The Cooking Corner - Potato, cheese and courgette pizza

When I was growing up, we always had a Sunday Roast on a Sunday evening, no matter where we had been or what we were doing, my mom always managed to pull of a roast. I'm not sure how, it take me all day to deal with a roast dinner!

Here we have sort of fallen into the tradition on pizza on a Sunday evening, it's quick and easy and doesn't matter if we are out all day. I like to try new recipes, so here is out latest, adapted from a Jamie recipe.

Potato, Cheese and Courgette Pizza

Recipe: (makes 3 personal sized pizza)

For the dough, I admit, I am lazy and throw it all in the bread maker, set it to pizza dough and leave it to it. If you are doing it by hand, mix the dry ingredients together (except yeast) first then add the wet and mix together until all combined. Let rest somewhere warm, then knock back, separate into 3 chunks and roll out, place on lined baking trays.

• 100g strong white flour
• 100g wholewheat bread flour
• 50g semolina flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 7g dry yeast
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 165ml warm water (add yeast to this if you are hand mixing)

For the topping. 

• 125 g boiled new potatoes
• 1tsp olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 medium onion thinly sliced
• shake of dried basil
• 100g thinly sliced cheese
• 200g courgette, slice with a veg peeler

Heat the oven to 250deg C

Heat a frying pan with the olive oil in it. Then add the garlic and onions, cook through until golden. Add the potatoes and mash into the onion and garlic. Season and add the basil. Turn off the heat.

Spoon the potato mix over the bases then add a layer of sliced cheese and finally the courgette on the top. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, then pop in the oven.

The original recipe said 7 - 10 minutes but ours need 15 mins, so keep and eye on them!

Really tasty and a good way to use up left over spuds! Also a great recipe for anyone who doesn't like tomatoes.

If you have a great pizza recipe let me know in the comments, always on the look out for new things to try!

The Cooking Corner - Overnight Oats - choco banana

Ebi-kun eats like a horse in the mornings, he puts away far more than both daddy and myself, I'm not sure where he puts it because there isn't much of him!

In the winter we alternate between porridge and eggs in the mornings but now the summer is here, no one wants porridge, and eggs every morning gets a bit boring!

A lot of my health nut friends have been posting about overnight oats and I must admit, the thought of cold porridge makes me want to vom... but... I though it was worth a try!

The first batch I made was tropical fruit and went down well, so we tried choco banana today, also good except when I was making the breakfasts up last night I had left the choco chips on the shelf above the oven so they had melted! That meant is was less of a choco chip, more of a choco chunk!

The great thing about overnight oats is that it doesn't take long to put together and in the morning you just take it out of the fridge and eat - minimum washing up too!

I used the jugs that came with the nutribullet but any big glass or jar would do.

RECIPE: (makes 1 serving)

• 1/3 cup yoghurt
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 medium banana chopped
• 2/3 cup milk
• few dashes of vanilla
• 1 tbsp honey or maple syrup
• 2 tbsp choco chips (or a sold blob!)
• 1 tbsp chia seeds (for those in Japan I got them at Kaldi)

You can easily sub in things like almond milk or gluten free oats to suit your needs.

Put in a cup/jar. Put on a lid and shake well until mixed - if you don't have something with a lid you could mix it in a bowl and mix well instead.

Put on the lid and pop in the fridge.

By the morning it has all combined into a thick mixture. I'm not overly excited at the texture, as I'm not really a fan of gooey foods but it goes down ok and it really fills you up! Because it's oats, it keeps you feeling full for longer too, which means I don't get those mid morning munchie feelings!

I will share other versions as we try them!

And if this is something you eat at home, share your favourite combos!

Death Of The Juicer... and our favourite recipes for smoothies

We have had to say a sad goodbye to our juicer. It has served us well being used almost every day for 18 months but as time went on it was becoming more and more inefficient and costing us more to produce 3 glasses of juice.

