Nana Carmen's Spanish Omelette

NANA CARMEN'S SPANISH OMELETTE

The other day my Nana & Grandad called me up to invite me round for the day, and naturally they tried to lure me in with the promise of delicious food, just like the always do. Now I don't want you getting the wrong idea here- of course I don't need bribing to see my grandparents, and they know that as well as I do. I love them to the moon and back. But I can't deny that going round to their house is always something of a massive treat, as far as food is concerned. This is also something they know only too well, and there is an important reason for this. I've mentioned a couple of times on le blog before, (eg. in this post here), that whilst my Grandad hails from good old Kent, the Garden of England and all that, my Nana hails from Galicia in Spain, somewhere near Santander to be more precise.

This interesting nugget of information is important, because my Nana's Spanish origins means she is the renowned cooking queen of my family. Did someone mention needing dessert? Oh look, Nana's casually made two crumbles and a pie for good measure. Inexplicably hungry after that three course meal Nana casually prepared? Oh there goes Nana making you some fried potatoes as you munch on that plate of digestives she just flung on your lap. Did someone say there was a family get together happening next weekend? Oh fancy that, Nana's just whipped up 3 vegetable lasagnas, 10 meat lasagnas and a Shepard's pie too, even though only 16 people need feeding (and I'm not exaggerating with this last one). I think you get the idea.

When it comes to the kitchen, my Nana really is in her element and even walking around the countryside with her, it becomes evident what a pro she is when it comes to food. This is a lady who can spot a sage plant a mile off, who knows which berries are poisonous and which aren't, who grows her yearly runner beans in a specific plot in the back garden, who is known to go apple scrumping (basically throwing large sticks into apple trees and catching the apple trees as they fall) in the local park every Autumn time. Just being around her is an education in itself, and I greatly appreciate and treasure the time I spend around her, learning all these little snippets of information about the world, food, nature, the art of cooking. How to get the most out of a chicken. How to make hearty, healthy soups. How to cook potatoes the right way. How to make the bae of all baes that is empanada. How extra virgin olive oil is a gift of the gods. I soak it all up like a sponge, every little bit that I can, and it in turn makes me a better cook myself, as does it make me view food, cooking and nature itself in a completely different way. I'm more appreciative, I'm more respectful, I'm more knowledgeable.

Over the years I've been very lucky in that, being one of Nana's grandchildren, I've been subjected to hundreds upon hundreds of her cooking pursuits, whether I'm hungry or not. Even the other day, she managed to get homemade breaded fish, Spanish rice down, and sticky toffee pudding down me, even after I'd been moaning to my Grandad about how not hungry I was, and silently, poignantly wondering if I would ever feel hungry again. This is a woman with many talents, or so it would appear. Many times I have remarked to my Nana that she needs to get all these recipes and tips of hers into a cook book, and share it with the world so that they too can experience the wonders and joys of Nana Carmen's cooking. Currently this idea still seems to be stuck in the pondering phase, so till that day hopefully comes, I thought I'd share with you this lil gem of a recipe that I managed to coax out of her the other day.

Nana casually made this heavenly babe of a Spanish omelette for me the other day, and it was so damn tasty that to go back home without the recipe seemed absolutely bonkers. It's a traditional recipe, oi oi, it only takes 5 minutes to make, it's cheap, it's Instagram worthy and it tastes so good that your taste buds will be exploding with such joy it will be like a symphony went off in your mouth. Now how about that. So if you're wondering what to have for tea tonight, or lunch tomorrow, or even breakfast (oh the versatility of the omelette), why not take a gander and have a crack at this yourself? Go on. Unleash your inner Nana Carmen.

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RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

3 X POTATOES

1/2 RED ONION

2 X LARGE EGGS

1/4 OF A CHORIZO SAUSAGE, DICED 

OR 6 CHORIZO SLICES CUT INTO 

SMALLER PIECES

METHOD

001. Peel the potatoes, then cut into fine slices (around 1cm thick or less so that they cook in the frying pan) and wash. Pat the potatoes dry using kitchen towel.

002. Slice the onion and chorizo into small pieces. It's up to you how much chorizo you want to use!

003. Heat up a splash of extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan on a medium heat. When it's warm (and not bubbling or spitting), add the potatoes, onions and chorizo.

004. Put a plate or lid over 3/4 of the pan to help lock in moisture. Cook until the potatoes have started to get a bit of colour.

005. In a bowl, whisk the eggs together using a fork. Turn off the hob.

006. Use a spatula to lift out the contents of the frying pan, leaving the oils and juices still in the pan. Put contents in the egg mixture and stir together using a fork.

007. Turn the hob back on, medium heat, then tip the mixture back into the frying pan. 

008. After a couple of minutes, when it looks like the top side is starting to firm, get a plate similar in size to the frying pan. 

009. Take the pan off the heat, cover it with the plate, and flip over so that the omelette goes onto the plate, cooked side up. 

010. Slide the omelette back into the frying pan and cook the remaining side, using the spatula to check.

011. When both sides are a nice golden brown, turn off the heat, slide the omelette onto a plate and season with a dash of salt and pepper. Then marvel at how clever you are, take a pic for the old IG, and devour like the food luvin' monster I know you are.

