Category: Recipes

Classic lemon tart recipe

Sharp and citrus! With delicious pastry.

Lemon tart (should) go down well pretty much anywhere, anytime.

This is a request from @michaelsmeatham on the Facebook page, so on to the recipe.

Ingredients (makes 1 large tart, 16 portions, or 8 large)

  • 500g shortcrust pastry
  • 8-10 eggs
  • 5-8 lemons (8 is pretty intense)
  • 250-350g caster sugar depending on your sweet tooth
  • 200-300ml double cream
  • Flour to roll pastry

Equipmemt

  • Rolling pin
  • A quiche/tart dish, around 23-28cm
  • Tin foil
  • Baking beans, or rice etc. (Dry and weighty)
  • Mixing bowl
  • Whisk

Prep and cooking (45-90 minutes)

  1. If you haven’t already, masker some shortcrust pastry.
  2. Heat oven to about 160°c fan (gas 4)
  3. Roll it out to about 1-1.3cm thickness, put in pastry case and blind bake for 15-20 minutes, I’ll upload a guide on blind baking on my next day off.
  4. While the case is in the oven get the filling ready by putting the eggs, sugar and cream in a mixing bowl and mix well, you can add a few extra egg yolks if you want it to make it a bit richer.
  5. Now zest the lemons into the mix, how many is up to you, when zesting try not to get the piff (white part under the skin and before the fruit) as it makes it more bitter, we want sweetness.
  6. Juice the desired amount of lemon juice, add and mix well. Lemon juice really adds sharpness, so you want enough to counteract the sugar but not incapacitate your mouth. At the end of it it’s all down to personal taste.
  7. When the case is ready turn the oven down to 140-150°c fan (gas 3). Pour the mixture in and bake for about 49 minutes, I set a timer every 10 minutes to check to adjust heat/turn it round if needed.
  8. Voila! Ideally you want to chill it before eating, but some things can’t be helped.

You saucy tart

Maybe not so saucy, or at least until you cook it, but a joy to eat nonetheless.

You can cut the recipe in half for a smaller tart, or you could use a cupcake/muffin tray to make mini tarts.

Having a look at the supermarkets, the price seems to range from about £2.50-£4, that’s for a regular (8 slice) tart, about 400-450g which is close enough to half the size of the above recipe.

Costing the recipe (I used tesco online for prices) the above recipe will set you back about £4.25 or about 26p a serving, giving you twice as much for the same (similar) price, and its homemade(!)

Any problems give me a shout!

Addictive apple crumble recipe


Crumbo!

Call it what you want, apple crumble always reminds me of Sunday’s when I was a kid, for me it’s with a big dollop of ice cream but custards always good.

Quick and easy (and delicious). This can be knocked up in about 30-40 minutes.

I will post a recipe with fresh apples soon, but I’ll be honest it tastes just as good with tinned apples.

Ingredients (serves 6-8)

  • 2 tins of sliced apples (about 600g, drained)
  • 500g self raising flour
  • 250g butter
  • 250g sugar (I usually use half caster, half demerara

Equipment

  • Mixing bowl
  • Knife
  • Oven dish big enough to hold everything.

Prep and cooking (30-40 minutes)

  1. Heat the oven to about 170°c (fan)
  2. Make the crumble, put the sugar and flour it a bowl. Cut the butter into cubes and add to the bowl, rub it all together with your fingertips until it looks like crumble, it should take 3-5 minutes.
  3. Empty the apples into the dish.
  4. Lightly cover with all the crumble (don’t push it down as it will all push together and cook as a big lump instead of crumble.
  5. Cook for 30-40 minutesnuntil golden brown
  6. Enjoy!

Tooty frooty; an apple that plays the trumpet.

Fiendishly simple, and just as tasty.

Apple crumble has been a classic since around world war 2, where rations meant it more economical than pies, to cut costs even more sometimes half the flour would be replaced with oats, which can add a nice texture.

Although it’s common to be sweet, crumble can also be savoury, such as a fish or vegetable crumble.

Hope you enjoy!

More recipes soon

Chip shop curry sauce recipe


Perfect with some nice chunky chips.