I asked around and the Nutribullet came well recommended. It has taken a bit of time to get use to using it, give short blasts ad getting the water amounts right but I'm getting the hag of it now. It's also been a bit weird going back to smoothies after having juices for such a long time.

I do feel like we waste less with the smoothies, when you make juice you are left with all the fibre and there isn't a great deal you can do with it. I did try a few recipes but non of them went down well. At least with a smoothie you use all of it.

The one thing I ABSOLUTELY love with the Nutribullet is the clean up, seconds i tell you, it is so easy. No scrubbing 17 different parts, its just the piece with the blade on and the cup -SO easy.

Above we have:
1 orange
1 mango
1 carrot

other favorites are:

Green smoothie
Big handful of spinach
2 Kiwi
Banana

Pink smoothie
1/2 fresh beet
banana
mixed frozen berries

They are pretty safe options but I also throw in whatever happens to be in the fridge/fruit bowl. Broccoli stalk is good, avocado makes it creamy, go easy on the fresh ginger and give celery a miss!

If you have any favourite recipes, please share!

Delicious Granola Bars...

I wanted to make some granola bars to take skiing with us, we have to catch a really early train so it's best to take something with us. I asked about and a friend from the Japan Cooking Group sent me her favourite recipe, you can find it on her blog Recipes For Denny.

The recipe calls for 2.5 cups of nuts, I used a combo of chopped almonds, sunflower seeds, mixed seeds and puffed rice (yes, the dregs of the kitchen cupboard!) plus 100g choco chips and they are YUM!

For those in Japan, I found coconut oil at Yamaya, they have a 200g jar for about ¥700 and a 500g bottle for ¥900.

 To take them with us, I wrapped in greaseproof paper  and taped them up with masking tape BUT the MT tape doesn't stick too well! lesson, learned.

Hot Buttered Spiced Rum

Oh My! 

I HAVE to share this yummy recipe with you, it's soooo much better than eggnog!

What you need:

200g butter

200g brown sugar

2 tbsp cream

1tsp cinnamon

1tsp allspice

A healthy slug of spiced dark rum

Blend together the butter, sugar, cream and spices.

Boil the kettle and then half fill your mug.

Add the rum (however much you can handle!)

Stir in a large spoonful of the butter mix until it has all melted.

Snuggle up on the sofa with a fully blanket and a good book.

Delicious Brains...

I made some lovely delicious brain for the party, and wanted to share how to do it!
This is what the finished brain looked like...nom, nom, tasty stuff!

What you need:

• Pack of Kanten - I don't know what this is in English, you often get it in fruit salads, it's got a jelly/jello type of texture and sweet (see picture below)
• Strawberry jam
• red and black food colour
• milk 50ml
• sugar (optional)
• brain mold available from amazon.com and amazon.co.jp
• small saucepan
• whisk

In a small saucepan, whisk together one sachet of kanten and 450ml water - I used less water than recommended because I wanted to set firmly. Continue heating and whisking for 2 minutes.

Add in the milk then the red food colour until it's a nice pale pink then a tiny bit of black to give it a nice grey hue. Stir in a dessert spoon of strawberry jam. Stir well until the jam has melted. You might want to add sugar or other flavouring now, mine wasn't very sweet. 

Pour into the mold then pop into the fridge for a couple of hours until it has set.

Once it looks like it has set well, turn the mold over and squeeze out - makes a suitably revolting sound when you do it!

Serve as is, or if you want to use in a bento, quarter the brain and serve with a side of fresh flesh ahem, strawberry jam! This is how I served the brains in the bento boxes at the party (see here)

Using 1 sachet will make you 8 brains, so let the first lot set then when you are ready to make the second set you can just heat up the mixture again, it will melt then pour it into the mold as before.

If you enjoyed this post please pin it and share it! Cheers.

Pink, Pink Pancakes…

A juicing update! Ebi-kun is totally hooked on these fresh juices, he can't get enough of them - no complaints here about that! I can't remember what was in this one but it was more veg based. He looks very grown up to me in this pic, my little baby, where did he go?

