Wednesday round-up of deliciousness

Evening. I am at this moment rather happily stuffed full of yummy curry. The Wednesday round-up continues to inspire me, so tonight for dinner we had Heavenly Housewife's Hubby's favourite chicken curry, served with some saag paneer and rice. Very delicious indeed and definitely going to be made again. Next time hopefully I'll get around to making the homemade naan bread too. Just the ticket for a rainy July day - don't you just love that British weather!?
In the meantime, there is yet another week of abundant goodness in blogsville. One of the great things for me about reading food blogs is the ready access you have to huge variety of cultures and cuisines. So for example within seven days I can lust after a Spanish Sweet and sour pepper sauce, Colombian Arequipe and guava quesadillas, Portuguese Chicken goujons, two Syrian dips (Baba ghanoush and Mutabal) and an American 'slaw', not to mention a Prawn laksa from London.
But I must admit the thing that got me really excited this week was a recipe for Chelsea buns, a British classic! One of the very happiest moments in my childhood was one day when my grandfather bought me and my sister two huge chelsea buns - each! I was delighted as they were my favourite cakes. But you just don't seem to see them around so much any more, so I've been looking for a good recipe for some time. And these ones look nice and squishy, which is very important!
In other sweet news this week, Mr Splorer has just caught sight of the picture of these Chocolate thumbprints, said 'What's that?' in an awed tone and promised to make them tomorrow. We'll see about that but they do look very cute and scrumptious. In fact, Patricia gets two entries today, because I'm also quite taken with this Citrus delicious pudding - it looks so comforting and yummy. But she's not the only one to be producing spectacular sweets. The Caked Crusader has some Light ginger cupcakes with cinnamon buttercream that I'm dying to scoop up with a cup of tea. But for my more sophisticated dinner party moments, I shall be serving Individual raspberry cheesecakes, or perhaps a rather beautiful Syrian cheesecake. And there's a few desserts that I'll be snaffling all to myself, namely this Peach and blueberry crumble, this Sour cherry slab pie and this Dessert of the gods. Well, I suppose Mr Splorer might get a couple of bites, if he's really good!

Sopa Azteca (Aztec Soup)

I'm not sure I'd like to present this soup to an Aztec and see if they recognise it, but presenting it to Mr Splorer was a pleasure only surpassed by presenting to my mouth. It's inspired by a soup I had in Mexico and which Mr Splorer has made for me once or twice. I surfed the net to look for recipes and discovered that it's Barack Obama's favourite starter at his favourite Mexican restaurant. And he's quite a clever chap who obviously knows his food, as this is really delicious. It's basically a tomato soup poured over some delicious Mexican style ingredients and this is my version.
Somehow I managed to forget to add the cheese, so I haven't included it in the recipe below. It wasn't until I'd finished that I realised so it wasn't the end of the world. But just to let you know, I had intended to grate some cheddar on top of the soup, and I think that would be a marvellous addition!
And to add to the list of my misdemeanours, I believe it should be made with corn tortillas, but I had flour ones and in these days of thrift and credit crunching, I'm using what I've got! Anyway, flour tortillas were pretty tasty, and perfect for munching on while you're cooking.

Serves 2

1 dried chilli
800g tomatoes
1 onion, peeled and cut into quarters
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 chicken breasts
1 lime
half an avocado
2 cups of chicken stock
2 corn or flour tortillas
vegetable oil
2 dollops of sour cream

Blacken the chilli very briefly over a gas flame. Roast the tomatoes, garlic and onions in the oven at Gas 6 for half an hour. Take the skin off the tomatoes and blend with the garlic, onions and chilli in a food processor. Put in a saucepan, add the chicken stock and simmer for about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, pour the juice of half of the lime over the chicken and grill it. When it's cooked, tear it into strips.
Cut the tortillas into short strips and fry them very quickly in hot vegetable oil. Drain on kitchen paper, and nibble a few to keep you going as you gather the rest of the ingredients together.
To serve, put the chicken strips, avocado slices and tortilla chips on the bottom of the bowl, pour over the tomato soup and top with a dollop of sour cream and lime quarters.