Melt In The Mouth Heavenly Biscuits

MELT IN THE MOUTH HEAVENLY BISCUITS

I don't know why, but this last year I've gone right off an a shortbread hype. I just can't seem to get enough of it. With my baking escapades stepping up this last year (sometimes I've managed 3+ times a week), shortbread has become my go to recipe, alongside brownies. It's just so ridiculously easy to make and it tastes a.m.a.z.i.n.g. In my opinion, the humble shortbread biscuit is superior to your ginger nuts and digestives and bourbon creams. It's superior to your Viennese whirls and gingerbread snaps and pinwheels. It's massively underrated, especially when you perfect and tweak that easy peasy lemon squeezy beaut of a recipe and you end up with this melt in the mouth masterpiece that transports you to another universe. 

You may possibly remember I posted my favourite shortbread recipe before on le blog, and this recipe is very, very similar to that. However in spite of it having those same three ingredients: butter, flour and sugar, for some reason this tweaked version is completely different. It's like this weird shortbread hybrid, almost as if shortbread took a swan dive into the world of artisan baking and came out transformed into this thing of utter beauty. As is the case with my baking this last year, all those formal measurements and strict recipe following have gone right out the window. I can't be bothered with the fine tuning, I can't be bothered with the predictability and most importantly, I can't be bothered with the washing up. 

So I had my perfect shortbread recipe, but pure laziness combined with the desire to experiment meant that shortbread recipe underwent a few minor changes and came out on the other side like this. I don't really know how it happened, but boy am I happy it did. This new recipe is great for so many different reasons. I love how the ingredients are your compulsory kitchen essentials. I love how you don't need eggs. I love how it takes less than 10 minutes to throw the mixture together. I love how dirt cheap this recipe is. I love how delectable and fluffy and melt-in-the-mouth these biscuits are. I love how I know exactly what's in them, no gunk or additives or anything like that. I love the spontaneity behind the recipe. I love how I don't need to do much washing up. I love how crazy easy the whole biscuit making process is. Which is why I simply had to share it with you dear readers. 

If you're in the mood for an easy, soul fulfilling spontaneity and sweetness fix, and you don't mind dazzling the ol' tastebuds, give this recipe a go. I promise you you'll be filling that Bake Off application form in no time, whilst you fight off the legions of fans falling at your feet. 

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TAKE MY BREATH AWAY...

YOU WILL NEED:

BUTTER

SELF-RAISING FLOUR

CASTER SUGAR

ADDITIONAL:

COCOA POWDER

ALMOND FLAKES

CHOCOLATE CHIPS

OATS

VANILLA ESSENCE

CHIA SEEDS

SMARTIES

COCONUT

CRANBERRIES

OVEN:

180 DEGREES (FAN OVEN)

HOW TO MAKE THEM:

1) SCOOP BUTTER AND PUT IT IN A LARGE BAKING BOWL. 2-3 TABLESPOONS IS USUALLY ENOUGH TO PRODUCE 10+ BISCUITS.

2) USE A TABLE SPOON TO PUT FLOUR INTO THE BOWL. BEGIN BY PUTTING AN AMOUNT THAT LOOKS EQUAL TO THE AMOUNT OF BUTTER.

3) PUT A TABLE SPOON OF SUGAR IN, FOLLOWED BY ANY ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS IF YOU WISH TO ADD THEM.

4) STIR ALL THE INGREDIENTS TOGETHER UNTIL THOROUGHLY COMBINED. 

5) IF THE MIXTURE STILL LOOKS GOOEY, ADD A TABLE SPOON OF FLOUR THEN STIR UNTIL THOROUGHLY MIXED IN. 

6) CONTINUE THIS, ONE TABLESPOON AT A TIME UNTIL THE MIXTURE LOOKS LIKE A MATTE DOUGH. YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO TAKE A SCOOP OF MIXTURE, ROLL IT INTO A BALL AND NOT GET MIXTURE ON YOUR HANDS. 

7) AT THIS POINT, USE A TABLESPOON TO GET A SCOOP OF MIXTURE, ROLL INTO A BALL AND PLACE ONTO A BAKING TRAY. SPACE THE BALLS EQUALLY APART.

8) USE A FORK TO FLATTEN EACH BISCUIT IF YOU WANT A PATTERN, OR THE BOTTOM OF A GLASS IF YOU WANT IT SMOOTH.

9) COOK THE BISCUITS FOR 13 MINUTES, THEN TAKE OUT, TRANSFER TO A WIRE COOLING RACK AND ALLOW TO COOL. (IF YOU WANT A CRUNCHY BISCUIT LEAVE IT IN FOR 15-20 MINS INSTEAD)

10) DEVOUR THE BISCUITS & MAKE EVERYONE ELSE DEVOUR THEM TOO. CONSIDER FILLING OUT AN APPLICATION FOR BAKE OFF. 

Sweet Potato & Peach Curry

SWEET POTATO & PEACH CURRY

Bit of a weird one to start the week, but bear with me dear readers. So on Saturday night I was absolutely stumped as to what to make for tea. As usual, I had forgotten to defrost anything, and there was no meat or fish in the fridge, also as per usual. All I knew, is that I had been in the mood for sweet potato all day long, so in the end I decided I'd make something with that. However once again, in spite of this recent development, I found myself stumped. What should I do with my sweet potato? In the end I had a good old google, and this recipe came up on BBC Good Food (aka the saviour of modern day cooking and babe of all babes), about a sweet potato and pineapple korma. Obviously I don't own korma paste, though I'm definitely going to invest in some, and I didn't have any pineapple or coconut milk either, so instead I opted for a mixture of curry powder and garaam masala, and in my interesting world of inner imagination, I somehow decided that the perfect substitute for pineapple would clearly have to be peaches.