So, I tried using the fibre that is left over from the juice to make pancakes. The first lot didn't go over very well, it had quite a lot of veg in it but the suit based ones were popular, these were made with beets, looked great but the boys weren't fussed on them (didn't stop them from scoffing the whole lot, so they couldn't have been that bad!)

I used..

1 egg

1 cup plain flour

1 cup milk

Fruit fibre

baking powder

Make the batter as usual then add the fibre, put tablespoon dollops on a hot gribble or pan and you are done!

How To Make Your Own Granola

Like I said the other day, I'm trying to fill up Ebi-kun with healthy food for breakfast. In the winter we usually eat porridge but no-one fancies it now it is getting warmer. We don't have much of a range of cereals available either and most of them are covered in sugar (something we are trying to cut down on). 

Someone in the Japan cooking group posted about making her own granola so I thought I'd give it a go too. In a bowl I mixed together some rolled barley, oats, shredded coconut, sesame seeds & puffed rice. Heated up 3 tbsp of honey and 3 tbsp of coconut oil together then stirred it through the mix. Spread it out on a baking sheet and baked at 160deg C for 45 minutes. Giving it a stir every 15 minutes or so. Once it was cool, I stirred in some dried fruit. Easy!

We have been eating it with milk or yoghurt and fresh fruit, it is rather chewy but it got the thumbs up from everyone! We have been alternating some kind of eggs dish with granola but I could do with some more ideas. It has to be quick and easy, no baking, maximum of 10 minutes cooking time if it needs cooking and healthy. Ebi-kun doesn't eat much at night so it's important I fill him up with all the good stuff first thing!

A Juice A Day In May

Ebi-kun is always really hungry at breakfast but not so much at dinner, so I am always trying to fill him up with good stuff first thing. This month we thought we would try something new, so we are all having a smoothie/juice with our breakfast.

These are fresh made, not out of a carton, it is all a bit of an experiment and some are better than others but so far it is working well.

Blueberry, banana, mizuna, spinach and strawberry…

Carrot, mango and orange…

Spinach, banana, cucumber and kiwi…

Blueberry, black cherry, banana and cucumber…

Nom, Nom!

Do you juice or make smoothies? They are a great way to sneak more veggies in and no, you can't taste the spinach! Sometime the textures is a little lumpy because I don't have a juicer, just a blender but mostly it is OK.

If you do, what is your favourite blend?

It's Food Revolution Day!

Friday was Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Day (#FRD2014). The idea behind FRD is to get kids in the kitchen and learning where the food comes from, what goes in a meal and learning some cooking skills. Ebi-kun is already pretty handy in the kitchen so he was up for it. He spent a good few hours scouring the cook books and coming up with recipes for his meal. 

This was stage one, we had to scupper some recipes because either the main ingredients are not locally available or it was something that isn't in season at the moment. Finally he came up with….

Fresh pasta (homemade) with Genovese sauce

Parma ham salad with orange vinegarette

Sweet satay dip with fresh fruit kebabs

It just happened that Mr Ebi and myself had been for our annual health check that day, so daddy was home and was assigned the job of sous chef. So once homework was out of the way, it was all hands on deck in the kitchen.

Picking the basil for the pasta sauce…

Sharpening his knife, he does this every time before using it, a sharp knife is safer than a blunt one…

Daddy got to do things like washing the veg and the washing up! Lucky him. Preparing the salad…

And the dressing…

The sweet satay dip was lovely but made way too much so we have had it on bread and pancakes too!

He prepared the pasta dough in the bread maker, ruling it is hard work so sous chef got that job and Ebi-kun then cut it. Fresh pasta is so much nicer than pre-made, we should get in the habit of making it more often, it is just a matter of being organized enough to let it chill for an hour.

Pasta with gevenose pesto - absolutely delicious.

