Rainbow Pasta Bolognese

The seasons have finally changed and the cold weather is upon us, I have been acutely aware of this because I've already caught a cold, twice. When this happens I have to resort to my mum's chicken soup recipe, it is full of good stuff and I usually feel better after having had it, but here's a little secret, I hate soup (particularly chicken soup). Yet I do know that a lot of people actually enjoy it, a friend of mine used to have soup everyday for lunch.. willingly. 

It was her idea of comfort food. Now I'm a big advocate of each to their own and all that, but my idea of comfort food contrasts significantly, right now I'm thinking melty cheese (in any form), pasta and hot pudding. All of the carbs and calories, oops. But its fine because according to the internet, comfort food provides a nostalgic or sentimental value to someone and may be characterised by its high caloric nature, high carbohydrate level, or simple preparation. 

So pasta definitely ticks all of these boxes and for me it is the epitome of comfort food!  

As you may or may not know, I'm definitely more of a dessert girl but this particular recipe is one of the first main course meals I successfully made. It is still my go-to for when I have to cook something that doesn't include sugar, as its a particularly forgiving recipe and turns out delicious every time. 

By no means is it authentic Italian but what it lacks in cultural authenticity it more than makes up for in flavour. Side note, this reminds me of what an Italian coursemate in uni used to say; people will put tomato sauce on anything and call it Italian. So I'm not about to do that, in fact if anything this pasta has a desi twist i.e. it is on the spicier side and it is is packed with flavour, owing to the combination of spices, vegetables, meat and sauce. 
(Speaking of Italian I have to mention last weeks GBBO, I guess sfogliatelle is next on my baking list, just kidding!) 

To make this Rainbow Pasta Bolognese, start with the following ingredients:

- Pasta

- Tomato Puree

- Tinned plum tomatoes

- Onions, ginger, garlic

- Bell peppers, peas, sweetcorn, carrots, mushroom

 Begin by bringing a large pan of salted water to a boil and add two cereal bowls worth of pasta. Give it a stir, turn the heat to low and leave to simmer for around 15 minutes or until the pasta is al dente. 

Drain and set aside when required (this is to be done whilst you are making the pasta sauce so both components are ready at around the same time).

Make a start on the pasta sauce base by blending together 2 onions, 2 cloves of garlic and an inch of ginger using an electric hand mixer.

Heat around 5 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large pan, to this add in the onion blend and cook until golden brown.

Now for the spices; 1 tblsp salt, 1 tblsp mixed herbs, 1 tsp red chilli powder, 1 tsp tandoori masala, 1/2 tsp garam masala.

Stir this into the onion blend and allow it to sizzle.

Now stir in a around 4-5 tablespoons of tomato puree and 1/2 a cup of water and incorporate.

If wanting to add meat to the dish then this is the stage at which to do it - add in 1 pound of chicken mince and keep stirring it on low heat to ensure that the meat does not clump up. 
Keep doing this until the chicken is cooked i.e. white in colour, the meat will also release its own liquid and you need to allow for this to evaporate. Cook until the desired consistency is reached.

Now for the tinned tomato, blend the contents in a jug beforehand to ensure there are no lumps then pour this into the pan.

Add in the vegetables (aka the rainbow) and cook for a few minutes. 

To create the sauce consistency mix in 3/4 of a cup of water and a splash of Piri piri sauce (this is the one that I use), put the lid on the pan and leave in to cook on low heat until the vegetables are sufficiently cooked through. Taste test and add more salt if required.

Finally, add the drained pasta to the sauce and gently stir to incorporate.

Serve hot, with added cheese if desired.
This also makes a great pasta bake/lasagna if you layer with béchamel sauce, top with grated cheddar and bake in the oven (let me know if you want the exact recipe!)
😋

Enjoy!

 Q x  

Vanilla Cake with Nutella Frosting

Happy Thursday folks! I've had a pretty relaxing day off which has consisted of nothing the least bit productive and I mostly blame that on the social media wormhole. 
I ended up watching one too many cake decorating videos on Instagram as well and let me tell you, some people are ridiculously talented and elevate icing to an art form. 
It may have given me some much needed motivation to try and learn some new skills but we shall see how that goes. I suppose I would describe my decorating skills as rustic, in other words, I'm not one for fancy decorating and that is perfectly reflected in the cake that I made for my sister last week. The whipped cream frosting and fresh flowers made it look effortlessly pretty with minimal effort and it gets extra points for being so delicious. 

