Small christmas Turkey. #Foodphotography

This christmas I prepared and cooked a small turkey, sick of all those leftovers! :P

Sage and onion stuffing balls.

As we all know, no christmas is complete without stuffing. So this christmas I followed 'BBC Food' recipe for stuffing balls.

Preparation time: Less than 30 minutes
Cooking time 30 minutes
Serves 6 people

Ingredients:

1 onion peeled, and finely chopped
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp fresh sage, finely chopped
80g/3oz of fresh white breadcrumbs
salt
pepper
1 egg, beaten

Method:
Sweat the onion in oil until it is soft but not coloured.
Mix together onion, breadcrumbs and sage and season well
Add beaten egg to blend the mixture together and use to stuff the meat or roll into balls for individual stuffing balls.
For stuffing balls place in a baking tray and cook for 30 minutes on medium temperature.

Banana & Chocolate chip cupcakes.

Serves 12

Ingredients:
125g butter
3 heaped tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1 egg
2 ripe banana's mashed (Or 1 large banana)
1 1/2 cup of self-raising flour
1/4 cup milk

Method:
Melt the butter, sugar & vanilla in a medium saucepan
Remove from heat
Add mashed banana's and stir through till it's just blended
Add egg and mix in well, stir in flour, add milk and mix lightly
Preheat the oven tobake at 170 degrees for 15-20 minutes until cooked.

Ready to serve.

 

 

[Puff Pastry] Sausage Rolls.

I found this great recipe on Lorraine Pascale's blog on her t.v show Baking made easy.
So I decided to try them out myself!

Ingredients:

• 500g/1lb 2oz ready-made puff pastry
• Plain flour, for dusting
• 1 free-range egg, beaten
• 8 herby sausages (the best you can afford), cut in two
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• small handful fresh thyme leaves

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
2. Roll the pastry out on a floured surface to a rectangle of about 48x32cm/19x12½in and bash the pastry with the rolling pin a bit. Puff pastry is made of fine layers and normally you have to be very delicate with it. For sausage rolls the pastry needs to be slightly puffed, but not too much, so bashing it with a rolling pin reduces the amount it puffs up.
3. Cut the large rectangle in half lengthways, then cut both smaller rectangles into eight equal sections. You now have 16 rectangles in total. Brush one end of each rectangle with a little of the beaten egg, lay a piece of sausage at the other end, then season the sausage with salt and freshly ground black pepper and sprinkle with thyme leaves. Roll the sausage up in the pastry to enclose and repeat with all the sausages. Put the sausage rolls in the fridge for 20 minutes for the pastry to harden.
4. Once the pastry is hard, remove the sausage rolls from the fridge and score the tops with a sharp knife for decoration, or prick with a fork. Brush well all over with the rest of the beaten egg and bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes, or until the pastry has turned golden-brown and looks crisp. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly before serving.

 

 

 

 

 

Baking a cake (Food Photography)

30/08/13 

 

Homemade Rock buns

Rock buns

Preparation time: 10-15 minutes.

Cooking time 20 minutes,

 Ingredients:

6oz/175g self-raising flour
4oz/110g butter
3oz/85g caster sugar
2-4oz chocolate chips  (You can also use raisins and sultana’s if you like)
1 egg
Splash of milk

 Method:

Preheat your oven on to Gas Mark 6/200C and grease a large baking tray.

Sieve flour into bowl (You could also use non sieve flour)

Add butter and rub with fingertips until it looks like fine bread crumbs.

Stir in the sugar as well as the chocolate chips (or alternative ingredient)

Add egg and stir in.

Add enough milk to make stiff dough.

Put 12 heaps onto tray and bake for 20 minutes, wait for the buns to cool then serve

Homemade Earrings :)

Jewellery Making is a wonderful hobby I share.
I made homemade earrings.

For 1 pair you will need:

. 2 Ear wires
. Chain nose Pliers
. Pendant (of your choice)  .. I used a heart shaped pendant.

