrong!

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Cooking with Laura

09th May 2012

It’s a pretty well known fact that this girl loves to bake up a storm and create sweet treats for everyone to enjoy, but when it comes to the savoury side of the kitchen, I quite frankly can’t be arsed. I guess it’s a long standing obstacle of my on-going battle with food demons, but the idea of cooking and portioning a hot meal (it’s the portioning that realllly gets me) means I all too often resort to my good friends the freezer and the microwave.

Now my new hours at work have started, and in light of recent events I’ve made a promise to myself to start cooking more, once a week from scratch to start with and then building up. Last night was my first adventure in proper cooking and I made a Lentil and Vegetable cottage pie; I’m not a vegetarian anymore but I don’t like much meat and generally only eat it if someone else has cooked for me.

I found the recipe on this site and made a few adaptations to suit my tastes

900g mashed potato
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 chopped medium onion
150g brown (or puy) lentils (I used green tinned)
1 crushed garlic clove
100g grated vegetarian cheddar cheese (I used a reduced fat version hence it not being all bubbly and brown)
2 diced carrots (we had no carrots to this was left out)
1tbsp tomato puree (I doubled this)
1 diced medium green pepper
60g sliced mushrooms (I doubled this)
1 tsp dried basil

1. Cook the lentils in plenty of water until just soft, drain, and save the cooking liquid.

2. While the lentils are cooking sauté the onion, garlic, basil and cayenne in the oil until soft but not brown.

3. Add the carrot, pepper and mushrooms. Cover and cook over a low heat for 10 minutes or until the carrot has softened.

4. Add the cooked lentils, tomato puree and seasoning. If the mixture is very thick add a little of the reserved cooking liquid from the lentils.

5. Cook for a further five minutes, transfer to an oven-proof dish, cover with mashed potato and sprinkle the grated cheese on top.

6. Bake for 30 minutes in a moderate oven, until the top is golden brown.

This was really, really good and makes four generous portions. Even my dedicated carnivore father loved it, which is the ultimate seal of approval! Next time I’d probably make half the quantity of the Cottage Pie and then freeze two portions of the lentil base as I think it’s got a lot of potential as a pasta or jacket potato topping. I might switch up the veggies in it too…courgette, butternut squash, aubergine…

Anyone got any recipes to share/motivate me? What is your signature dish?

xxx

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cake for breakfast?

26th January 2012

It’s common knowledge that Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and yet so many people skip it; personally I wouldn’t make it past the front door without some porridge and toast and I always make time for it, but not everyone has that luxury and as a nation we have become used to not breaking the fast until mid-morning or later.

Well,
What if I told you that you can have breakfast on the go…and it involves cake? Or rather, muffins? Would that change your mind? I made these at the weekend for my Dad who decided he wanted to give breakfast a go but needed something he could take to work and eat at his desk…

Apple and Date Breakfast Muffins:
You’ll need:

50g Butter
100g Wholemeal Flour
40g Muscovado Sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
120g dried, chopped dates (un-sweeted is preferable)
1tsp mixed spice
1 eating apple
1 egg, beaten
100ml skimmed milk
Zest of half an orange

The steps:

Preheat the oven to 180˚C/350˚F/gas mark 4.

Line 8 holes of a muffin tin with muffin cases or greaseproof paper. In a bowl, gently rub the butter into the flour to make fine crumbs. Add the sugar. Stir in the baking powder, chopped dates and spice.

In a separate bowl, grate the apple, including the peel, down to the core and combine it with the beaten egg, milk and orange zest.

Tip the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined, but don’t over mix.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tins and bake for 25 to 30 mins until golden on top and cooked through. Test they’re cooked by inserting a skewer and checking it comes out clean.

Serve warm or cold.

Each Muffin contains 135 calories and 6.5g Fat.

Recipe from here

A batch was also made for my Grandad who loves dates and he declared them “the best muffins”. Don’t be put off by the dates though, when baked they take on a toffee like flavour!

Are you a breakfast skipper, or are you like me and need it for the most basic of functioning?