I remember as a child, birthday cakes were all about insane amounts of fondant icing (with a cartoon character or two), crazy food colouring and lots of sugar. The alternative in our house was the chocolate gateaux that you would have to defrost for a couple of hours, now I'll admit that I still think that it tastes great but rather than making a trip to Iceland (the shop not the country, for those who are confused) homemade birthday cakes are just a little more special. 
For this one I decided to try a Nutella frosting as an ode to the chocolate gateaux cream and the flowers were actually an unplanned addition, as lots of people came over and with time constraints I went with a more simple decoration. But all's well that ends well!

This light vanilla sponge is also the perfect recipe to have in your baking repertoire because it is easily adaptable, seeing as it uses the 1:1 method i.e. equal quantities of most ingredients so it can upscaled for larger cakes. 

So to make the vanilla cake you will need the following ingredients:

- Margarine

- Caster sugar

- Self raising flour

- Baking powder

- Vanilla essence

- Eggs

- Milk

To begin with measure out 225g of soft margarine and 225g of caster sugar and cream until pale and fluffy.
Then add 4 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. If the mixture curdles at this stage, don't worry because it will be rectified later on.

Next sift in 225g of self raising flour and 2 tsp of baking powder and mix until well combined.

Add in 2 tsp of milk and 2 tsp of vanilla, give the batter a quick mix.

Divide the mixture evenly between two round tins lined with baking paper, alternatively use a large rectangle tin. Bake in a Gas Mark 4 oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown and an inserted skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool.

To make the Nutella frosting you will need the following ingredients:

- Nutella (or other hazelnut spread)
- Double cream
- Icing sugar
- Butter
- Vanilla extract 

Begin by beating together around 3 tablespoons of butter and 3 tablespoons of Nutella together in a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.

Then add in 1 1/4 cup of icing sugar, 4 tblsp of double cream and 1 tsp vanilla, whip until the desired consistency is reached. Add more sugar or cream as you see fit.

Once the cakes are completely cool begin to assemble; sandwich the frosting between the layers and over the top and sides of the cake using a palette knife. Transfer the cake to fridge to allow the frosting to set.

 The cake can be decorated as desired,  I opted for some fresh flowers and a few berries. All decorating supplies gathered from the garden!

You could also add some Ferrero Rocher, a ganache drip or using a piping bag fitted with a star tip pipe on some rosettes.
😋

Enjoy!

 Q x  

Soft Pretzel Buns

In theory I love the idea of making bread, the almost therapeutic putting together process and then the smell of the baking (has some revolutionary captured this bread bakery-esque scent in candle form yet, because if so I need) and finally the consummation aka devouring of soft, fresh, fluffy, bready goodness. In practice however I've only made bread from scratch a handful of times, mostly because I rarely have the foresight to plan in advance and also bread making can take a great deal of time and skill. A colleague of mine is actually trying to sustain a sourdough pet, admirable but something I wouldn't even consider. A couple of weeks ago however I did venture into bread territory, the reason being that it was my grandmother's birthday and I wanted to bake her something. She's diabetic so sugary things weren't an option and upon doing a little internet searching I settled on pretzels. 

This particular recipe* that I ended up using yielded incredibly soft and fluffy buns with a golden brown exterior. Now I'll be honest I've never had soft pretzels before, those small hard-baked pretzels are the extent of my culinary experience in this field, but I'll be completely biased in saying that these are the nicest soft pretzels, ever. They are also amazingly easy to make aka virtually no proving time required aka music to my ears.

So to make these soft pretzels buns you will need the following ingredients:

- Plain flour

- Fast action yeast

- Water

- Butter 

- Brown sugar / salt

- Bicarbonate of soda

In the bowl of a stand mixer begin by stirring 1 sachet of fast action yeast into 360ml of lukewarm water, allow this to settle for 1 minute before stirring in 1 tablespoon of brown sugar and 1 tablespoon of cooled melted butter. If using unsalted butter add 1 tsp of salt otherwise add 1/4 tsp of salt.
Add 3-4 cups of plain flour to the liquid mixture, one cup at a time, beating well using the dough hook attachment. Judging by the texture, add a 1/2 cup more flour if required - at the end of this stage the dough should be springy to the touch. 

Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a couple of minutes, once done pop the dough back into the bowl and cover with a tea towel. This rests for around 10 minutes and in the meantime we can create the bicarbonate of soda bath. To do this bring 9 cups of water mixed with a 1/2 cup of bicarbonate of soda to the boil. 