Here are the results :)

Homemade recipe. Dumpling fritters with Spinach (Food photography)

Dumpling fritter served with a healthy portion of spinach. :)

The dumpling fritter recipe can be found at - http://thatlondonchick.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/homemade-dumpling-fritters.html

BBQ Chicken marinating.

Marinating my chicken drumsticks and wings in Reggae Reggae sauce -jerk/bbq

Homemade chocolate chip cake

I invented this recipe myself. I fancied a chocolate cake something with a soft crumbly crunch. So I put a few ingredients together today and here we have it! :D

The best thing about this recipe is you barely need any sugar because the chocolate is naturally sweet.

Ingredients:

225 g Self raising flour
3-4 heaped tablespoons of sugar.
3 eggs
1 tablespoon of baking powder
 3-4 heaped tablespoons of butter/margarine
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
1 tablespoon of cocoa powder
1 sachet of chocolate chips.

Topping:

100 g plain chocolate. (It doesn't have to be cooking chocolate. Cooking chocolate is bland and tasteless. I recommend cadbury's chocolate)

Method:

1. Grease a 8 inch round baking tin with butter and put to one side then preheat the oven for 180 degrees.

2. Add flour, sugar and butter to a mixing bowl. Slowly crumble the mixture with your fingers but be sure not to overwork the mixture. Next crack 3 eggs into the mixture, add the vanilla essence and baking powder and the chocolate chips and mix together until all the ingredients are blended together.

3. Now pour the mixture into the baking tin, use the back of spoon to smoothen the mixture inside the baking tin. Next place the baking tin into the hot oven for 20-25 minutes. Once cooked remove the baking tin from the oven and put the cake onto a plate and leave aside to cool.

4. Now heat water on the fire, put a bowl on top of the pot and melt the chocolate bar.
Once melted leave the melted chocolate to cool, once cool smear your cake with chocolate. To decorate I added chocolate buttons, be as creative as you can!

  

Homemade Banana cake with a scoop of Vanilla icecream. (Photography)

This is the most moist banana cake I've ever tasted. It's a family faviourte.
I serve the banana cake right away when it's lovely at warm, alongside a scoop of vanilla icecream. Perfect for the sunny weather :)
Banana cake recipe can be found at http://thatlondonchick.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/homemade-banana-cake-easy.html

Lasagne

So I made Lasagne for dinner for my family, went down very well.
I used some pre-made ingredients but also created my own.

I got this recipe from Secretsauce.co.uk

Serves 4
Preparation time 10 minutes
cooking time 40 minutes
 

Ingredients
    500g minced beef
   500g jar red sauce for lasagne
   6 lasagna sheets (weighing about 100g)
  470g jar  white sauce for lasagne.             (I made my own White sauce by heating cheddar/parmesan cheese to a hot pan of whole milk. I stired consistantly until there were no lumps. Do not allow to boil!)
   5g mature Cheddar cheese, grated

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190°C / fan oven 170°C / Gas 5. Heat a large frying pan and add the mince, cook over a high heat, stirring well until browned and cooked through. Tip in the red sauce for lasagne, stir and simmer for 5 minutes, then remove from the heat.

2. Tip half the Bolognese mixture into a large rectangular baking dish measuring about 26cm x 20cm. Arrange 3 lasagne sheets on top, then spread half the white sauce (Or homemade cheese sauce I made) for lasagne over them. Repeat the layers, then sprinkle the grated cheese evenly over the surface.

3. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until cooked and golden brown. Allow to stand for a few minutes, then serve.
Enjoy :)

 

 

Chicken stir fry

Minutes to prepare: 15

Minutes to cook: 20

Number of servings: 4

 

Ingredients

 3 tbsp of soy sauce

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp olive oil

2 whole chicken breasts, thinly sliced

Mixed vegetables

Half an onion, thinly sliced

Noodles

Half sweet pepper diced

 
Directions

In a boiling pot of water add noodles to cook until soft and drain well.

Add olive oil to a wok and fry the slices of chicken breast until brown.

Now add the garlic, sweet peppers, mixed vegetables, onions and noodles and toss together in the wok so all the ingredients are blended together. Finally add 3 tbsp soy sauce, cook for 4 minutes until the soy sauce is slightly thickened, then serve right away.