Crunch

Does anyone else call this crunch?! This is the breakfast cereal that my parents used to make when I was a kid, but I don't think I've ever seen the word crunch used for it outside my house. My parents have a history of sending us out into the world with a slightly strange vocabulary. Most famous was the word 'dobey', which little sis and I believed to be a perfectly normal word for a laundry basket. Until we went to university and were confronted by blank stares and total incomprehension. It is still called a dobey in my house, though!
Anyway, this is, as far as I can tell a version of granola. Or Jordan's Crunchy, whichever rings your bells. A mix of roasted oats, seeds and nuts with some oil and honey to bind it together. And the smell of it filled the kitchen full of childhood smells - isn't it amazing how smells can take you back?
It is also the solution to my eternal issue of what to have for breakfast. As someone who will invariably sacrifice breakfast for an extra five minutes of snoozing, I need a breakfast that is quick. And so tomorrow I shall be happily tucking into a bowl of crunch and yogurt, which will surely fill me up until lunch.
According my Mum, this recipe was originally from the Rayburn cookbook, although I'm not sure how much it's changed since then.

250g rolled oats
25g sunflower seeds
25g sesame seeds
25g coconut
25g wheatgerm (I missed this out, but it didn't seem to matter)
50g chopped nuts (I used almonds and walnuts)
50ml sunflower oil
2 tbsp honey
50g raisins or sultanas

Mix all the dry ingredients except the raisins/sultanas. Blend the oil and honey. Mix with the dry ingredients. Roast until brown - it took mine about half an hour at Gas Mark 5. Mix in the raisins.

Serving suggestion - mix it with thick delicious Greek yogurt. For full recreation of my childhood it should be Total yogurt!

Wednesday round-up of deliciousness

Goodness me, I haven't written anything since the last Wednesday round up! I spent a long weekend in London, so wasn't doing my own cooking. And at home I have been mostly eating old favourites - last night was bigoli with salsa (our lazy favourite) courtesy of Mr Splorer and tonight was vegetable pancakes. But I can feel the urge to cook new and exciting dishes coming on. And where better to look for inspiration than this week's food blogs?
The theme this week seems to be blueberry cakey things with crumbly tops - see this Blueberry crumb cake and these Blueberry streusel muffins. How the devil I am going to choose which to make first I do not know. And actually, there were quite a few other fruit based cakey numbers. Nice to see that everyone's making the most of the summer fruit. About time I did too!
This Blackberry bundt, for starters, is another reason to buy a bundt tin. And now I want the one that Gemma's got that makes a pretty pattern on the top. Meanwhile, Anne's been making Choc chip and banana muffins, which I think sound just delicious. And Smitten Kitchen is once again tempting me, this time with Peach and crème fraîche pie.
A couple of more unusual sweet things caught my eye. These Zucchini spice cupcakes look delicious. I saw a courgette cake in a Nigella book, but have never got round to making one. And as Laura describes these as 'some of the best cupcakes I've ever had', I think this might be the recipe with which to start my courgette baking career. Especially as just today I was reading about healthy vegetable based cakes.
The other unusual sweet thing is these Apricot dumplings. I love apricots and I love dumplings, but never before have I had them together. But now I am intrigued and definitely want to give them a go.
And if that's not enough fruit, there's this Home Made Blackcurrant Cordial - a swanky version of Ribena!
There were also a lot of very delicious looking savoury items this week. This Columbian Rice with shrimp looks just fab. Plus, I'm keen to find out in what way Columbian arroz con camarones is dfifferent from the version I used to eat in Costa Rica. And while we in Latin America, these Chicken enchiladas and these Roasted corn, black bean and chicken quesadillas both look incredibly tasty.
There were also a couple of Indian dishes I want to try. Hubby's favourite chicken curry sounds yummy, and just the thing to serve it with is this homemade naan bread. Mr Splorer has already been wholeheartedly converted to naan bread, so I think I could make myself very popular with that one!
And finally, in keeping with the rather wintery rainy weather we've been having round these parts lately, there were a couple of stupendous looking soups. Butternut squash and sweet potato soup with chorizo and Lentil and spinach with harissa croutons both sound right up my street.

PS If anyone ever spots a fine recipe (or blog) that I've missed, do feel free to let me know! As this list is totally based on what appears on my Google Reader, there are bound to be fine dishes I haven't spotted.