For me this is another big comfort food!

Love it or hate it, it’s a staple when it comes to fish and chips, or more importantly chips.

This recipe is somewhat similar to Chinese curry sauce, but with a slight variation on flavour and a few raisins thrown in.

Ingredients (makes enough for about 6 people)

  • 60g butter for cooking
  • 1 large onion or 2 medium
  • Garlic paste (about 1tbsp)
  • Ginger paste (about 1 tbsp)
  • 3-4 tbsp mild curry powder
  • 1-2 tsp ground turmeric
  • About 50g of raisins
  • 1 star anise
  • 1-2 tbsp of malt/white wine vinegar
  • 500ml chicken or vegetable stock
  • Salt and pepper

Equipment

  • Saucepan
  • Knife
  • Chopping board
  • Wooden spoon
  • Measuring jug

Prep and cooking (60-90 minutes)

  1. Heat the butter in a pan, dice the onion and cook for about 5 minutes on a medium heat.
  2. Add the garlic and ginger paste and cook for another 5 minutes. You want to get the mixture nice and soft, but not too much colour developing.
  3. Mix the curry powder and turmeric together with a little bit of water and add to the pan with the star anise, raisins and vinegar. Cook for another 1-2 minutes, be sure to keep stirring so nothing burns to the bottom of the pan.
  4. Add the stock and turn the heat up full to bring to the boil.
  5. When it starts boiling turn the heat down low and simmer for about half an hour, again be sure to stir occasionally to ensure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan and burns.
  6. Take out the star anise and mix 3-5 tbsp of cornflour with some water to make a slurry, add it bit by bit to the sauce, cook for a minute or so before adding any more until you reach the desired thickness.
  7. I like to serve the sauce how it is, but if you want it smoother just put it in a food processor or blend it with an immersion blender.

Costing

Looking at price, I was in the chip shop a couple of days ago and got some curry sauce, it came in the usual polystyrene cup which is guess is about 100ml and it set me back £1.40

The above recipe will cost about £1.80-£2, Working out around 30p a serving!

So quite a saving, but it was a long day, we were all tired, and that’s kind of the point of paying someone else to make food for you(!)

The most expensive components here are the curry powder, butter and stock cubes (for chicken stock, unless you have fresh) do you can cut the cost further by replacing butter with oil, using a bit less curry powder and use 1 less stock cube (I usually use 2-3 for 500ml).

Just remember this will compromise in flavour a slightly on texture, but it can cut the cost to about 20p a serving.

Enjoy!

More recipes soon.

Champion chips recipe


Chippy chips chips, everyone loves chips!

If you don’t, then you probably should but I’m not one to judge.

What with storms taking over the past few weekends, why not have a go at these chunk-a-dunk homemade chips.

This is my favourite recipe for mouth watering moreish chips.

CHIPS!

Ingredients (serves 1-2)

  • 4 large potatoes, russets come out well
  • 2 medium onions
  • 1 bulb of garlic
  • Handful of fresh thyme on the stalk
  • Handful of fresh rosemary on the stalk.
  • Oil, I usually use rapeseed or sunflower (enough to deep fry)
  • Salt and pepper (preferably sea salt)
  • Water

Equipmmet

  • Medium/large saucepan, if you have 2 it speeds things up a bit
  • Roasting tray/oven dish
  • Knife
  • Chopping board
  • Collider or slotted spoon
  • Plate
  • Kitchen towel
  • If you have a deep fat fryer it helps, if not we just use a saucepan on the hob

Prep and cooking (25-30 minutes)