 

 

 

 

Brown stew Chicken with rice and peas.

I come from a caribben background, my family are jamaican and every sunday we make great effort to make a lovely meal for 'Sunday Dinner'

So today we decided to make Brown Stew Chicken with rice and peas.

I found a great recipe which is easy to follow on http://www.jamaicatravelandculture.com/food_and_drink/brown-stew-chicken.htm

Homemade banana cake (Easy)

I found this recipe on bestrecipes.com

Ingredients:

125g butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1 egg
2 ripe banana's mashed
1 1/2 cup of self-raising flour
1/4 cup milk

Method:
Melt the butter, sugar & vanilla in a medium saucepan
Remove from heat
Add mashed banana's and stir through till it's just blended
Add egg and mix in well, stir in flour, add milk and mix lightly
bake at 170 degrees for 40 minutes

Ready to serve.



                                                                               

                                                                         

 

 

                                                                             

Homemade Lamb Stew with dumplings (Photography)

Homemade Toad in a hole recipe

I found this recipe on Food.com, however I changed the recipe slightly to suit my needs :D


Ingredients:

1 cup of all purpose flour (I used self-raising flour)
2 eggs
1 cup of whole milk
Black pepper
½ teaspoon of salt
8 Fresh sausages (Pork, beef or chicken)

Method:

1. To make the batter in a blender, combine the flour, eggs, milk, salt and a few grindings of pepper in the blender jar, and blend at high speed for 2 to 3 seconds. Turn off the machine, scrape down the sides of the jar, and blend again for 40 seconds.
 
2. (To make the batter by hand, beat the eggs and salt with a whisk or a rotary or electric beater until frothy. Slowly add the flour, beating constantly. Then pour in the milk in a thin stream and beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy). Refrigerate the batter for at least 1 hour.

 

         Once the batter is set preheat the oven, 200 degrees.

         Now add a drizzle of oil into a baking tray lay the sausages in the tray. Next slowly poor the batter over the sausages making sure you cover 2/3 of the sausages in batter.

Next place the baking tray into the oven for 30 minutes. Once the batter is brown and you can see that the sausages are cooked. Remove baking tray from the oven and serve immediately.

 

 

                                                                           

 

 

Mince and Pasta bake.

Ingredients:

Mince beef
1 carrot peeled and chopped
1 onion chopped
1 clove of garlic peeled and chopped
1 tin of tomato
Butter
Cheddar or Parmesan cheese
Wholemeal Penne Pasta

 Method:

Add pasta to a pan of boiling water with a tablespoon of butter and leave to cook for 10-15 mins until soft. Next drain the water and put aside.

Now fry the mince beef  until golden brown, add the chopped carrots, onion and a clove of garlic. Then add the tin of tomato's and leave to heat for 3 minutes whilst stirring consistently.
Then add the mixture to a baking tray and grater some cheese on top, put the baking tray in the oven for about 20-25minutes until the top of the pasta is nice and crispy.

You can add Basil leaf for presentation
Leave to cool then serve.

 

 

Homemade Strawberry Jammy buns

Strawberry Jammy buns

Level: Easy

Ingredients:

8oz (200g) self raising flour

3oz (75g) granulated or caster sugar

2oz (50g) margarine

1 large egg

strawberry Jam (or jam of your choice)

Method

• Pre-heat oven to 180°C /Gas Mark 4
• Lightly grease a baking tray
• Cream sugar into margarine
• Add flour and egg, mix until mixture comes together (you may need to use a little milk)
• Divide mixture into 12 and roll into balls
• Indent the top of each ball using your thumb and add approx a teaspoon of jam
• Transfer to baking tray and cook for 12-15 minutes or until slightly brown

I recommend that you leave your jammy buns to cool before serving for 5-10 mins as the jam will be piping hot!

 

 

Shortbread recipe

Ingredients:

175 g/ 6oz Plain flour, extra for dusting
Pinch of salt
115g/ 4oz butter, cut into small pieces. Plus extra for greasing
55g/ 2oz caster sugar, plus extra for sprinking

Serves 8

Method:

Grease a 20 cm/8 inch fluted round tart tin with butter.