Wednesday round-up of deliciousness

Once again, I can proudly show you that I've made something from this week's delicious blog offering. The minute I saw this recipe for Iced bakewell traybake on The Caked Crusader, I know it was the bakewell recipe for me. There have been quite a few of them about, but there was something about this take on it that really caught my eye. There were a few sticky moments where I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but I have learnt through my years of baking that one should always persevere. And it turned out really well. Mr Splorer, when asked for comment, announced "I want more." That's all you need to hear, really, isn't it?
But this is not, of course, the only delicious cakey recipe around the blogging world this week. I am dying to try the best birthday cake from Smitten Kitchen. It's quite a claim, and needs testing, I feel. This week I also spotted these cheesecake brownies - what a combination! And then there is this beautiful Fresh peach pie. And the healthier, but no less spectacular, option is this Blueberry frozen yogurt.
And actually this week, the savoury options outnumber the sweet ones. It must be the effect of the hot weather on my metabolism. Although I've just scoffed a whole load of bakewell traybake, so maybe it's actually the effect of the hot weather on other people's metabolisms. Anyway, there were a couple of very fine looking pizzas - this easy flatbread version and this rather gorgeous lemony zucchini goats cheese number. And if I have courgettes left over from that, they're definitely going into a courgette frittata.
Other highlights to go on my savoury to-do list are this Greek herb pilaf with feta and prawns, these cute pea and slow cooked tarts, these Colombian empanadas and, last but not least, this Spinach, coconut and lentil dhal with Turkish flatbread. What a list of deliciousness, I'm sure you'll agree.
And to finish, I really want to try this Cherry vodka. I've always been so tempted by those pop-a-bit-of-fruit-in-an-alcohol recipes. They look so easy and so worth it, but I've never got round to it. But I think I really really should this time.

My first award!

I have received my very first blog award from the very delightful and talented Ruth of I love flavour, me! I am totally honoured as she is a fantastic writer and cook - and a regular in my Wednesday round-ups of deliciousness. If you haven't visited her site, get over there right now. You won't regret it, believe me.
She actually posted the award a little while ago, but I've been putting off trying to think of 7 interesting things about myself. But this evening Mr Splorer is cooking dinner, so I can sit down and think about it properly. I'm sipping a glass of wine, so hopefully that will help me think!

OK, so here are the rules for the Kreativ Blogger award:
1 Thank the person who has given you the award (Thank you, Ruth!)
2 Copy the logo and place it on your blog
3 Link to the person who has nominated you for the award (In case you missed it, she's here)
4 Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting
5 Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers
6 Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate
7 Leave a comment on each of the blogs to let them know they've been nominated

Right, seven facts:

1 Like Ruth, I used to be an English teacher. Until a year ago I taught English as a foreign language in Spain, the UK and Costa Rica. I met lots of lovely people, many of whom were just as obsessed with food as me. (And some really weird people too, but the less said about them the better.)
2 It was while teaching in Costa Rica that I met Mr Splorer. He was my student! This led to one month of extremely awkward classes before I could get rid of that class. But it was, of course, worth it in the end!
3 I am semi-married. Or paper married. Or perhaps in between weddings. There's not really a proper term for it! Mr Splorer and I got married in February in a register office in Cambridge, but I named that the 'paper wedding', as it was the one that got him the spouse visa. However, we want to have a 'celebration wedding' which is the one for us. We're not really sure when that's going to be, but expect it to start making an appearance in the blog at some point!
4 I speak fluent Spanish - and as a good modest Brit, it has taken a long long time for me to be able to use the f-word. Even now, I feel a bit like I'm blowing my own trumpet and rather want to slap myself on the wrist for being so presumptious.
5 I never used to cook much when I was growing up. My parents are amazing cooks and so nothing I could produce would ever be anywhere near as good. When I was 18 and spending my year abroad in Italy, Mum showed me how to make a basic tomato sauce. And I've been cooking ever since. I still don't normally cook when my parents are around, though!
6 I have quite a ridiculously long list of foody dislikes for a person of my age. Top of the list are tomatoes and pineapple. Everyone seems to take most offence at the tomato thing, but as a former sandwich shop operative, I can assure you that it's much more common than everyone thinks.
7 I'm working on the list of foody dislikes. I read once that if you eat a food 8 times, you'll like it. I'm not sure it's always 8, but I am making slow but significant progress. Relatively recent conversions include artichokes and anchovies, both of which I love now.

