Sunday, December 16, 2012

The Xmas spirit


The traditional Xmas cake

It's tradition in our house hold to make a xmas cake, mine is generally a rum fruit cake, my wife makes a safe but traditional cake.  Any way as usual I put the marzipan on and roll icing as you do.  



I said to my wife  I would like Grace to decorate my Xmas cake but no sweets; that excludes hundreds and thousands, and no jelly tots.  They said ok with reluctance, personally I didn't see what the problem was.  Hours later I was told my cake has been decorated well..  I was lost for words...... 


My lovely cake transformed by my daughter and wife Merry Christmas, that's all I can say... Bah Humbug I will be too.


Saturday, December 15, 2012

Italian SpareRibs my Version



It's been a while since i've posted any culinary delights, mainly because of my teaching job which takes up all my time.  However I do get the chance to cook and bake at the Weekend.  

I've had a few requests from friends how do I do my spareribs, while I don't have any set recipe, I have baseline which I work from.  However my ingredients will change from week to week.  

Firstly a slow cooker is needed.

See ingredients below:

Method:

Prepare the sauce and other ingredients

Here is the final video basically what  it should look like.



And this is what it looks like when you put it together, and don't forget your bottle of Rose wine watcha...!



Spare Ribs Variations 

What I did here was crisps  up my spare ribs after cooking it in the slow cooker.  If you want that authentic soft and crisp taste add a little olive oil, or honey to give it a that nice sticky taste.




The Sauce

There's no hard or fast rules when doing the sauce, naturally you will want it as thick as possible, what I did was remove the spareribs, let the sauce cook in the slow cooker, only stir it bringing the mixture together let simmer.  Once your Ribs are done pour it on think. 





The final finish

As you can see there are many variations you can use when doing Spare Ribs, my thoughts on the matter don't be afraid to experiment.  Food is like sex, the more you practice the better you get at it, so I've been told...!




Hope you have found this useful..?