To create the traditional pretzel shape follow the picture diagram above, note that the thicker the dough rope used the more bun-like the pretzel will be. 
Then using a slotted spoon, submerge the pretzels one at a time into the boiling bicarbonate bath, remove after 30 seconds, drain as much water as possible and place onto a lined baking sheet. This treatment step is important because it gives the pretzels their golden colour and traditional flavour via the Maillard reaction (click the link for more nerdy info). 

Sprinkle the pretzel buns with your desired flavouring, I opted for salt and black cumin (also known as Nigella seeds or fennel flower). Then pop the baking tray into Gas Mark 6 oven until the pretzels are golden brown, around 18 minutes. 

Have the pretzel buns whilst their warm, either plain or slice and add a filling or even dunk in a dip of your choice. 

😋

Enjoy!

 Q x  

*recipe adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

Choc Chip & Brownie Yin-Yang Cookies

It's bank holiday weekend and by some stroke of luck I've had five whole day off. It'd been blissfully tranquil maybe bordering on boring, but it makes a nice change. I did have a brush with some (poisonous?) ivy during some hillwalking in the Pennines in Wales the other day but apart from that its been very domestic; some late-summer cleaning, gardening and picking this years apple crop, lots of lemon cake a la Sansa (hyped to watch the finale!) and I've started reading Lord of the Rings because of a stunning vintage edition I discovered in a second-hand bookshop locating in Chirk Castle in Wrexham.

Saying 'late-summer' does make me a little sad, but the upcoming autumn season definitely has its perks, apart from getting to wear my preferred get-up of coats and wooly scarves, it is also the perfect baking season. Now it may be apparent to everyone but I prefer making cakes, nothing can quite hold a torch to those beautifully easy baked goods. However cookies do come a close second and these cookies in particular take the absolute cake (pun appreciation).

The first time I baked them was the night before Eid and because its a big celebration you do have to go all out, no excuses. In which case these cookies were ideal, they have the looks and the personality and were worth every bit the effort. And I will admit they do require some extra work as you're making two cookie doughs - the chocolate chip dough and the white chocolate brownie dough & chill time is necessary. So do take into account prep time, but other that its plain sailing to the best yin-yang cookies you can imagine.

To make the chocolate chip & brownie cookies (batch - approximately 25) you will need the following basic ingredients:

- Butter

- Caster sugar

- Soft brown sugar

- Plain flour

- Eggs

- Milk chocolate & white chocolate

Additional ingredients include: vanilla extract, salt, bicarbonate of soda, cornflour, cocoa powder & milk

☯

The chocolate chip cookie dough

To start with combine 50g of caster sugar, 150g soft brown sugar and 170g butter in a stand mixer with paddle attachment and beat until soft and fluffy. The addition of the brown sugar lends a subtle caramel taste, so be sure to include it.

Then add in 2 tsp vanilla and 1 egg, mix until well incorporated

Next is the powders: sift in 250g plain flour, 2 tsp cornflour, 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (referred to as baking soda in America) and 1/2 tsp salt (omit if you used salted butter). The addition of the cornflour will keep the cookies soft.

Finally chop up about 175g milk chocolate or use quality chocolate chips, stir this into the cookie dough and place everything into a tupperware container. Adjust chocolate amounts depending on your preference.
☯
The brownie cookie dough

The method is the same as the other dough - begin by beating together the sugars (100g caster sugar + 100g soft brown sugar) and the butter (115g) until soft and fluffy. Add in 1 egg and 1 tsp vanilla and combine.
As for the powdered ingredients, we require 125g of plain flour, 1tsp bicarbonate of soda, 50g cocoa powder and 1/2 tsp of salt if necessary. Alternate with 30 ml of milk and mix until well combined.

Finally chop up 175g of milk chocolate and stir this into the cookie dough. Once again, place it into a tupperware container.

Place both of the cookie doughs into the fridge for a minimum of two hours, this chill time is particularly necessary for the brownie dough as it is softer that the choc chip dough and therefore more difficult to handle. If you wish to freeze the dough and use it another day then now is the time to do so. 

When it comes to baking the cookies, preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4 and line baking sheets with greaseproof paper. 
Grab 1 tblsp of brownie dough and 1 tblsp of choc chip dough, press both together to shape into a ball. Place the balls a reasonable distance apart on the baking sheet allowing room for spreading. (p.s. my tray is a mess because I had to relocate all the dough balls!)

Bake for approximately 12-15 minutes depending on how firm you want the cookies. Allow them to remain on the baking sheet for a further five minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Whilst the cookies are still warm you can pop on a few extra pieces of chocolate, these will melt slightly and be oh so delicious.

These cookies are great with milk as per the traditional combo and they can also be packaged in quirky tins as given as gifts.

😋

Enjoy!

 Q x