Mix together the flour, salt and sugar. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients. Continue to work the mixture into it forms a soft dough. Make sure you do not overwork the mixture, otherwise it will be tough, not crumbly as it should be.

Lightly press the dough into the prepared tart tin. If you don't have a fluted tin roll out the dough on a lightly floured board, place onto a baking tray then pinch the edgeds to form a scalloped pattern.

Mark into eight pieces with a knife. Prick all over with a fork and bake into a pre-heated oven 150 degrees/ 300 F, Gas mark 2, for 45-50 minutes, until the shortbread is firm and just coloured.

Leave to cool in the tin and sprinkle the sugar on top. Cut into pieces and remove to a wire rack to cool.

Cookery tips for Spices.

I picked up these cookery tips last year whilst watching Gordon Ramsay Ultimate Cookery course.
These tips really did help me improve the quality of my cooking.

1. To de-seed a chilli cut each end of the chilli and tip the chilli so that all the seeds pour out easily.

2. The bottom of a pepper has less heat in comparison to the top of the pepper where the seeds are found. Therefore if you want to cook a mild dish, I recommend that you use the bottom half of a pepper. If you want heat. use the top.

3 In order to get rid of pepper on your hands, squeeze fresh lemon on your hands, then wash.

4. Poblano - Great for stuffing (Mexican food)
5. Jalepeno - The redder the sweeter
6. Birds eye - Good for Thai dishes
7. Cumin - Aromatic seeds, parsley family. Good to be used in Asian and Mediterranean dishes.
8. Corriander - Smoke Paprika good for Lamb dishes, Oriegano and bay leaf.

Hope this helps you as much as it helps me. :)

Lorraine Pascale Simple Flapjack recipe

Less than 30 mins
preparation time
30 mins to 1 hour
cooking time
Makes 12
Ingredients
175g/6oz butter
175g/6oz golden syrup
175g/6oz muscovado sugar
350g/12oz porridge oats
½ lemon, finely grated zest
pinch ground ginger

Preparation method


1.Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2 and line a 20cm/8in square baking tin with baking paper.
2.Melt the butter in a medium pan over a low heat. Dip a brush in the butter and brush the baking tin with a little bit of it. Add the golden syrup and sugar to the butter and heat gently. Once the sugar is dissolved and the butter is melted, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the porridge oats, lemon zest and ginger.
3.Pack the mixture into the baking tin and squash down. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.
4.Once cooked, remove from the oven, leave to cool for 15 minutes, then turn out on to a chopping board and cut into squares.
5.These flapjacks are delicious in a packed lunch or as a grab-and-go breakfast.

Homemade Dumpling Fritters.

 

Level : Easy.

 

 

Ingredients:
3 and a half cups of self-raising flour
1 cup of water (Add more if needed)
1 pinch of salt
Half onion, diced or 2 scallions (Spring onions diced)
3-4 slices of bacon,diced
Oil (vegetable or sunflower or olive oil )

You will need:
Frying pan
A cup
A mixing bowl
A fork

 

                                                     Method:

Poor  2 cups of self-raising flour in a mixing bowl and add a pinch of salt. Next dice your cooked bacon and add it to the mixture, add the diced onions too. Now you will need to knead the mixture into dough. Pour small quantities of water into the mixture to knead the mixture together. This can be tricky but the trick is to add small amounts of water. If the mixture is too gooey you can always add more flour.

Next step- Drizzle oil into frying pan and heat on the hob at a medium temperature. With your hands knead the flour into a dumpling like shape. I have attached pictures so you can see the exact shape that needs to be created. Next put the dumplings into the frying pan. Once the flour turns a golden brown colour flip over and let the over side cook.Once both sides are cooked there you have it a tasteful dumpling fritter.
 

 

Classic sponge cake recipe.