  1. Start by peeling the potato and cutting the chips, I haven’t done a guide for this yet I’ll try and get one up tonight, but it’s similar to a julienne slice. I cut them quite thick, about 1 inch squares and usually get 4-6 chips from 1 potato.
  2. Put the chips the a saucepan, slice the onions into quarter and add to the pan (skin still on).
  3. Separate the cloves from the bulb on garlic and roughly crush them, add to the pan (skin still on).
  4. Add the rosemary, thyme and a fair amount of salt.
  5. Fill with water until everything is covered and put on a high heat to boil.
  6. Either turn on your deep fat fryer (180°c) or fill another saucepan with oil and put on a high heat.
  7. As the potatoes come up to boil turn the heat down but only slightly. Keep an eye on them but they should need about 5-10 minutes depending how thick you’ve cut them (thinner will cook quicker). You want them to be at the point of nearly being ready to mash, but still hold their shape enough to manoeuvre.
  8. When they are ready either drain with a colander and put the chips on a wire rack/chopping board or remove from the pan with a slotted spoon.
  9. Let them cool for a minute or two then deep fry for 3-5 minutes until golden brown, if using a saucepan turn the heat down slightly when you add the chips, and before adding test the oil is hot enough by holding a chip and dipping it in.
  10. Remove when ready and put on a plate/bowl with kitchen towel. You can get them warm in the oven but they will lost their crispness overtime, but they will become nice and soft.
  11. If you want to make these to freeze, only half cook them when deep frying, clean of oil and freeze. To finish them off just add to hot oil straight from the freezer or defrost first.

Chip chip horay!

Now you can enjoy top notch chips all day long.

It seems that chips, or fries first started showing up in Latin America around the 17th century.

Here in England the first chips that were commercially available were reportedly made by a mrs.’Granny’ Dulce in 1854, more than 100 years after Latin America.

This started the English fast-food tradition of what we know and love today as fish and chips.

More recipes to come!

Mayonnaise base recipe


The gloopy gunk that people love, it’s white and spunky,

Yes, it’s mayonnaise of course!

On its own, I can’t stand the stuff, but as a base it’s handy stuff, kind of like food glue.

This recipe is for absolute bog standard mayo with no particular flavour but I’ll mention a bit more on that after, to the recipe!

(If you have a food processor then it will do all the hard work for you here, but keep in mind if you have a large food processor you will probably need to make a larger amount, if you have a small/mini one the below recipe should work fine)

Ingredients (makes about 300ml)

  • 2 egg yolks
  • 250ml oil, olive oil makes wonderful mayo but it’s not cheap, any regular oil like sunflower or rapeseed is great for adding flavours to
  • 2-3 tsp white wine vinegar or lemon juice (you can just use water but it’s not quite as easy)

Equipment

  • Food processor
  • If you don’t have a food processor; a mixing bowl or measuring jug
  • A measuring jug
  • Either a whisk, electric whisk or immersion blender (hand blender)

How to make it (5-10 minutes)

If you have a food processor;

  1. Put the egg yolk in the food processor with the vinegar/lemon juice and pulse until fully mixed together.
  2. Add about 1/2 tsp of oil, pluse for 5-10 seconds or until fully mixed, and repeat. Do this about ten times.
  3. Now start to do the same thing with about 1tsp of oil.
  4. Gradually add larger amounts of oil until you’ve used it all and you’re left with a thick mayonnaise.

If you don’t have a food processor;

  1. Put the egg yolks in a mixing bowl with the vinegar/lemon juice and mix well.
  2. Add about 1/2 a tsp of oil and mix until fully incorporate, repeat this about 10 times.
  3. Now do the same thing but with 1tsp of oil.
  4. Keep doing this with increasing amounts of oil until you have a thick mayonnaise.

Things to remember

The acid in the vinegar/lemon juice helps with the emulsification but try not to use too much as it can ruin flavour.

Make sure any oil is properly incorporated before adding any more oil, otherwise it’ll probably split.

Try not to over-whisk, especially with an electric whisk or food processor, as this can cause overheating and again make it split.

Mustard also helps with the emulsification, so if your going to add it I’d recommend putting it in before adding the oil.

When it comes to flavours you can try pretty much anything, different spices and herbs all work well.

Any problems let me know and I’ll try to help!

More recipes soon.

Takeaway style garlic and herb dip recipe


I would class this as a major comfort food but I do love garlic.

Shockingly easy to make, garlic and herb dip goes well with nearly anything, especially any form of potato or a kebab.

Let’s get to it!