And now for my 7 nominations - just as hard as finding 7 interesting things but for totally opposite reasons. It was a challenge to choose just 7, as I read so many great blogs. I could have spent hours thinking it over, but I decided to go with the first ones that came to mind, more or less. So here they are:

1 Tea and Whimsy - this has to be number one as one of my best friends in all the world has created a simply gorgeous and totally inspiring wedding blog. It is already a fountain of inspiration for our 'celebration wedding', even though I'm not really supposed to be planning that yet!
2 A Brit's Dish a Day - Alex always has really delicious looking recipes that look totally do-able - and of course each one gets marks out of 10 from Mr F, so you know just how good it was.
3 Apple & Spice - I'm still dreaming about Katie's apple and cinnamon hot cross bun recipe - so so good. But that is just one of many many recipes that she has tempted me with. She may even be the person to get me to buy my very first bundt tin.
4 Let Her Bake Cake - Hilary does a very fine line in gorgeous snaps and food that cries out to be snaffled immediately. In fact, I've just flicked through her last couple of months' posts and there isn't a single thing that I don't wish I was eating right now.
5 What Rachel ate today - origin of one my very first blog based meals and a blog that has been always inspiring and just beautiful. I love Rachel's cooking, always full of flavour without being overcomplicated, and I love her photos.
6 Half a pot of cream - Chocolate pistachio fudge, Rhubarb meringue pie. Blue cheese and spinach tart... I could go on, but I'm already drooling! A really fab blog that has helped me to diagnose my own chocolate telepathy.
7 The Caked Crusader - Last but by no means least. A never-ending parade of the most scrumptious-looking cakes known to humankind. The blog archive reads to me like a to-do list!

So, there we go. The award has been accepted and passed on. And I feel like a fully fledged member of the blogging community! :D

Wednesday round-up of deliciousness

Well, let's start with what I had for my dinner! It's not from this week, but it is a blog recipe that I've had my eye on for a while. So when common-law-sis-in-law's garden produced this fine little beauties ....
... I made straight for What Rachel ate today and this courgette pasta recipe.

It was totally yummy. I made a few additions based on what was in the fridge, so I can confirm that bacon is a great addition and a splash of white wine never hurt anyone! And Rachel has another pasta recipe I've got my eye on - Cauliflower pasta, with stir fried cauliflower to make it all brown and nutty. And while we're on pasta, check out this Baked spinach and Chicken Bechamel pasta at I love flavour, me! Those crunchy bits on top look so good!
And while you're over chez Ruth, can I suggest that you check out this recipe for Lime and Mint Tune Skewers with Parsley and Garlic buttered potatoes. Check out what she does to those potatoes - sheer genius. There were also some other rather tasty looking kebabs here - cherry kebabs look most intriguing.
Other delights that have caught my eye this week include this fantastic looking Artichoke cheese pie with filo pastry and this Lettuce, lentil, bacon and walnut salad, not to mention this amazing dish of Scallops with Bacon, Nectarines and Dill. And it surely won't be long before I have my first Traditional Columbian breakfast. It looks just the thing to set me up for the day!
If there was a theme this week it was definitely jam. After my pilgrimage this week to a lovely local PYO farm, I am most tempted to tootle straight back there for the ingredients for this River Cottage jam and this strawberry and redcurrant jam.
There were also, as ever, a lot of delicious cakey things. Better-than-brownie-cookies, for example, sound spectacular. And this Sky-high strawberry shortcake is just beautiful. Hard to believe that those both came from the same kitchen in the last week. Although other kitchens were also producing wonderous goodies. I am determined to make an Apricot flognade, a Blueberry boy bait and a Rhubarb ripple bundt cake as soon as I physically can. In fact, I'm weighing up whether it's worth purchasing a bundt tin for the last one.
And by the time I've made all this, I'm going to be thirsty, so I'll have to make some lemonade from this lemonade syrup. It looks so delicious and refreshing.

