Sweet potato and chorizo hash- great weekday supper

ALTHOUGH this does involve grating sweet potato, which is a bit of a chore, it is a pretty tasty weekday supper. And doesn't need lots of ingredients.

Serves 2
Ingredients:

Sweet potato, 1 large, peeled and coarsely greated
Onion, 1 chopped
Olive oil
Hot cooking chorizo, 1 large or 2 small, skins removed and crumbled or chopped
Creme fraice 4 tbsp mixed with the zest and juice of 1 lemon
Rocket 1 small bag

Method:

*Mix the sweet potato and onion. Put a good slug of olive oil in a frying pan and add the chorizo and cook until it releases some oil and crisps up. Add the potato, mix and season. Fry, turning the mixture over for 5 to 10 minutes, or until it is cooked through. Press it down with your spatula and leave for a few minutes to get crunchy on the base. Divide between two plates and spoon some creme fraiche onto each, serve with rocket.

Peanut butter and caramel brownies

THESE are perhaps the most unhealthy brownies I have ever made and they also require a lot of washing up afterwards. So are the extra calories and the half a dozen bowls worth it? I'm not so sure really. They are really delicious but I still don't think you can beat a properly cooked slightly gooey plain chocolate brownie.
However, I do love peanut butter and caramel so they were good for a change and delicious. One big tip is make sure they are properly chilled as otherwise they are just too soft.
I also had a big problem making the caramel. It took me three goes as the sugar just would not brown and kept crystalising. I added lemon juice on the third attempt as it worked!
This recipe is from Olive magazine.

Ingredients:
Dark chocolate 200g
Unsalted butter 125g
Gold caster sugar 200g
Eggs 3 large beaten
Vanilla extract 1tsp
Plain flour 125g
Cocoa 1 tbsp
Salted roasted peanuts 100g

Caramel

White caster sugar 100g
Double Cream 100ml
Unsalted butter 15g
Vanilla bean paste or extract 1/2 tsp
Sea salt flakes 1/2 tsp

Peanut cheesecake
Full fat soft cheese 150g
Golden caster sugar 50g
Chunky peanut butter 75g (preferably unsweetened)
Egg 1 large
Vanilla extract 1tsp

Method:
*Butter a 23cm square baking tin and line the base and sides with baking paper.
*Make the caramel first. Tip the caster sugar into a small pan with 1tbsp of water and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and cook until a deep amber-coloured caramel. Slowly and gradually add the double cream, stirring constantly. Add the butter and vanilla, stir to combine and return the pan to a medium heat and continue to cook for another couple of minutes until the caramel is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. Pour into a bowl, stir in the sea salt and cool. Chill for an hour until thickened. Pour into a disposable piping bag. Heat the oven to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3.
*To make the peanut cheesecake, beat the cream cheese, sugar and peanut butter together until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined.
*To make the brownie, met the chocolate and butter in a heat-proof bowl above a pan of barely simmering water or in short bursts in the microwave. Stir until smooth and leave to cool slightly. Add the caster sugar, eggs and vanilla and beat until silky smooth. Sift the flour, cocoa and a pinch of salt into the bowl and mix again until combined.
*Spread half of the brownie mixture into the tin, drizzle with all but 1tbsp of the salted caranel and scatter with two thirds of the peanuts. Carefully spoon over the remaining brownie mixture. Spoon the peanut cheesecake mixture into random dollops over the top of the brownie and ligthly swirl through the brownie mix with a knife or the handle of a spoon. Scatter with the remaining peanuts and drizzle over the rest of the caramel.
*Bake for 30 minutes until the brownie has set and slightly risen at the edges. It will still be slightly soft in the middle. Leave to cool completely before chilling in the fridge and cutting into small squares to serve.

Those Schwartz flavour shots

YOU may have noticed the Schwartz Flavour Shots appearing in the supermarkets. I tried the Red Thai Curry one and it is worth buying! I can never get a curry paste from scratch right, and the jar ones just do not live up to expectations.
But this one is brilliant and tastes really authentic. It's also cheap too. A great weekday meal.

