Beef Rendang

Beef Rendang, Malyasian Deliciousness!

This beautifully fragrant dish is made with a blended paste using lemon grass, galangal, mild chillies, ginger, kaffir lime leaves, and coconut milk to name but a few of the most wonderfully fragrant herbs and spices, the cubed beef is seared in a roasting hot frying pan until the pieces are well browned, after that, chunky chopped onions and squashed cloves of garlic are quickly fried in all that lovely meaty juiciness, the meat is added back to the pan and the spice paste and coconut milk are added. Some lovely potatoes are peeled and cut and then tossed into the pan, the whole lot is brought to the boil then transferred to an oven dish with a tight fitting lid and popped in a cool oven, Gas Mark 3 - about 130c (without fan) if using an electric oven, and it is left to slowly cook for 21/2 hours.

It is served here with plain white rice, a medley of green vegetables including sugar snap peas, shelled peas, sliced runner beans and calabrese and the whole plate is sprinkled with chopped coriander.

Absolutely delicious!

Christmas Cake

Merry Christmas everyone!

I make my buttery and rich Christmas Cake in November then I drip Amaretto over it weekly for 4 weeks, keeping it wrapped in cling film and foil and sealed in an airtight container. I marzipan the cake during the first week of December and Ice it during the second week. Here I have used ready to roll icing, I usually make Royal icing but with so much going on this year it was an easier option. I'll add another picture after the cake has been cut over the Christmas period to show you the cake inside together with the layers of marzipan and icing, mmm, I can't wait!

Deck the halls with boughs of holly, tra, la la la la, la la la la...

Chocolate Brazil Nut Brownie Cake

This cake is a bit special, two fudgy, nutty and chocolatey brownie layers, sandwiched and covered all over with a thick and creamy chocolate ganache, decorated with chocolate covered Brazil nuts and finished with a dusting of cocoa, need I say more?

Chocolicious!

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

A fabulously 'retro' cake, if you were at school in the '70's then you probably made one of these in Home Economics! To make the cake all sticky and moist, spread the lining paper for your tin with soft butter and sprinkle on a good layer of caster sugar, arrange the pineapple rings and glace cherries, I added a few drops of coconut extract once the fruit was arranged in the tin, it adds a lovely fragrant element to the cake.

I'll pop the recipe here soon...

Eccles Cakes

Usually when I offer Eccles Cakes to visitors they are met with a grimace, it's a shame that these gorgeous little gems from Lancashire have got such a bad reputation, no wonder really, mass manufacturing is to blame for producing lardy and tasteless lumps of nothingness.

Now these are a different experience indeed, I use flaky pastry and fill the cakes with a mixture made with melted butter, soft, light brown sugar, currants, freshly chopped preserved peel, cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg. The top of the cake is brushed with milk and sprinkled with caster sugar before being baked in a hot oven for 15 minutes.

Eccles Cakes are absolutely delicious served with some Lancashire cheese, believe me, it really does work!

I'll pop the recipe here very soon.

Raspberry Swiss Roll

What can be more lovelier than a nice cup of tea and a slice of home made Swiss roll?

This cake is so light and fluffy, it has no butter and no raising agent in it, the lightness is achieved by whisking eggs and caster sugar until really thick and pale, then the plain flour is sieved and very gently folded into the mixture, it is baked in a hot oven for 10 - 11 minutes.

Trev's Tasty Tip

Use home made Vanilla Sugar to enhance the flavour of the sponge, delicious!

Here's how to make it

Equipment

An Electric Mixer with Whisk Attachment

Mixing Bowl

A 12" x 8" x 1" Swiss Roll/Roulade Baking Pan (I use the Alan Silverwood anodised one)

Greaseproof paper to fit the baking pan

Greaseproof paper to turn out the sponge on to

Soft Plastic Spatula

A Small Palette Knife

Cooling Rack

The Recipe

3 Eggs

3oz Caster Sugar or Vanilla Sugar

3oz Plain Flour

2 Heaped Tablespoons Seedless Raspberry Jam

A handful of Frozen Raspberries

White Vegetable Fat for lubricating the greaseproof paper

A little caster sugar for sprinkling

The Method 

Preheat your oven to gas mark 7 (220C).

Cut 2 pieces of greaseproof paper to fit your baking pan, smear one of the pieces with some white vegetable fat, I use Trex or Cookeen, all over the paper on one side. Place the greaseproof paper with the greased side uppermost and gently tease it into shape to fit the tin. Lay out your other piece of greaseproof paper on a worktop or table and sprinkle with a nice layer of caster sugar.

Put the eggs and sugar into the mixing bowl and whisk at high speed until the mixture is very, very light and fluffy, you should be able to leave a trail on the surface of the mixture when you lift out the beaters, when they are turned off, which stays there for a while.

Sieve the flour over the mixture and use your spatula to gently fold it through, pour the mixture into the prepared baking pan scraping the bowl out gently. Tip the baking pan back and forth, corner to corner to move the cake batter so that it fills the tin evenly, do not spread the batter with a utensil, you'll press all the air out of it.

Put the tin on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 11 minutes.

Take the sponge out of the oven and turn it out onto the greaseproof paper that has been sprinkled with caster sugar. Quickly spread the raspberry jam over the surface of the sponge with your palette knife, break up the frozen raspberries and sprinkle them over the top of the jam. Quickly roll the sponge up lengthways, take one end of the paper and lift so the sponge starts to roll into itself, gently guide the sponge until it is all rolled up. Use the paper to roll around the newly formed Swiss roll and scrunch up the ends to keep it in shape. Place this little parcel of loveliness onto a cooling rack, leave to cool.

Once completely cooled, remove the sponge from the paper and sprinkle on a little more caster sugar. Store in an airtight container in the fridge if you are not going to eat it straight away, like that's going to happen!

 

Serve a good thick slice with some really good vanilla ice cream for a really lovely dessert.

Lemon and Lime Butterfly Cakes

These little beauties are made with a sponge that has very finely grated lime zest added at the creaming of the butter and sugar stage, the sugar, being slightly abrasive, helps to break the zest down and extract more of the fragrant oils that live in the skins of citrus fruits. They have had the tops cut out and the wells left behind were spread with really good lemon curd, I piped in some lime and vanilla buttercream icing, made with freshly squeezed lime juice and vanilla extract, topped them with butterfly wings made by cutting the earlier decapitation into two pieces and finished with wafer daisies and a dusting of icing sugar.

Very pretty and very delicious too!