Cambridge Mess

This is, of course, my version of Eton Mess, that most simple and delicious of desserts. Just in case you're not familiar with it, it's a combination of meringue, cream and strawberries, all mixed upp together in a big ... well... mess. With meringue left over from the 1980s dinner party and a fridge full of summer fruit left over from the Summer Pudding, a version with raspberries, blackberries and redcurrants seemed like the obvious option. I'm not sure whether changing the fruit stops it being an Eton Mess, but a Cambridge Mess sounds just as good to me - and is more apt when the fruit is from a Cambridgeshire farm!

serves 2 generously

150g raspberries
150g blackberries
50g redcurrants
2 tbsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
some meringue - I used half a meringue from the Raspberry Pavlova recipe
150g whipping cream

Mix the fruit, sugar and vanilla extract (although if you are a proper foodie you will have vanilla sugar, so use that!) in a bowl, and mash it up a bit with a fork. Break up the meringue into small pieces. Whip the cream. Layer in a bowl. And that's it. All you have to do now is scoff it down and give thanks that it's finally summer!

Mr Splorer's Summer Pudding #1

Yesterday Mr Splorer and I cycled along to a PYO (pick your own) fruit farm and scooped up some delicious summer fruit - hurrah! Mr Splorer seemed quite taken with the whole idea, even feeling like fruit picking might be a good career move (better than coffee picking due to lack of snakes apparently!). I'm a bit dubious about that one, but I must say that I'd be quite delighted if he brought me back raspberries, blackberries and redcurrants on a regular basis. And made me a summer pudding every time!
Unfortunately, this wasn't the most successful summer pudding ever. As you can see from the photos below, we didn't get the full juicy purple saturation that one aims for. And, I suppose because of that, there was a distinct hint of bread and jam. Now, there's nothing wrong with bread and jam (and, let's face it, that is pretty much what it's made of!), but Mr Splorer is determined that he can do better. The BBC apparently has some helpful hints. So, hopefully there'll be at least one more attempt before the season is up. Not that we haven't scoffed a very large amount of this summer pudding!


Any tips/foolproof recipes are, of course, very welcome!

1980s dinner party

The idea for this exciting event came from a present given to Mr Splorer and myself by my Great Aunt. I don't know how your elderly relatives work, but my Great Aunt is famous throughout the family for having a 'present drawer', which she fills up throughout the year and raids whenever birthdays and Christmas pop up. One particularly memorable present was a letter opener, which was only pressed into use once - to cut up brie in a youth hostel near Frankfurt. So not totally useless!
But that's not to say she doesn't come up with some gems - such as this little fella:

It was published in 1984, and full of helpful tips about how to fold your napkins and when to send out your invitation cards. So I thought it was a great opportunity to do a bit of period cooking. (And of course a bit of dressing up - but no photos of that I'm afraid!)
The menu was as follows:

Avocado with Parma Ham

Chicken Supremes in Wine and Cream

Raspberry Pavlova

And I must say, it was all surprisingly tasty. I hadn't really expected that, somehow! It was all a bit of an experiment really. So I did try and stick to the recipes as closely as possible, for that authentic 80s taste. Although when the book suggested mixing the ham with vegetable oil I felt that was a step too far in the quest for authenticity. But, as I say, it all turned out really well. Even the avocado, which I always imagined was served like that because it was a new and exciting ingredient with which to impress. But it was actually a really delicious little starter.
So, here are the recipes, adapted from Good Housekeeping's Cooking for Special Occasions. They all serve 6 people.

Avocado with Parma Ham

50g Parma ham
6 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
salt and pepper
3 spring onions, finely chopped
3 avocados
1 warm French baguette, to serve

Using scissors, cut the ham into shreds. Whisk the oil, lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper together. Stir in the spring onions and ham.
Cut the avocados in half and cut the a thin slice of the base of each one so that it stands level on a plate. Put each half on a plate and spoon the ham mixture into the avocados. Serve at once with the bread.