To me, in that moment, I felt like a cooking Einstein, on the verge of quite possibly the best new discovery in the world of curry since time began. It seemed so bizarre, yet as I weighed up the potential flavours in my head, and what the resulting taste would be, when combined together, I couldn't find any reason not to give this peculiar flavour combination a go. After all, Einstein did once say that logic will take you from A to B, but imagination will take you everywhere. So after I decided on my chosen tea, from there onwards I completely winged it like there was no tomorrow, and in many ways, I suppose that that's the most exciting part. It certainly jazzes up the typical meal making experience, not having a clue how your cooking pursuit is going to turn out.

I'm pleased to report, however, that this particular pursuit turned our really rather well, and I thoroughly enjoyed eating my bonkers but delicious curry. I also enjoyed proudly presenting my curry for my housemate to try. In spite of her initially looking like I'd asked her to eat one of my toes. she gave it a try none the less and was also pleasantly surprised. Naturally there are some tweaks I would make to my original recipe, to give it some extra pazzazz, and I've listed a few suggestions below, if you fancy having a go. But apart from that, my sweet potato and peach curry is actually rather okay, so if you're up for a wild one, and a spot of yoloing when it comes to tea tonight, why not have a good at making this innovative curry and see what you think. Life's too short to be eating chicken tikka masala all the time.

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YOU WILL NEED:

1 x sweet potato

1 x large flat mushroom

1/4 aubergine

2-3 handfuls of frozen mixed veg

1 x purple onion

2 x garlic cloves

1 tsp tomato puree

4-5 individual broccoli stalks

1 x veg stock cube

1/2 can of peaches in syrup

1/2 tub of natural yoghurt (ideally full fat)

SPICES:

1 x tsp Garam Masala

1 x tsp Curry Powder

1/2 x tsp Cinnamon

1 x tsp Mixed Herbs
A dash of Hot Chilli Powder
1 x tsp Mild Chilli Powder

A dash of pepper

* I didn't have coconut milk or peppers or lentils, when I made this recipe, however it would be worth adding both to the curry to further enhance the flavour!*

SERVES:

2

METHOD:

001. Chop up the sweet potato, onion, aubergine, peaches and mushroom into small cubes.

002. Put the frozen veg, broccoli and sweet potato cubes into a saucepan and fill with boiling water. Boil till you can put a fork through the vegetables and they feel soft.

003. Meanwhile pour a dash of oil in a frying pan, and lightly brown the onions, mushrooms, garlic, (peppers) and aubergine in a frying pan.

004. When both the saucepan and frying pan are done, drain the saucepan and add the contents to the frying pan.

005. Boil water, put into a glass jug, add vegetable stock and stir thoroughly.

006. Add the natural yoghurt, vegetable stock, (a dash of coconut milk, a handful of lentils), a dash of peach syrup and the tomato puree, Then add the spices, stir thoroughly and turn onto a low heat, and allow to simmer and thicken.

007. After 20 minutes, the curry will be done (waaaaaay). Serve with rice, naan bread or cous cous, or you could even have it as a soup!

Midnight Apple & Banana Cake

MIDNIGHT APPLE & BANANA CAKE

First things first, lets give a big hurrah to the top notch, super duper impressive, state of the art photographic skills demonstrated in the above photograph. For when is life better, then when viewed through the 2MP lens of a Windows smartphone? As always, I'm keeping it real. You can even see the little knife holes in the cake and remnants of said cake on the fork. I don't really think it gets much realer than that. Heck, I've even included the make shift cooling rack, which in this case is a small chopping board. Like I said, you know me, keeping it real and all that. What you see in all those cookery books and incredibly beautiful blog posts, is a little thing called food airbrushing, where food is tweaked and touched up to look as aesthetically pleasing, soul tempting and as close to perfection as possible. What you aren't seeing, is the more simplistic, slightly unorthodox yet equally beautiful reality, which basically looks like the photo above. So I'm here to show you what baking really looks like, which is imperfectly perfect, delicious, soul nurturing, unifying, handmade, heaven sent goodness (captured on a camera with approximately 2MP resolution or less).

Now putting that mini sassy statement aside, another thing to acknowledge here, dear readers, is that it's been a while since I wrote a little baking post for you. I've definitely been baking and cooking, you can count on that without a doubt as I'm a huge foodee. I guess that I just haven't been documenting my culinary pursuits lately, and that's mostly down to forgetfulness, and the fact that I've normally eaten most of my creation by the time the notion to photograph it, even crosses my mind. This little beauty above appears to be an exception. Derived from a week long desire to use the increasingly brown bananas sat on the top of my fridge, on Friday night, at midnight I decided I would knock up a banana cake whilst re-watching my Modern Family boxset. I also decided I would use the half eaten apple I'd stored in my fridge for a later date, as well as the nice brown sugar I recently bought from Lidl. Oh the wild life I lead. And so with that, the Midnight Apple & Banana Cake was born. 