Ingredients

  • Mayonnaise (homemade or shop bought)
  • Garlic paste
  • Mixed dried herbs
  • Salt and pepper (optional, I wouldn’t say it needs it)

Equipment

  • Mixing bowl
  • Whisk or wooden spoon
  • Desert spoon

Putting it together (2 minutes)

  1. Put the desired amount of mayonnaise in the mixing bowl.
  2. Put the desired amount of garlic paste in the mixing bowl, I usually go quite heavy on it.
  3. Add dried herbs, it’s easy to overdo as the herb taste can completely overpower everything so it’s best to just add a little at a time.
  4. Mix!
  5. Add salt and pepper if you think it needs it.
  6. Eat a gallon of the stuff.

Where does garlic go for a drink?

The salad bar.

Nope, I don’t get it either, but apparently it’s a garlic joke that I found online.

But there you have it! 4 (or 5(or 6)) simple steps to garlic and herb dip.

Just don’t overdo the herbs, if you want to make your own I’ll be posting a mayonnaise recipe next so keep an eye out.

Fragrant yellow basmati rice recipe


It doesn’t have to be yellow, but why not!

Turmeric, along with cloves, cardamom and a few other tasty aromas give this rice its appetising scent.

Perfect with a curry and easy to master let’s get to the recipe.

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

  • 400g Basmati rice
  • 600ml Water/chicken stock
  • Salt and pepper
  • 2-3 tsp ground turmeric
  • 4 cardamom pods
  • 4 cloves
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 4 dried bay leaves
  • 1/2 a star anise
  • 1 tsp oil or butter

The amounts on spices are just guidelines, adjust according to preference.

Equipment

  • Saucepan with a lid
  • Measuring jug
  • Tin foil

Cooking (30+ minutes)

  1. In a saucepan warm the butter/oil on a low heat with all of the spices apart from the ground turmeric, heat for 2-3 minutes to release fragrance.
  2. Add the rice and turmeric and mix well in the pan.
  3. Add the water/stock and turn the heat up full.
  4. Stir occasionally to stop any rice sticking/burning to the bottom of the pan, as it comes to a boil turn the heat down low a cover with a lid. Cook for 9 minutes without disturbing the pan or removing the lid.
  5. After 9 minutes take the lid off (watch out for steam!) and wrap some tinfoil tightly around the top of the pan as airtight as possible like a lid.
  6. Turn the heat off and leave the pan on the cooking ring for 20+ minutes, if recommend a minimum of 30 minutes. The rice should stay hot for 1-2 hours until you remove the tinfoil.
  7. Remove any spices that have risen to the top then fluff with a fork, removing any whole spices you can see.
  8. Serve and enjoy!

Tin foil hats at the ready..

The reason we use foil is to help with the steaming of the rice, which is also why you want to leave it costs Ceres for 20+ minutes before serving.

The rice will be cooked after the initial 9-10 minutes, but steaming it through after will (or should) provide wonderfully fluffy rice that doesn’t stick together.

Try it both ways and you should see quite a noticeable difference!

This rice goes great with most types of curry, or just on its own as a snack.

Rice can be frozen and reheated in a microwave, but it tends to go quite claggy.

More recipes soon!

Beautifully basic chocolate chip brownie recipe


Basic; in terms of your bog standard, no thrills brownie, but no stranger to extreme richness and rotting teeth.

Chocolate brownies!

Everyone still seems somewhat undecided if it sounds racist 🤔 but we don’t care about that!

Chocolate, and, butter! With loads of sugar! What’s not to like.

Ingredients (makes 15 brownies)

  • 400g butter
  • 400g caster sugar
  • 250-300g milk chocolate
  • 50-100g milk chocolate chips
  • 4 eggs
  • 200g plain flour
  • 1-2 tsp baking powder
  • Oil or butter to grease dish

Equipment

  • 2 mixing bowls
  • A hand whisk, electric is much easier
  • A sieve
  • A spatula
  • Microwave, or a saucepan and metal bowl to make a bain marie
  • I usually use a large Pyrex dish, which measures about 15cm x 30cm

Prep and cooking (40-60 minutes)