Thumbs up from the chef! We are lucky that our kitchen is big enough to have more than one person work in there without it being dangerous, a lot of Japanese kitchens are small and not very kid friendly. It is also important for me to be raise a son that can leave home and feed himself properly, not survive on cup noodles and combine bentos and Ebi-kun loves food, trying new things and cooking so it was a perfect end to the day!

And not forgetting dessert…

A big thank you to Jamie, his goal was to get 1 million kids in the kitchen, not sure if he hit that but they had FRD going on in 119 countries, which is pretty impressive.

Did you join in? What did your little chef make?

Mary Rose Cake Tutorial

Last Saturday was a national holiday, so our American friend hosted a Thanksgiving party. I offered to do the cakes. For the adults I made the very indulgent Bailey's Salted Chocolate Pie of course we didn't want the kids digging into that, so for them, I made the Mary Rose.

We had a round sponge cake that my husband had bought home from work (his company makes cake mixing machines and he often comes home with cake on testing days!) plus a couple of Castella cakes. You could easily use this to make a pirate ship for a pirate party. It was easy to put together…

Start with a round cake and 2 blocks of sponge and a jar of jam to use as glue…

Place one of the blocks on top of the circular cake then cut it so it is as wide as the block of cake…

Take one of the off cuts and place it at the front - and after repeat for the front with the other piece…

Cut it again so the back is the same width too…now do the front end…

Now to build it up, one block will go on the back. The front cut 1/3 from the end. Use some jam to stick everything together, adding some jam to the bottom of the ship will also stop it from sliding around. Once all the sponge is cut, simply build it up…

It should look something like this…

Then all you need to do is cover it with your preferred frosting, this could have done with a bit more smoothing over but I was short of time. The sails were simple, cut some printer paper and thread them onto bamboo sticks, I used a bit of masking tape to hold them in place.

Of course, if you were going for the whole pirate theme you would want to add some mini figures and the such like, my distraction technique worked, the kids were happily distracted by ship cake and the adults got to over indulge! Win-Win!

Coffee and Cream Cake...

It was daddy's birthday on Saturday, which meant Ebi-kun and I got to make cake on Friday. It took us a while to decide on what type of cake to make, Daddy doesn't like anything overly sweet, isn't fussed on butter icing and doesn't really like fondant. So we decided on a coffee and cream cake.

We used a regular Victoria sponge recipe:

150g sugar

150g butter

150g flour (SR or add 2tsp of baking powder)

Pinch of salt

3 eggs, beaten

Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and salt, fold in the flour.

We then halved the mixture, one half we added some vanilla.

The other half 2 tbsp of strong coffee and some brown food colour, it was a bit runny after I added the coffee so we added some extra flour

Bake each on in a round 20cm tin for 20ish minutes at 180C

Turn out and allow to cool. When they are cool, find 3 dishes or plates that fit inside each other size wise. Put the biggest one on top of the first cake, in the centre and cut around it, lift the middle out and place it to one side. Repeat with the other cake. 

Then use the middle dish as a template and cut a circle out of the piece you just removed. Continue with all the dishes until you have 3 rings and one small circle for each cake. This sounds far more complicated than it actually is! 

Now put them back together, alternating the rings, when you have done one, mix up a little butter icing, or you could use jam and spread it on the top of the first layer. Now build the second layer, easy! Should look something lie this...

The next morning, I whipped some cream and slapped it - literally, on top of the cake. Threw on some sprinkles and added the candles...taa-daaa

And when it is cut, it looks pretty cool...

I think if I needed to feed more people, I would add another layer or two, with different colours, you could have lots of fun with the different combinations! Although it sounds rather complicated, it came together really quickly and got demolished really quickly too!

Staffordshire Oatcakes...nom,nom,nom

Staffordshire Oatcakes are a local speciality from my hometown, they are nothing like Scottish oatcakes, they are more like English pancakes or french crepes. I was having cravings for a bit of something from home so I decided to rustle some up...

