Pampered Chef Chocolate Night

The Pampered Chef  is a company that sells ” high-quality kitchen tools, as affordable as they are versatile”. They come and cook a couple of recipies using the Pampered Chef Equipment so you can try before you buy.

On the morning of our Pampered chef party Sharon who was ment to be coming from pampered chef lost her voice completely so at the last-minute Lesley stepped in. Lesley was great and cooked Jaffa Pudding and Mini Bailey’s Cheesecakes.

Jaffa Pudding

100g butter, melted, plus a little extra for the dish

250g SR flour

140g caster sugar

50g cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

Zest and juice 1 orange

3 eggs

150ml milk

100g orange milk chocolate broken into chunks (Green&Blacks Maya Gold is fab!)

Single cream or ice cream to serve (optional)

FOR THE SAUCE

200g light muscovado sugar

25g cocoa

300ml boiling water

Butter 2 litre Deep Dish Baker or Square Baker. Heat oven to 180C. Put the kettle on. Put the flour, caster sugar, 50g cocoa, baking powder, orange zest and a pinch of salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together the orange juice and any pulp left in the juicer, the eggs, melted butter and milk, then pour onto the dry ingredients and mix together until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chunks and scrape everything into the baking dish. Mix 300ml boiling water from the kettle with the sugar and cocoa for the sauce, then pour this all over the pudding batter. Don’t worry, it will look very strange at this stage! Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 30 mins until the surface looks firm, risen and crisp. As you scoop spoonfuls into serving bowls, you should find a glossy, rich chocolate sauce underneath the sponge. Eat immediately with vanilla ice cream or single cream.

Mini Baileys Cheesecakes

One pack of chocolate chip cookie dough (block) or shortcrust pastry

3 tablespoons of icing sugar

30ml of Baileys

300g of Soft Cream Cheese

Split the block of dough into 24 equal balls and place into the Mini Muffin Pan, and bake for 10/15 minutes. Once out the oven and whilst still warm dab a hole in the centre of each ball making a well, using the Mini Tart Shaper. Set aside and let them cool completely. Combine cheese, icing sugar and Baileys into the Small Batter Bowl until creamy using the Small Mix n Scraper. Then place filing into the Easy Accent Decorator and pipe into the well of each base.

Top with either a Malteser, Smartie or Choc Chip.

We bought lots of new kitchen things so we will let you know how we get on with them. A percentage of the sales are going to the centre so we raised some money, well that’s my excuse for buying so much anyway.

Lesley has a facebook page with more recipies and cooking tips. https://www.facebook.com/#!/DarlingsDishesPamperedChef

Elizabeth Graham

 

Our Blog Launch Night

On the 18th of April we invited our friends, family and neighbours to come to the centre and try some of our favourite recipes.  It was a busy night with about 50 people coming along. As well as the food there was a best apron competition with the adult prize (a hamper of food donated by Bramik Foods) won by patriotic Anne Murray.

A big thank you to Sainsbury’s Community Grants Fund who provided the food for the evening. Shay Dean from sainsbury’s came along with her daughter who won the children’s best apron prize. Also thank you to my mum who came along to the event and got roped in to running the baking stall. Between the baking stall and Lynda’s Tombola we raised £131.50 for the centre.

 

Elizabeth Graham

A Mexican Feast

Chelsea and Thomas cooked Beef Tacos and Chicken burritos.

They got the recipes from the Internet

http://chickenburritorecipe.org/ and http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/beef_tacos_with_salsa_67130

Beef Tacos

Ingredients

For the beef filling

• 500g/1lb 2oz beef mince
• 1 onion, chopped
• 150g/5oz field mushrooms, sliced (optional)
• 1 green pepper, seeds removed, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• ½ tsp hot paprika
• ¼ tsp ground cumin
• 200ml/7fl oz beef stock
• 6 tbsp tomato purée
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve

• 12 taco shells
• 1 cucumber, sliced into thin batons
• spring onions, thinly sliced

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas 4.
2. For the beef filling, fry the mince in a frying pan over a medium-high heat for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally and breaking it up with a wooden spoon, or until browned. Add the onion, mushrooms if using, green pepper and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, for five minutes or until the vegetables are softened. Stir in the paprika and cumin and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Pour in the beef stock and tomato purée and mix well. Cover and simmer gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. To serve, place the taco shells on a baking tray and warm them in the oven for 2-3 minutes. Spoon the beef filling into the warm taco shells, spoon over the guacamole and salsa and garnish with cucumber and spring onions.

Chicken Burrito

• 450g chicken chopped into chunks
• ½ cup of chopped onions
• ½ cup re-fried beans
• ½ cup chopped bell peppers
• ½ cup chopped garlic
• Salsa or Pico de Gallo
• Sour cream
• Salt and pepper for taste
• 4 large flour tortillas
• Guacamole

This is an American recipe so is in cups instead of grams. Cook the chicken in a pan with a little oil to stop it sticking. Add the onions, peppers, garlic and refried beans and cook until all are heated. Serve rapped in the tortillas with sour cream, salsa and guacamole.

This time they didn’t make the salsa and guacamole but next time they are going to give it a try. Thomas changed the Burrito recipe and put in a lot less garlic then the 1/2 cup suggested so people would still speak to us the next day.