Burger love

I've had a bit of a craving for burgers recently and I have had two really good ones of late- both of which I would recommend.
The first was at Baroosh- a trendy bar in Marlow, where I went for Sunday lunch. It had a great feel about it with cool stain glass windows and leather couches.
There is a small nibbles section, which you can mix and match, and a fairly basic mains menu. I went for the chargrilled beef burger in a toasted brioche bun
with sliced tomato, dill pickle, burger sauce & gem lettuce, served with a mug of skinny fries. It was £8.75. The meat was really good quality and seasoned perfectly. The dill pickle really added a good punch to the burger and the chips were nicely salted.

I still had room for dessert and went for a belgian waffle with dulce de leche fudge sauce and vanilla ice cream (£4). It seemed really good value as the quality was great.

Just a week later I had to pick a burger once more in Bristol to Grounded in St George's. It is a great little cafe with a nice relaxed feel to it and it's hard to get a table. The menu is pretty extensive and everything looked good.
In the end I went for the beef burger s/w cheese, mayo, mixed leaves, beef tomato, gherkins, red onion, onion rings and chips £8.50. It was pretty hard to get my teeth around but was worth the slightly dislocated jaw!
The meat was juicy and perfectly cooked. The cheese was mild, which suited me, and I loved the toppings. A great cafe.

Butternut squash cupcakes with vanilla and orange icing

I WAS intrigued by this recipe, which came from the food festival in Abergavenny, from the LittlePod company (www.littlepod.com) and supplied by the Hills and Parkes Delicatessen.
And the picture did not disappoint. I loved the mixed spice in both the icing and the cake and was really pleased with the final look. They also tasted really good- quite rich with the amount of icing on top- and the physalis adds the final touch.

Ingredients:
235g unsalted butter at room temp
240g light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon LittlePod vanilla extract (you can just use a vanilla paste)
100g of pureed butternut squash
125g self raising flour
1 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
125ml soured cream
175g cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon LittlePod vanilla paste
450g icing sugar
Grated zest of two oranges
Physalis and a dusting of icing sugar

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 160c (fan), 180c, 350F, gas mark 4 and line a 12 hole muffin tray with tall cupcake cases.
2. Steam the squash over a pan of boiling water for 30 minutes. Once it is soft, place in a wide bowl and mash with a fork until it becomes a soft pulp. Pass through a sieve to remove lumps and form a lovely rich puree. Let it stand to get rid of excess water.
3. Cream 110g of butter and 240g of brown sugar until pale and smooth, then add the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla extract then combine with the pureed squash using a folding technique. Combine the sieved flours, ginger and 1/2 teaspoon of mixed spice in a bowl. Slowly add the flour mix to the butter and sugar mix then add the soured cream until combined.
4. When thoroughly combined, carefully spoon the mixture into cup cakes, approx 2/3 full. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until golden brown. Check the cakes are done by inserting a skewer into the centre of a cake- the skewer should come out clean. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

To make the cream cheese icing:

1. Warm the remaining butter until soft, add the cream cheese and whisk the two ingredients together thoroughly. Add the LittlePod vanilla paste and mix. Add the sieved icing sugar and mix until it is a smooth delicious cream; then slowly fold through 1tsp mixed spice and the orange zest.
2. Decorate the cakes with the creamed icing, either using a palate knife or piping bag, and top with an open Physalis and a light dusting of icing sugar.

Another day another food festival: Thame

Feeling in a festive mood, a week after the food festival in Abergavenny, Penny, Lara and I went across to Thame Food Festival. It is a huge event and the whole town is closed for one day. It is great as it is all free.
By the time we arrived at 12pm it was pretty packed and it was quite hard to see all the stalls. We did manage to stop for a Thai for lunch from a Thai stall, whose restaurant is based in Thame itself.