  1. Start but putting the chocolate and butter in a mixing bowl, if using a microwave use a plastic bowl and heat on full for 20-30 seconds, remove and stir and keep doing this until everything has melted, you want to try and heat it as little as possible and dissolve as much as possible by stirring. If using a saucepan and metal bowl then half fill the pan with water and bring to the boil, reduce the heat to low and put the bowl on top so the steam melts the chocolate and butter.
  2. Put the chocolatey butter liquid into the fridge.
  3. Turn the oven on to 160°c (fan).
  4. Crack the eggs into a clean mixing bowl and add the sugar. Whisk well on full speed for a minute or two until thick and foamy, it should be a pale golden colour. If using a manual whisk this should take 3-5 minutes.
  5. Take the chocolate mix out of the fridge and pour into the egg mix, use a spatula to empty the bowl.
  6. Mix well with a whisk.
  7. Sieve the flour and baking powder into the mix and fold in with the spatula. Folding in means gently mixing without knocking any air out.
  8. Grease the baking dish and fill with brownie mix.
  9. Sprinkle chocolate chips on the top and put in the oven for 20-25 minutes, it’ll be ready when you can put a skewer in the centre and it comes out clean.
  10. Eat lots of brownies.

Earn some brownie points

Originating in America, the little bites are true devils food. Butter. Sugar. Chocolate. Nice 😈

Once cool these can be cut into squares and individually wrapped in clingfilm to go the freezer.

When you fancy one just pop it in a bowl and cover it with the clingfilm and microwave on full for 1-2 minutes.

Chicken tikka masala recipe


The dish of a thousand recipes and probably most well know as being an ‘English’ curry.

Over the years I’ve seen and cooked so many variations of this. This is the recipe that I’m currently using.

I’ll do a post soon on how to butcher a whole chicken (saves a lot of cash!) but you can use any kind of chicken meat you like, alternatively the sauce (which is made separately) can just be a base for a vegetable curry.

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

For the sauce

  • 2 large onions, or 3-4 medium
  • 2 red peppers
  • 2 tins of chopped tomatoes
  • 2-4 tbsp garlic paste
  • 2-4 tbsp ginger paste
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 2-3 tbsp cumin seeds
  • 5-10g dried curry leaves
  • 1 tbsp paprika (not smoked)
  • 2-3 tbsp garam masala
  • 2-5tbsp double cream
  • Salt and pepper
  • Chilli powder (optional)

For the chicken

  • 1 whole chicken, cut into parts and thickly diced, or 500-900g of thickly diced chicken meat
  • 250-300g natural yoghurt
  • 1 tbsp garlic paste
  • 1 tbsp ginger paste
  • 2-4 tbsp mint sauce (shop bought or homemade)

Equipment

  • Mixing bowl
  • Knife
  • Chopping board
  • Immersion blender/ food processor
  • Roasting tray or oven dish
  • Saucepan
  • Wooden spoon
  • Cling film
  • Tin foil
  • Slotted spoon

Prep and cooking (optional 1.5-2+ hours)

  1. First to marinade the chicken, put the largely diced meat into a mixing bowl with the yoghurt, garlic, ginger, salt, pepper and mint sauce. Mix well, cover and put in the fridge (preferably overnight).
  2. Finely dice the onion. Heat some oil on a medium heat in a pan, when warm add the onion, cumin seeds and curry leaves. Cook for 3-5 minutes stirring occasionally until the onion is soft.
  3. Slice the red pepper, doesn’t have to be neat but not too thick, add to the pan and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
  4. Add the garlic and ginger paste and cook for another 2-4 minutes.
  5. Mix the dry spices with a little water to make a paste, then mix with the tomato paste, add to the pan and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
  6. Add the tinned tomatoes, reduce the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
  7. Remove from the heat to cool. Heat the oven to 180°c (fan) and put the chicken in a roasting tray or oven dish and cover with tin foil, cook for 30-40 minutes until the chicken is cooked.
  8. Remove the chicken from the oven. Now blend the sauce with your immersion blender/food processor until smooth and return to a low heat.
  9. Remove the chicken from the baking dish with a slotted spoon into the sauce. Pour any remaining liquid in the baking tray into the sauce, cover with a lid and cook for 20+ minutes.
  10. Tikka break and have some curry.