Cold Smoked Sausage and Vegetable Pasta

This serves 6 people

Ingredients

500g of pasta shapes (dried or fresh)

1 small jar of mayonnaise

500g of natural yogurt

1 green pepper

1 red pepper

1 small tin of sweetcorn drained

2 cloves of garlic chopped

3 spring onions chopped

1 smoked sausage sliced

Method

Boil the pasta as per packet instructions,drain and run under cold water

Mix the mayonnaise and yogurt together

Add the mayonnaise mixture to the pasta

Add the chopped peppers, garlic, spring onions, sweetcorn and smoked sausage to the pasta mix

Serve with baked potato and salad

 

 

Spagetti Carbonara

This recipe was from 2 italian students visiting Edinburgh on vacation. This is an authentic recipe the way the Italians make it.

 

 

Ingredients

500g Spagetti (dried or fresh)

4 Eggs

250g Smoked Lardons

120g Grated Parmesan Cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano)

Salt and Pepper

Method

Fry the smoked lardons until crispy, dry off the oil and leave the lardons to one side

Boil the spagetti as per packet instructions, drain the water and return the pasta in the pot

Crack the 4 raw eggs into the spagetti and fold in (the eggs will cook from the heat off the spagetti)

Add the lardons and grated cheese

Add ground pepper to taste

Serve with garlic bread

This serves 4 people

Linguine

Linguine – Serves 4

 At the blog launch night Julie Cunningham will the making Linguine as featured in our sell out 2012 recipe Calendar.

 

Ingredients

500g linguine

200g mascarpone

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 large onion (Sliced)

½ tsp dried chilli flakes

250g chopped pancetta (or smoked bacon)

4 basil leaves

4 tbsp grated pecorino cheese

4 tbsp olive oil

Salt to taste

 

Method

 

 -Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the onions for 3 mins until golden.

 – Add the chilli flakes and pancetta. Continue to cook for a further 6 minutes.

– Add the tomatoes and leave to simmer for 10 mins. Then add the mascarpone and season with salt.

– Fill a large saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Cook the linguine until al dente.

– Drain the pasta and add the sauce with the basil and pecorino cheese. Toss all together and serve.

 

Useful hints and tips

You could use chorizo instead of pancetta and also throw in a handful of olives.

Bhuna Chicken Jaipuri with Pineapple

Bhuna Chicken Jaipuri with Pineapple – serves 2

Anne Meets Alex Salmond

This recipe was written in a charity cook book by Rt Hon Alex Salmond MSP    and cooked for the group by Anne Murray.  It does have quite a kick so more sensitive tastes might like to have some cooling yoghurt with it.

 Ingredients

2 boneless chicken breasts, diced

1 large onion

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 tsp crushed ginger

1 pinch cumin seeds

8-10 tbsp vegetable oil

¼ tsp garam masala

1 tin tomatoes

½ lb button mushrooms, halved

1 green pepper, diced

1 small tin pineapple, chopped

2 tsp red chillies

2 tsp turmeric

2 tsp curry powder

2 tsp paprika

Pinch fresh coriander

2-3 cups of water

2 tsp salt

Method

–         Fry the onions with the cumin seeds until light brown. Add crushed ginger and garlic and cook for a few minutes.

–         Add tomatoes, red chillies, paprika, turmeric, curry powder and salt. Stir for 5 minutes.

–         Add the chicken and stir for 5-10 minutes. Add water and boil for 10-15 minutes, until chicken is almost cooked.

–         Add mushrooms, green peppers and pineapple and cook for a further 5 minutes.

–         Add garam masala and a pinch of fresh coriander to serve.

Blog Launch Night

 

Our group meets each week to share recipes and learn cooking skills from one another. We have now been running for two years so to celebrate we have decided to get technical and put our recipes online for everyone to try.

 On Wednesday 18^th April 7-8.30pm

Join us at Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre for our Blog Launch Night with Cooking Demonstrations, Recipe Ideas, Cooking Themed Tombola, Baking Stall and Best Apron Competition. All ages welcome.

We will be putting the recipes from the blog night online so you can try them out.

We would like to thank Sainsbury’s for their help to make this event possible and to Bramik Foods for donating the hampers.  

Chicken wrapped in Parma ham glazed with Maple Syrup

On 18th January 2012 Thomas and Chelsea made the group Carrot and Ginger Soup followed by Chicken wrapped in Parma Ham glazed with Maple Syrup served ona bed or rice.

The Soup was taken from the Covent Garden Soup Book and you can see the recipe and cooking guidelines below.

Carrot and Ginger Soup.

The Soup went down well but would have benefitted from having more Ginger through it. Our main course was Chicken wrapped in Parma Ham glazed with Maple Syrup served with Rice. To prepare this we simply took the Chicken and wrapped in Parma Ham, glazed it with Maple Syrup and placed it in the Oven for around 30-40 minutes. The Rice didn’t go according to plan and instead of being a Savory Rice it was more like a Rissoto Rice. But it still tasted fine. 

 

Weclome to our Blog

Welcome to our Blog, we will post each week with our recipe, photos,review of our food and anything else food related.