Do you have any portable breakfast recipes to share? I’m in the mood for experimentation!

xxx

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Food Files; Lord Poppington

20th January 2012

If by now you don’t know how obsessed I am with popcorn then I despair! I was delighted when the wonderful Kurt at Savoury & Sweet got in touch some weeks ago now telling me about his company and offering me samples of some of Lord Poppington’s finest.

Lord Peter Poppington is the proud purveyor of perfectly popped popcorn – self-styled as not quite
Lord Sugar, not quite Lord Strathclyde (no, we didn’t know who he is either, you’ll have to look him up!
), he is however undoubtedly a Lord to the core, wearing his top-hat at all times – even in the bath, or
so it’s rumoured, but we won’t be checking that out in a hurry!

A huge fan of alliteration as you’ll see on his packaging, Facebook pages, Twitter feed and website,
Lord P, as we’re sometimes permitted to call him, currently has four great flavours in his great quality
popcorn range –

Sweet and Salty Golden Barbados sugar from The West Indies Sugar & Trading Company blended with Cornish Sea Salt Co salt to deliver a unique interpretation of this all-time favourite. 128 calories per pack.

Lightly Salted
Cornish Sea Salt Co salt simply folded into crunchy mushroom popcorn for a fresh and light flavour. 96
calories per pack.

Chilli and Lime
All-natural lime and red chilli seasoning creates a flavour combination that’s both zesty and warming.
94 calories per pack.

Four Cheeses
A natural seasoning blend of Cheddar, Red Leicester, Camembert and Mozzarella cheeses combine to
replicate one of the UK’s favourite pizzas. 94 calories per pack.

All four flavours were truly delicious but the real winner for us (my family got involved in the tasting) was the Four Cheeses. We’ve tried several cheese popcorns now and this one was the clear winner…the perfect blend, without being over-powering.

Sweet and Salt was always going to be a winner; it’s one of my all time favourite combinations, and you’d be hard pushed to go wrong with plain sea salted.
The Chilli and Lime flavour was a revelation. It was the flavour I hesitated most over, but really suprised me in the best possible way.

If you have any great ideas for new flavours or would like to become a Poppington’s Tasting Partner,
you can pass your details on to Lord P in the following ways:

Website: lordpoppington.co.uk
Twitter: @lordpoppington
Facebook: facebook.com/lordpoppington

In the words of a wise young chap…

“Love popcorn. Winners eat popcorn”
Archie Stonehouse, aged 13

What would your dream popcorn flavour be?

xxx

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Recipe: Lemon + Lime drizzle cake

13th January 2012

A couple of weeks post Christmas and we found ourselves with a glut of rather sorry looking lemons and limes in the fridge. A few were sliced in to wedges and frozen (so perfect for plopping in to a gin and tonic!) but I also reserved one of each to make an adaptation of a recipe I found in my favourite foodie magazine…

My Mum and I have bought every issue of this magazine over the last two years…the recipes are always simple, and the sort of food we’d want to eat on a daily basis; not so much the fancy ambitious fare you can often find in culinary publications.
The recipe we were drawn to this time came under the “have your cake and eat it” section, a typical lemon drizzle cake (a firm favourite in this house) adapted by me to become a lemon and lime drizzle cake.

You’ll need:
180g low fat spread (or real butter, up to you!)
180g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten

180g plain flour
1 Lemon and 1 Lime
1tbsp demerara sugar (this is for the topping and regular granulated sugar works fine)

How to:
Pre-heat your oven to 150*c/Gas 2 and line a loaf tin (we have handy loaf tin liners for this, but greaseproof paper also works fine!)

Beat together the spread and the sugar until fluffy then slowly add in the eggs (if it curdles, add in a tbsp or so of the flour)
Sieve in the plain flour and baking powder followed by the finely grated zest of the lemon and the lime. Stir until well combined.

Pour the mixture in to the lined tin and bake for 1hr or until a skewer inserted in comes out clean.(I found the cake was perfectly brown on top after 40 minutes but needed longer to cook through…to avoid the top burning just pop some tin foil over it).
Whilst the cake is cooking, juice the lemon and the lime.

While the cake is still warm, pour over the lemon and lime juice and sprinkle on the demerara sugar. Leave to cool then serve with a massive cup of tea.