Chicken tikka, tell me what’s wrong..

Another chicken tikka recipe to add the the masses.

It seems there’s a ton of claims as to where it originated, mainly either India, or the UK but it seems pretty conclusive whoever came up with it was of Indian decent.

The masala refers to the sauce, chicken tikka refers to the marinating and roasting of the chicken.

Supposedly here in England it’s one of our nations favourite dishes!

More recipes soon, feel free to message me with any recipe requests.

Join 1,121 other subscribers

Pastry creme recipe (Creme patissiere, creme pat etc)


Not to be confused with creme anglaise, which is just pouring custard, Creme patissiere (or as we call it pastry cream) is a wonderful thick, set custard.

If you know how to make custard then you won’t have much trouble here, but it’s not that hard so on to the recipe.

Ingredients (serves 3-4)

  • 3 egg yolks (about 50-60g)
  • 45-50g caster sugar
  • 250ml of whole milk or cream (why not double cream 🙄)
  • 15g plain flour
  • 20-25g cornflour
  • Flavouring (optional) vanilla is a must in my opinion, even better if you can get some fresh pods.
  • Butter, at room temperature(optional, if you want it even creamier)
  • 100ml whipping/double cream (if you want it even lighter)

Equipment

  • Mixing bowl
  • Whisk and/or electric whisk
  • Saucepan
  • Measuring jug
  • Sieve (optional)
  • cling flim
  • (plastic) Container big enough to hold it and fit in the fridge (measuring jug?)

Prep and cooking (5-10+ minutes)

  1. First put the milk/cream in a saucepan on a medium heat with the flavouring (if using). Keep an eye on it, the most common mistake here is letting the milk boil over so don’t put the heat too high. If you have to set a timer for every minute or two to remind yourself then why not.
  2. Put the egg yolks in a bowl with the sugar and whisk well for a minute or two, the should be a pale golden colour, slightly thick and nice and foamy.
  3. Sift in the flour and cornflour if using a sieve and mix well with the egg mix.
  4. Now the milk should be nearing boiling, if not either wait or turn the heat up, just before it comes to the boil take it off the heat and pour it in a measuring jug.
  5. Now pour the hot milk on to the egg mix while whisking, I would advise using a hand whisk here as an electric one can get custard bloody everywhere if you’re not careful.
  6. Pour it all back into the saucepan and return to a medium heat while constantly whisking, it should go nice and thick after a few minutes.
  7. Pour into a container and cover with clingfilm immediately, this stops it drying out, creating a skin.
  8. When it’s cooled down put in the fridge.

Optional steps

  1. If using butter then monte in a few cubes, 50-100g depending on your taste. To monte means whisking the butter in while still warm/hot so it melts in whilst whisking, this creates a wonderful creaminess.
  2. If using double/whipping cream the whip it, or make a chantilly cream (just remember the extra sugar will add to the sweetness) and fold in to the pastry cream when it’s cold. Folding in is easier with a spatula (I find) and is gently mixing the two together, keeping all the air that’s been whisked into the cream rather than bashing it out.
  3. Eat 2 litres of the stuff.. yeah that didn’t happen

It should be put into custardy

Only because it so delicious, this stuff originated in France, as you’d probably expect, some time around the 16th century I believe.

It’s most commonly used as a filling for cakes, pastries, pies or tarts and is like the crack cocaine of custard.

Maybe? I bloody love then stuff it goes well with nearly anything sweet, pancakes for example, it’s even nice on toast 😂

Looking at price, if you only use the basic milk, egg and sugar (which is still delicious!) it can be a low as about 13p a serving, or about 50p for the above amount.

If you go the whole hog with cream, butter and fresh vanilla pods, whilst you’ll be floating in creamy buttery sugar heaven for a while its going to come at more of a cost, £1.39 a serving or £5.56 for the above recipe!

That said the main cost here is the vanilla pod (about £3) so subbing this for some extract or even flavouring can cut the cost of a deluxe pastry cream to about 50p a serving, so still not too bad for a bit of luxury.

Some more prep guides and recipes coming soon!

Join 1,121 other subscribers