Considering that it was 100% made by winging it (the ingredient measures below are typical ratios in most standard cake mixes), from the ingredients through to actually making the cake itself, I was very, very pleasantly surprised at the end result. Most cakes I derive through the art of winging it, I must say do not turn out too well. There's always room for improvement and a muttering of 'damn it, I should really follow a recipe next time'. This time wasn't one of those times. There's a reason I ate half the cake within twelve hours, and that's because it was surprisingly delicious. Moist but not too moist, flavoursome, rich, a lovely texture. It was something of a cake dream, which is why I simply had to share the recipe with you lovely people, should you want to try and make this cake for yourself too. Whether you're a baker or not, this cake is super easy to make, can be done within 30-40 minutes, adapted to suit your personal tastes, and you don't even have to make it at midnight. It will still taste just as good, and definitely make you super popular with whoever you share your cake with, even in the daytime. Trust me. Now goeth onwards and fill your life with the joy of cake. I promise it looks and tastes better than it does in the photograph.

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-YOU WILL NEED-

2 x eggs

4 oz self raising flour

4 oz butter

2 or 3 oz brown sugar

1tsp vanilla essence (optional)

2 x mashed bananas (the browner the better)

1/2 apple cut into thin squares (around 2mm thin)

* You can adapt the recipe by adding 1-2 oz chocolate, nuts, dried fruid, glace cherries*

* If you want a larger cake, go for 3 eggs and 6oz of butter/ flour/ sugar, and if you're trying to supersize then it's 4 eggs and 8oz of butter/ flour/ sugar*
*For decoration you may want to try an icing sugar glaze or melted chocolate*

-RECIPE-

001. Turn the oven to 180 degrees and lightly dust a baking tin or ceramic, oven proof bowl with flour, making sure all the surface is evenly covered.

002. Mash the bananas in a bowl with a fork until they look a bit like puree.

003. In another bowl, add the butter and sugar and blend together with a wooden spoon, until the butter turns a nice caramel colour.

004. Add the flour, two eggs and vanilla essence and mix together thoroughly, until you have a sloppy-ish (what a lovely word choice eh) mixture. Then stir in the bananas and chopped apple.

005. Pour mix into the baking tin/ bowl and smooth out evenly with the wooden spoon. Make sure you leave some mixture to eat (quality control and all that).

006. Cook for 20 mins, then check the progress by sticking a knife in and seeing if it comes out clean. If yes, take cake out of oven and leave to cool for 5 mins, before turning out onto a plate or wire rack. If not, leave the cake in for another 5 mins and check again, and once thoroughly cooked remove cake, leave to cool, then transfer to plate/ rack.

007. Eat whilst warm (and if you eat 1/2 the cake in one go, don't worry. I did the same too. It's cool).

Homemade Mexican Inspired Soup

HOMEMADE MEXICAN INSPIRED SOUP

The other day I had an overwhelming urge to make soup. You might remember that many months ago whilst I was at uni, I decided to be brave and make my first ever soup, after never daring to do so previously. That little dabble in new cooking territory ultimately proved to be pretty successful, and my surprise at finding I could actually make a rather nice soup should have spurred me on to make even more soup. Unfortunately that didn't happen, however three months on the urge to make soup eventually found me again, and I decided that, with fond memories of my first successful soup making experience firmly in my mind, I would push the boat out once more and create another soup. So when lunchtime rolled around, I headed to the kitchen and had a good old think about what soup I would make. Having watched Bake Off a couple of days before, where one contestant made a bread inspired by the Mexican flavours like coriander and cumin, I thought that seeing as I also adore Mexican cuisine, I too would take inspiration from those Mexican flavours, and incorporate them into a soup. And that's how my surprisingly delicious homemade soup came to be.

Initially I began by googling recipes, but I find following instructions a bit tedious and overwhelming, what with all those steps and seemingly infinite ingredient list, plus the recipes I found didn't really inspire me either. So I decided that with my first year of university being quite a good crash course in cooking 101, my knowledge of flavours and cooking was good enough for me to try and experiment for myself. I would make my own soup, and just like a mad inventor with a glistening twinkle in their eye, the thought of what I might possibly end up creating and having the freedom to create had me venturing around the kitchen in wonder. With my Mexican theme as a basis, I looked in the fridge and numerous cupboards to take stock of what we had in, and ideas began formulating in my mind. Half an hour later and I was sitting down to a hot bowl of soup and writing down my recipe so that I could share it with you lovely people. I even contemplated calling up my mum too, to tell her I'd made this really nice soup, but ultimately decided against it... I've tried to write my recipe as simply as possible below, and rest assured although it does look a tad overwhelming at first, don't let this put you off because it's actually so simple, easy and quick to make! And should you too experience an overwhelming soup urge, and decide to make my soup, I truly hope that you love it as much as I do (as that would be rather soup-er) *wink wink, nudge nudge*.

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HOW TO MAKE IT...

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS:

1 carrot

1 sweet potato

1/2 pepper

1/2 courgette

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

4 olives (optional)

1/2 avocado (optional)

3 tbsp coconut milk (optional)

1 can tomatoes

2 tsp tomato purée
1 chicken stock cube

SPICES

Pinch of salt & pepper

1tsp medium chilli 

1tsp paprika

1tsp cumin

1tsp coriander

1tsp tumeric

1tsp red cayenne pepper (optional)

METHOD

1. Cut the sweet potato, carrot, courgette, pepper onion and olives into small cubes.

2. In a saucepan boil the carrots and potato together in boiling water until soft. Meanwhile in a saucepan fry the onions, courgettes and peppers together in olive oil until lightly brown. Then add the garlic and cook for a minute or two more.