There were a great selection of chefs doing demos throughout the day including Tom Kerridge from The Hand and Flowers, Adam Simmonds (from Danesfield House), Lotte Duncan, who is off the tele, and Raymond Blanc, who is the festival patron.

We went to a scone demo with a couple called Grace and Liam. They have just published a book called The Little Book of Scones. They bake and sell scones every Saturday under the company name, All'Scone. They have day jobs during the week in London then get home on a Friday night and bake in the kitchen, which has just one oven, until 2am. They live in a shared house!

In the morning they traipse across London carrying the scones on trollies on the bus, before flogging them.
They made Pesto and Chorizo scones, which they served warm with butter, cream cheese and onion chutney. It was the most delicious, salty and moist scone I have ever had. I was in love!
We also sampled their Nutella and Pistachio samples, which again were delicious. They had cream sandwiched between them, were smothered in nutella then covered in pisatchio nuts!
I was fascinated by their story and bought their book and hope to try out some of the recipes soon.

I didn't really buy much else besides a Rooibos Strawberry and Vanilla tea from the Rutland Tea Company, which is a beautiful fruit tea.

Thame Food Festival is certainly worth going to- but arrive early as it all sells pretty quickly.

The joys of Abergavenny Food Festival

Abergavenny Food Festival is one of the best there is. There is so much to see and do with loads of stalls, talks and I love how it is dotted all over the town, with the beautiful countryside surrounding it.
I went with my friend, Kaylee, this year and it was absolutely packed! We arrived at 10am and it was a bit quieter but by lunch time the town was brimming with people. There is a really good atmosphere.
We went to a goat talk called The Whole Goat with chef James Whetlor. Lynn Beard was meant to go but she didn't come due to ill health. Instead there was Charlie Westhead of Neal's Yard Creamery and Bob Granleese, food editor at the Saturday Guardian.
James was really charasmatic. He told us about 35,000 male goats are shot and thrown in the bin every year, because they do not make any milk. He is trying to get kid back on the menu and selling it to top London restaurants. He would love to see more people eating goat.
We tried some goat ham, which was a tad strong, and then some goat loin. It was quite nice but quite chewy. Probably take a bit of getting used to.

We also tried some of the Neal's Yard Creamery goat's cheese, which was delicious. I am not a big cheese fan but it tasted really zesty.
Later on we went to another talk with Valentine Warner and Magnus Nilsson, who is the owner of Fäviken, which is on the edge of the Arctic circle. It seats just 12 people. 95% of the menu is grown or caught locally. Summer and winter.
He was quite an inspirational guy. He stores vegetables in his cold store, so you could be eating a six month old cabbage! It also sounds an amazing place to visit.
For lunch Kay and I had a pulled pork roll (Glamorgan Vale Specialist Hog Roast), which was amazing, and a Bubble Tea Iced Tea, which was pretty awesome. They are from Bristol and in the ice tea you have bubbles of flavour bursts! I had strawberry, with lychee bubbles which pop when you crush them. It was great.
For dessert I had a salted caramel tart, which again was fabulous! A wonderful mix of sweet and savoury, with the perfect pastry. THis was from Love Patisserie.
I bought some lovely produce, including Wye Valley Honey, Vanilla Paste from Littlepod (which was £9.99 but is packed with vanilla pods and is really good for bakers!), Salted Caramel Popcorn from Joe and Sephs (www.joeandsephs.co.uk), who have an amazing selection of pop corn, garlic pork scratchings from The Garlic Farm in the Isle of Wight, which were absolutely delicious- think pork scratchings but somehow even better, two pies including venison and chicken from the Poachers Pantry (www.poacherspantry.com), some delicious chocolate buttons from www.chocolate-house.co.uk and finally a rather tasty scotch egg from the Handmade Scotch Egg Company.
A pretty good stash from a really good event. I would definitely recommend going.