Chicken Supremes in Wine and Cream

3 tbsp white wine vinegar
25g unsalted butter (half the original quantity!)
6 chicken supremes (breasts the wing bone attached) or chicken breasts
1 small onion, roughly chopped
3 tomatoes, skinned and roughly chopped
1 large garlic clove, chopped
150ml dry white wine
300ml chicken stock
salt and pepper
150ml double cream
chopped fresh parsley, to garnish

Place the vinegar in a small saucepan and boil to reduce by half. Heat the butter in a large frying pan. Add the chicken pieces and brown well on both sides. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon.
Add the onions, tomatoes and garlic to the pan, cover and cook gently for about 5 minutes. Add the wine and cook, uncovered, over a high heaat for 5-10 minutes, until the wine reduces by half. Add the vinegar, stock and seasoning and bring to the boil.
Return the chicken to the pan, covering it with the sauce. Simmer gently, covered, for about 25 minutes or until the chicken is quite tender. Lift the chicken out of the pan with a slotted spoon and keep warm.
Boil the sauce until it is reduced by half, then stir in the cream. Continue reducing the sauce until a thin pouring consistency is obtained. Adjust the seasoning, and spoon over the chicken for serving. Garnish with the chopped parsley.

(I served this with some tagliatelle, because that was what it was on in the picture in the book.)

Raspberry Pavlova

3 egg whites
175g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 white wine vinegar
1 tsp cornflour
300ml double cream
350g raspberries (and a few blackberries if you happen to have some hanging around!)

Cut out an 18cm circle on a sheet of greaseproof paper and place it on a baking sheet. Whisk the egg whites until very stiff. Whisk in half the sugar then cafeully fold in the remaining sugar, vanilla extract, vinegar and cornflour with a metal spoon. Spread the meringue mixture over the circle and bake the oven at 150C/300F/Gas Mark 2 for about 1 hour until crisp and dry. Leave to cool on the baking sheet for 2 hours, then carefully peel off the paper. (Mine got a bit stuck, so I served it on the paper. No one seemed to mind!)
Whisk the cream until stiff. Slide the meringue onto a flat plate, pile the cream on it and arrange the raspberries on top.

And there is only one part of last night that I wouldn't recommend trying and that was the cocktails. I put a guest in charge of cocktails and he decided to make Snowballs - a garish yellow concoction made from Advocaat, lime cordial and lemonade. I've never had Advocaat before, and never intend to again! To be fair, some people did seem to enjoy the Snowballs, but I was rather put of by the just-swallowed-raw-egg aftertaste. Maybe some things are better left in the 80s!

Wednesday round-up of deliciousness

Last week I didn't do a round up because I was having an outdoors picnic and watching a spot of Shakespeare. Rather lovely way to spend an evening. Now, this week I don't want to let you down, but I'm exhausted, making this Gooseberry polenta slice (with blackberries) and writing shopping lists for Mr Splorer in preparation for a 1980s dinner I'm putting on tomorrow. Plus, this heat is just tiring me out! So, would it be OK, just this once, to just give you a list of lovely links? In fact, maybe you'd prefer it without me rambling on! Anyhoo, here's some things that have caught my eye over the last 14 days or so:
Crab Linguine at eat like a girl
Chorizo bread at I love flavour, me!
Russian leek and cheese bread at The Knead for Bread
Roasted tomato and goats cheese tarte tatin at Dinner with Julie
Courgette pasta at What Rachel ate today
Tagine de cordero (Lamb tagine) at El invitado de invierno
Egg Fettucine with Ricotta, Peas and Smoked Pancetta at Essex Eating
Meatballs in an apricot sauce at Kali Orexi
Fresh garlic, chorizo and pork burgers by eat like a girl
Buttermilk scones with Strawberries & Cream by Apple & Spice
Strawberry-Rhubarb Cobbler Cake at Dinner with Julie
Roasted peppers and potatoes at Kali Orexi
Chicken rice mint and lemon soup at I love flavour, me!
Ham hock and lentil salad by A Brit's Dish a Day
Shami Lamb Kebabs with Mint and Yoghurt Sauce at From Donuts to Delirium
Apple Tart at Broxholm Road
Serrano ham, goats cheese and honey crostini at Cook sister!
Chocolate orange loaf cake at Half a pot of cream
Wow - that should keep you going for a little while! In the meantime, I'm going off for a cold shower.