3. Drain the carrots and potatoes, then add the frying pan contents to the saucepan.

4. Next add the canned tomatoes, tomato purée, stock cube, avocado, olives and all spices to the saucepan, followed by a dash of boiled water.

5. Turn on the hob to a very low heat and stir all the ingredients together. Allow them to simmer gently for ten minutes or so, checking on and stirring the soup every couple of minutes. When it starts to boil or it looks done, turn the heat off.

6. Leave to cool for a minute or so, and then pour into bowls, serve with bread and enjoy the interesting and delicious mix of flavours!

Easy, Delicious Shortbread Biscuits

EASY, DELICIOUS SHORTBREAD BISCUITS

I adore The Great British Bake Off. I adore everything about it from gawping at the insane baking creations produced, the sheer talent of the contestants, Mary and Paul with their haughty baking prowess, Mel and Sue and their incredibly funny innuendos, the delectable tension that steers the whole show, the idyllic English countryside location... It's just wonderful and I'm not embarrassed to say that Bake Off on a Wednesday night makes my entire week. The excitement I feel just before it starts is unreal. It's just baking after all. But then again on the converse it's just so much more than that. For starters, very occasionally it does inspire me to actually attempt to bake something that the contestants have also baked on the show. Expand my baking horizons, so to say. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not normally off on one making super flat French pin wheel biscuits, Baked Alaska, three tier wedding cakes and biscuits with their very own biscuit box. Rest assured the inspiration and my baking abilities only go so far. However every now and again, I'm inspired to tackle a relatively simple bake seen on the show, and last week, after seeing some contestants expertly craft these gorgeous shortbread boxes, I suddenly realised I loved shortbread but had no idea whatsoever how to make it. Therefore after last week's Bake Off had ended, I set about finding a shortbread recipe and making it for myself.

I've never dared making shortbread before because I thought it would be waaaaay too hard. Kind of how I used to think about soup before I made it for the first time. Plus I normally never strayed from my baking repertoire, which mainly consists of different variations of cake and some zany creations of my own. However Bake Off inspired me to brave and try something new, and with shortbread being a staple of sorts in a British citizen's diet, I thought I owed it to my nation to at least try and attempt shortbread. And I can't stress to you how glad I am that I did give it a whirl, because not only is making shortbread ridiculously easy peasy (you only need three ingredients!), it also tastes divine. I've made two batches in four days and consumed six to eight of my biscuits a day. They're so delicious that I can't stop marvelling at the fact that I made them. I've been forcing them upon my family, who were rather hesitant to try my biscuits initially, and when they finally gave in the comments they gave were so nice and positive. It's definitely given me the confidence to venture on to other new baking territories and have a go at baking some new things that I wouldn't have dared to do before.

Making biscuits in particular is really, really easy and I personally prefer to make a batch of my own to keep throughout the week (that's if I don't eat them all in the space of two days) because with shop bought biscuits I'm always acutely aware of all the gunk that's gone into them. Obviously that doesn't often hold me back from eating them, but it is rather nice and satisfying to eat a delicious homemade biscuit knowing exactly what ingredients are in it, no additives or sneaky extras, and it almost makes the whole biscuit experience more enjoyable in my opinion. So with that, I would love, love, love to share with you my delectable and super easy shortbread recipe, should you want to bake and enjoy the marvel that is shortbread for yourself too!

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INGREDIENTS

2oz sugar
(caster works best although I've used unrefined and dark brown sugar so far!)

4oz butter

6oz plain flour

1 handful of almonds

1 handful of dessicated coconuts

2 teaspoons of vanilla essence

METHOD

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until it creates a smooth paste like consistency.

3. Pour in the flour, coconut, almonds and vanilla essence and stir everything together until it creates a dough.

4. Use your hands to compress everything into a ball, take it out of the bowl and then wrap in clingfilm.

5. Put the shortbread dough ball in the fridge for 20 minutes. Meanwhile grease a baking tray with butter.

6. Remove dough from fridge, take off clingfilm and roll out the dough on a floured surface using a rolling pin or a glass.

7. When it reaches around a 1cm thickness, cut into rectangles, squares, triangles or use a cookie cutter if you want round biscuits. The choice is yours!

8. Depending on the size of your biscuits, you'll get roughly between 18-24 biscuits. Line them all on the baking tray, use a fork to make little holes on the biscuit surface.

 9. Cook for 15 minutes if you like your biscuit to be slightly soft inside and crispier on the outside, or 20 minutes if you like a crunchier biscuit.

10. Remove biscuits from oven and line them on a baking tray to cool for ten minutes. Then enjoy and keep on enjoying those delicious shortbread biscuits until they're all gone (which will be relatively soon after making them).

How To Make Fifteens (aka heaven)

HOW TO MAKE FIFTEENS (aka heaven)

Hello lovely readers! Hope you're all well and happy and managing to enjoy this rather peculiar good/ bad weather that is oh so typical of good ol' Blighty. Just like my last post, I feel I once again must apologise profoundly for the lack of posts the last ten days or so. It's been so, so strange not blogging every other day and I've missed writing on here soooooo much, but just like the last time I wrote, life has been pretty hectic for me the last couple of weeks and I just feel like I haven't properly had the time to organise my massive list of blog post ideas and actually sit down and write them. Since I last wrote I've been travelling to and from Manchester, seen family and friends, been volunteering, been doing work experience at a fantastic local school, enjoying my last few days as a first year and with my wonderful flat and perhaps most importantly the time finally came to move out of Flat 68, say goodbye to my brilliant first year home that I'll always hold so dearly in my heart, and come back home to Derby for the summer. It's been one heck of an emotional rollercoaster and I'm trying to adjust to both being back home as well as transitioning between my life in Derby and life in Manchester (sometimes I really do feel like a less glamorous and countrified Hannah Montana).