Ingredients - makes 12-16

1tsp salt

225g oat flour (whizz porridge oats in the processor until fine)

225g plain white flour (I use half white half brown)

7g yeast

425ml warm milk
425ml warm water

1 tsp sugar

Mix the water and milk, it should be warm. Add the yeast.
Mix together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients and mix to make a batter
Cover with a damp cloth and leave for an hour.

Heat a pan or griddle and oil lightly. Use a ladle and spoon one ladle full into the pan, you have to do this quickly, use the back other ladle to spread the batter out, it needs to be thin and even. Takes a bit of practise, my first couple are always a bit lumpy and uneven!

The batter will bubble a bit, when the top looks dry, flip over and finish with 30 seconds to brown the other side.

Pile onto a plate and repeat...

To eat, you can wrap any kind of filling in it, baked beans and cheese are my favourite. We had a little oatcake shop next to my college that sold large oatcakes filled with 'English breakfast' all wrapped and ready to go, very messy if I recall correctly. I have friends who like butter and jam in theirs but I must admit, I prefer mine savoury!

If you are using the oatcakes later, you can sprinkle with grated cheese and zap in the microwave until the cheese is melted or put it on the grill to heat through. They also freeze well, just wait until the have cooler before putting them in a ziplock and into the freezer.

A new favourite dinner

Sometimes my husband will have dinner out, for a business meeting or whatever, so it is just me and Ebi-kun. This had fast become our favourite, daddy free meal, thanks to my mom.

Take a whole camembert cheese, pop it in a heatproof dish and zap in the microwave until the middle has melted. Serve with veg sticks, we like steamed broccoli too and tortilla chips. Quick, easy and gets totally demolished.

Back on a cheese making kick...

This is last weeks ricotta or technically cottage cheese although it tastes more like ricotta to me! I have the recipe here, dead easy to make!

Sunday night we always have homemade pizza, nice and simple, ricotta & tomato sauce with mini tomatoes and parma ham, lovely-jumbly!

And a university favourite, pasta with passata and ricotta sauce, my husband bought home some lovely french sticks (he designs industrial mixing machines that are often used in bakeries, on test days he gets to bring yummy cakes and bread home!) and char grilled veg.

Do you have a favourite recipe that uses ricotta?

Lemon & Ricotta Pancakes ~recipe

Ebi-kun picked this recipe out and I have to share because they were so, so, so good! Yes, that good! We made them for breakfast on father's day, which was a change because usually daddy makes the pancakes at the weekend.

Recipe:

Makes 12 small pancakes

200g ricotta cheese

pinch of salt

50g caster sugar

25g melted butter

3 eggs, separated

zest of 2 lemons

50g plain flour

Sauce

200g mango (we used frozen)

2tbsp cointreau

little sugar (to sweeten if needed)

Banana or other fruit to decorate.

Make the sauce:

1. Stick everything in a blender and whizz until smooth. Put aside.

Make the pancakes:

1. Beat together the ricotta, salt, sugar, melted butter, egg yolk and lemon zest.

2. Fold in the flour.

3. Whisk the egg whites until stiff then gentle fold into the pancake mix.

4. Heat a pan or griddle and brush lightly with melted butter.

5. Place tablespoons of batter in the pan, with space between them, then they have bubbles on the surface, flip them over for a minute, then place on a place and keep warm whilst you cook the rest.

Try not to burn your finger or anybody else's in the process (lesson learned!)

6. Pile the pancakes on a plate, decorate with some sliced fruit and drizzle mango sauce around the edge.

7. Invite me round to try them out, just to make sure they are up to scratch :)

 Lovely start to the day, well except for the burnt finger incident, but he will live! Daddy was happy with his new t-shirts. The rest of the day, we did the usual, aikido, lunch, grocery shopping. Then the boys watched the recorded Japan Vs Brazil game. Nice to actually sit and chill for part of the weekend! 

Happy father's day Yasutoki, you really are a great dad!