175 g /6 oz Butter (You may need extra for greasing)
175g/6 oz Caster Sugar
3 eggs Beaten
Pinch of salt
175g/6 oz Self-Raising flour
1 tbsp icing sugar
3 tbsp raspberry jam
Fresh cream

Method.
Grease 2 baking tins with butter. The two baking tins should be about 8 inches round.
Beat the butter and sugar altogether in a mixing bowl using a wooden spoon or alternatively you can you a hand held mixer. Continue to beat the mixture until the colour is pale and the texture is light ad fluffy. Add the eggs a little at a time,  and beat well after adding each egg.

Sift the flour and salt , then gently add the mixture, folding it with a metal spoon or a spatula. Divide the mixture between the tins and smooth over with the spatula. Place both tins of cake mixture on the same shelf in the centre of a preheated oven, so that they both cook at equal times. Set the temperature to 180 degrees celcius/350 F/Gas mark 4, and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.

Now remove from the oven and let them stand for 1 minute. Loosen the cakes from th eedges of the tins using a round bladed knife. Turn the cakes out into a clean tea towel or plate. Once the cakes are cool sandwich them together with  jam and fresh cream, and sprinkle the top with icing sugar.
Then serve.

My Healthy eating mac n cheese recipe

Ingredients:
Pasta
Cheddar cheese and Parmesan
Mixed vegetables (preferably consisting of cauliflower carrots and broccoli)
Plain flour 1-2 table spoons
Butter
Whole milk
Dried Breadcrumbs
Cooked bacon diced
Cooking oil

Method:

Boil some pasta in a saucepan with a teaspoon of butter and a pinch of salt for 15-20 minutes until cooked.
Drain the water from the pasta and set aside.
Next fry some bacon rashes with a drizzle of oil until golden brown on both sides. Then remove from heat and put aside.
Next Boil the vegetables in a saucepan full of water for 5-10 minutes until cooked then drain well.
Now put the pasta into a pan add a generous amount of grated cheese both cheddar and parmesan. Add roughly half a cup of whole mix and stir. You can also add crème fresh if you want your sauce to be lovely and rich. Once the pasta and cheese and milk are mixed well, add the mixed vegetables and diced bacon and give the mixture a good stir.

(Tip: If your sauce is not thick enough add 1-2 tablespoons of plain flour and mix well)

Next pre-heat your over to 200 degrees Celsius for 5 minutes. Then add your macaroni cheese to a baking tin (round) Next sprinkle some breadcrumbs on top evenly and put into the oven for 10-15 just so the top of the macaroni cheese is golden brown and crunchy, making sure the macaroni is not dried out in the centre!
We are looking for a lovely gooey texture. Once the top of your pasta is golden brown, remove out of the oven and leave aside to cool for 10 minutes, and then serve.

Tonni's tasteful spongecake recipe

This is a simple recipe created by myself.
What you will need:

A non stick baking tin (round of square)
A mixing spoon
(Wisk is optional)
A measuring jug
A large bowl
A small bowl
A kettle
Ingredients:
1 lump of butter
250 g of self raising flour
250 g of white sugar or Caster Sugar (if you’re on a diet or don’t have much of a sweet tooth add less.)
3 medium eggs
Icing sugar
A vanilla pod or vanilla extract
Hot water

First preheat your oven for approximately 180 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile pour 250 g of self raising flour into a large bowl and add 250 g of white sugar. Use a spoon to mix these contents together. Now you will need a smaller bowl. First crack 3 medium eggs into the bowl add all the egg whites and the yolk. Add a lump of butter into the egg and mix well. Then add the mixture into the large bowl and stir until smooth. If you see a few lumps don’t worry as long as the mixture has been mixed thoroughly.

Next use butter to grease the base of your baking tray then add the mixture into the tray. Place your baking tray into the oven for 25 minutes till its golden brown. You can check if the cake is cooked in the inside by poking a breadknife into the cake. If no dough sticks onto the knife then your cake is cooked!

When your cake is cooked take out of oven and leave aside to cool, then boil some hot water and leave to cool for 5 minutes add some icing sugar in a separate container and add water until its nice and smooth. Finally glaze your cake with icing sugar leave in fridge for half an hour.