Anyhow this evening, after getting back from work experience, I decided I'd get ye olde blogging ball rolling again (I felt it was imperative I do so as I'm now officially the UoM BlogSOC Social Secretary!!! I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!) and there was no better way to kick things off then by sharing with you what could quite possibly be the most amazing food item in the whole entire world: Fifteens. I had no idea that these glorious sweet treats were even a thing until earlier this year when my lovely Irish pal Amy made them for me and my friends one afternoon, and we all fell head over heels in love with them. I feel like we all deserved a medal for our outstanding ability to restrain our overwhelming inner urge to eat the entire batch in one go, because these Fifteens were that good. Apparently according to Amy, Fifteens are actually an infamous delicacy in Ireland, so I feel like it's my duty dear readers to share with you lovely people what the Irish have been greedily keeping to themselves all these years. We deserve this goodness in our lives too. So I'm here to give you the gift of Fifteens because these things will seriously change your life the better. No joke. They're simply amazing and ridiculously easy to make too, so with that, here's the recipe I made up and followed (created lovingly through my fave past time of winging it) for you to hopefully enjoy as much as I do...

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HOW TO MAKE FIFTEENS

You will need:

15 digestive biscuits

15 glacé cherries

15 mini marshmallows

Dessicated coconut (to cover)

8-10 spoonfuls of condensed milk

Recipe:

1

Put the digestive biscuits in a large bowl and break into crumbs using the end of a rolling pin.

2

Cut the cherries into quarters and add to the mix, followed by the marshmallows.

3

Spoon in the condensed milk and mix the mixture together until it combines together, then break off individual parts and roll into little balls.

4

Roll each ball in dessicated coconut till evenly covered and when all balls are done place on a plate and put in the fridge for 30 minutes- 1 hour.

5

Enjoy and don't even try to resist the urge to eat them all within two hours of making them. Me and my family easily devoured them in less than that time they were that good.

6

SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT HOW AMAZING FIFTEENS ARE. HELP BE A PART OF THE FIFTEEN REVOLUTION.

'Souper' Tomato & Carrot Soup for Students

'SOUPER' TOMATO & CARROT SOUP FOR STUDENTS

For the last nine months I've been at uni, I've been too afraid to make soup. They say it's one of those dishes that's just so typically student, but I've avoided making it like the plague. Whenever my Mum used to make soup for us at home, it always looked like such a detailed, time consuming process and I could never quite figure out how she managed to somehow produce this amazing bowl of incredibly tasty soup from seemingly nothing. What did she put in, how did she go about doing it, what was her secret? Honestly I still don't know and it still confuses me, but yesterday dear readers, along with taking advantage of being able to use cheesy puns like 'souper', I decided I would throw caution to the wind and instead of using valuable revision time for my exam, I would of course make my first ever soup. 

The surprising thing was like everyone pretty much says, but I stupidly chose to ignore, making soup it turns out, is actually pretty easy and rather satisfying for the soul too. I feel a little bit silly now for being too scared to attempt it for so long, but nevertheless I'm also rather happy as it means I have a new recipe to add to the ever growing collection I've acquired at uni so far, and I can also proudly declare to the world that I can finally make soup. It's pretty awesome, and the nice thing was the recipe I followed was completely derived from one of my favourite past times: winging it. Instead of religiously following that nice looking but rather complex Jamie Oliver recipe I found, and all the others that use gorgeous ingredients that my student budget unfortunately doesn't quite accommodate to if I want to eat for the next few years, I decided I'd take inspiration from what I found on le intraweb, see what I had in the cupboard that was similar-ish and work from there instead.

The result was sooooo tasty (not to blow my own trumpet there but had to be said), something I completely wasn't expecting in the slightest, due to 1) me winging it with the recipe and ingredients, and 2) my lack of having ever made soup before. So that's naturally why I thought I simply had to share this whole soup making experience with you guys, as well as give you my nifty little home made recipe that's super cheap and super tasty (big pluses when you're a student), and if you do end up making it, please do feel free to tell me what you think!

(Also I hope you like the so-bad-it's-good pic of my soup. One day I'll take real nice high quality pics like every other blogger, but today wasn't that day and anyways, I feel like it perfectly fits the whole student viiiiibe.)

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INGREDIENTS

(makes two portion)

1 x carrot
(49p for 7*= 7p per carrot)

1 x small/ medium onion

(55p for 7*= 7p per onion)

1 x can of tomatoes

(31p*)

1 x clove of garlic

(75p* for 4 cloves= 18p per clove)

3 x tbsps of olive oil

(99p* per bottle)

2 tsp tomato purée

(37p* per tube)

1/2 a cup of hot water

1 tsp basil

1tsp oregano

1tsp chilli powder

1 chicken stock cube

*price at Lidl at time of writing

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RECIPE

1

Chop the onions and carrots into chunks, then in a frying pan cook the onion and garlic in a splash of oil until the onion is golden brown.

2

In a saucepan add the carrot, tomatoes, oil, tomato purée, water, herbs & spices (don't turn on the hob yet!).

3

When the onion and garlic is cooked add to the saucepan and then turn on the heat, stirring the soup to blend all the ingredients nicely together.

4

When it starts boiling switch to a lower heat and let the soup simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure nothing burns or over boils!

5

Once it's thickened a bit, turn off the heat. You can either blend the mixture if you own a blender (most students don't- I certainly don't but boy do I wish I did!), or eat it as it is, which is what I did and personally think is better as I love being able to taste all the different textures.

6

Eat it with a nice slice of buttered toast or crusty bread and give yourself a pat on the back because you just made one 'souper' nice bowl of soup my friend.

Homemade Chicken Ramen

HOME MADE CHICKEN RAMEN

For what seems like an eternity, my lil' sis has been rambling on about how much she wants chicken ramen from Wagamama, whilst  I've been saying she should try making it home, a direct result of my new found 'creative, thrifty, penny saving, Lidl is my spiritual home' inner student. On Saturday night we finally decided to bite the bullet and have a go making it ourselves, and the long and short of it is that the ramen we made was incredibly delicious, filling, super easy to make and didn't break the bank. Granted I did spill a lot of it on the tray and in my hair (accidents happen okay), however I still consider it to be a big success and the recipe I'm about to give you is fantastic to follow if you love Wagamama or ramen, but want to do it all on the cheap and have a go ya'self. So with that, here is it is...
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To feed two people you will need...

2 chicken breast fillets
2 portions of noodles
2 handfuls of spinach
2 chicken or vegetable stock cubes
1 carrot
1 large handful of green beans
2 handfuls of bamboo shoots
5 closed cup mushrooms

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Method

1
Pre-heat the grill to 220 degrees, and put the two chicken fillets on a plate. Pour one tablespoon
of oil on each fillet, followed by a dash of salt and pepper on both sides. Rub into the chicken and ensure both sides are evenly covered with the marinade.

2
When the grill is heated, put the two chicken fillets on a baking tray and grill for approximately
8 minutes on each side, or until each side is slightly golden (cut chicken open to check if you're unsure).

3
Meanwhile cut the carrots, green beans and mushrooms into chunks, and cook in a frying pan
with a dash of oil, salt and pepper until lightly browned.

4
Five minutes before the chicken is due out, place the noodles in a saucepan and pour boiling water
over them evenly. Cook until noodles are soft, and then pour the noodles into a sieve to drain the excess, and rinse the noodles with cold water.

5
When the chicken is done remove from the oven and leave to cool for five minutes, before cutting
the chicken into thin slices. Meanwhile assemble the noodles and vegetables into two large bowls (as you can see in the pictures above!)

6
Fill up a jug with 500ml of boiling water and add one stock cube, stirring thoroughly until evenly
distributed. Pour contents over the noodles and vegetables until the bowl is almost full. Repeat for second serving.

7
Assemble the chicken slices on top of the noodles and vegetables, followed by the bamboo shoots
and a handful of spinach.

8
Tuck in and try not to get the ramen on your hair, like I did!

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Healthy, Cheap and Tasty Rainbow Curry

HEALTHY, CHEAP, TASTY RAINBOW CURRY

As you can probably tell from the above photo, I'm not very good at that whole tumlr-esque, absolutely perfect not a pea out of place kind of photography that features on most blogs, hence why there is sauce on the knife and a nice splodge on the side of the plate. This is real life photography mostly taken on my iPod Touch, so that my flatmates wouldn't be sat there wondering why I was conducting an extravagant photo shoot with my freshly cooked curry, instead of sitting down and eating it. It's a bit of a pants photo but I edited it with some rainbow colours to make it pretty, and anyway, the whole point of this post is not my photography, but the food, of the fooooood. 

You see, now that I am a fully fledged university student, I have to cook for myself every single day which gets very mentally taxing after a while, as there's only so many things you can make on a rather limited budget. Therefore I am frequently forced to be creative with the ingredients I do have, so every week I've been coming up with some surprisingly delicious cheap, healthy and creative meals that I photograph in the hopes of one day sharing with my fellow hungry students. The other week I finally made a curry after living next to the infamous Curry Mile for three months, and because I had no meat in, but I definitely had a ton of vegetables (I am the child of a veggie enthusiast mother), I opted to go for a veggie curry instead. The end result was absolutely divine, much to my complete and utter surprise, and it was healthy and cheap to make too, which made it even better! So obviously I thought it had to go up here on the blog, and voilà, here we are. 

I've listed the ingredients and their current prices at Lidl (my spiritual home) and the recipe is super easy to follow. Lastly, if you do make this dish and you like it, or have some tips you'd like to share with me, I'd love to hear from you so please do comment!

And now into zee kitchen we go...

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YOU WILL NEED:

1/2 aubergine
-(45p for one)-

1 carrot 

-(57p for seven)-

1 +half - 2 peppers
-(95p for three)-
1 handful of peas
-(£1 per pack)-

2-3 handfuls of kale or spinach
-(79p per pack)-

1/2 jar of Sainsburys Basics curry sauce
-(30p per jar)-
Herbs, spices and oil to flavour
-(prices vary)-

1/2 cup of rice

-(40p per pack)-

This recipe makes two generous portions of curry or three to four smaller portions, and meat 

can be added to the dish, as can other vegetables.

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METHOD

1

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees. Chop up the aubergine, carrots and peppers into chunks and place in baking tray. If you're including any other vegetables at this stage (eg. broccoli, tomatoes, courgettes) also chop up and include.

2

Pour olive oil over the vegetables, followed by sprinkling Oregano, Mixed Herbs, Chilli powder and any other desired seasoning, and use your hands to distribute evenly across all vegetables. Then place the tray in the oven and cook for 20-25 minutes until aubergine in particular are tinged with golden brown.

3

Place the kale/ spinach and peas in a pan and fill with boiling water. Leave to boil for 3-5 minutes and when done place the vegetables in a big pan. 

4

Fill half a cup full of rice and pour into a separate saucepan, followed by one full cup of boiling water (double this is if cooking for two) and leave to boil until the rice has absorbed all the water.

5

Meanwhile after 20-25 minutes take the vegetables out the oven and added to the kale/ spinach and peas. Pour in half a jar of the curry sauce, stir thoroughly and leave to simmer for ten minutes.

6

Place rice on plate and serve the curry sauce. Naan breads and other Indian accompaniments are optional but incredibly delicious with this dish, should you want to treat yourself!

7

Enjoy!

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Banana Bread Tray Bake

BANANA BREAD TRAY BAKE

This insanely delicious recipe was conceived from the depths of my imagination yesterday afternoon, when after doing my weekly food shop at Lidl (which was just a lidl bit fun- sorry, bad pun there) I finally had eggs which I could then combine with the brown bananas I had to make banana bread. 

Now because 1) I am a student on a tight budget, and 2) I broke my brand new weighing scales the second time I used them, this recipe, like the majority of my other recipes, was completely reliant on my favourite pastime of winging it. And the best bit was, it was easy to make and the end result was absolutely divine (ie. I ate 3/4 of it within the space of half an hour), sort of like the love child of banana pancakes and banana bread. So as I was munching upon every mouthful of pure deliciousness, I had a brain wave that told me that I needed to share this goodness with the rest of the world, so here it is dear readers. It's a rather unconventional but heavenly take on the classic banana bread recipe...

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YOU WILL NEED

2 brown bananas

1 medium egg

4 heaped tablespoons of self raising flour

1 1/2 large tablespoon of butter

3 teaspoons of mixed spice

2 teaspoons of sugar

a handful of sultanas

RECIPE

1

Mash the two bananas in a bowl until puréed and add to mixing bowl.

2

Add the flour, egg and butter and stir thoroughly until well mixed.

3

Mix in the sultanas, sugar and spice until evenly distributed

4

Pour mix into a small baking tray; this was the thickness of my bake, although

the thickness isn't important as the cake won't rise much anyway...

5

Bake in the oven at 200 degrees for approximately 20-22 minutes until golden brown,

remove from oven, leave to cool for 2-5 minutes and devour whilst still warm

6

Rave about it to everyone you know

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Wholemeal Pizza

Wholemeal Pizza

A couple of weeks ago I made my first pizza from scratch (oooooooh can I get a woop woop or ciao ciao) with the help of good ol' Mary Berry and just to be different and also marginally more healthy, I used wholemeal flour instead of white flour. It actually turned out to be vair vair delicious and so I thought I'd let y'all know the recipe and hopefully give you the inspiration to try make some wholemeal pizza too because 1) it's awesome 2) it's actually kind of healthy and 3) it's easy to make too!

I'm apologizing for the crappy photography now, mamma mia...

But on another note, here's what you'll need....

-set oven to 240 degrees (220 for a fan oven)-

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DOUGH

500g strong wholemeal flour

 1 x 7g sachet of dry fast action yeast

1/2 tsp of salt

2 tbsp olive or vegetable oil

300ml (1/2 pint) lukewarm water

1 baking tray

1

Mix the flour, yeast, salt and oil in a large bowl and add enough water so that the dough is soft and sticky. Next knead the dough mix on a floured surface for 5-10 minutes until smooth and elastic.

2

Place into a large oiled bowl and cover with a layer of oiled cling film before leaving the dough to raise for an hour or so until the dough has doubled in size (and basically looks like mahoosive)

3

Lightly oil the baking tray and remove the dough from the bowl. Knead the dough for five more minutes on a lightly floured surface then roll out in to a circle shape, until the dough is of the desired thickness.

-All recipe credit goes to Mary Berry, and this recipe and more can be found here...

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TOMATO SAUCE & TOPPINGS

3-4 tbsp tomato puree

1 tsp pesto (green or red)

1 tsp of italian herbs

1 tsp oregano

1 clove of garlic

1 handful of crushed basil leaves

1 lump of mozzarella cheese

1

Mix all the ingredients together into a bowl until well mixed. Taste the sauce and add more ingredients if needed until the sauce basically tastes faaaaabulous.

2

 Spread the sauce on the dough until evenly covered and then distribute mozzarella cheese 

over the pizza (you can use other types of cheese too) on top, before adding chosen ingredients.

3

Place in the pre-heated oven for 10-15 minutes until the dough is golden brown in colour

and serve warm (two slices per person is more than enough).

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Lastly whack on Mambo Italiano as you eat, just to get into the whole Italian spirit 

and vibe and that....

BON APETIT!