Chocolate Brownie

First time for everything well I am not a chocolate Lovever but, I thought I would give brownies ago it's a Levy Roots recipe. My daughter thought it was great, me on the other hand not so sure but my daughter likes it so I guess it's good.

Have you lost your loaf

Up North - Known as a Bread Cake

The weather was not scorching, but it was ideal for a BBQ, I wanted to demonstrate my baking skills.  I whipped the old Baking book out and looked at bread cakes.  The bread is a sweet bread but goes down well with a Sweet Chilli burger.

Coconut and Date Flapjack

Nutty time

Ok  had my cooking head on and was in a fruity mood.  So here is what I came with up with.

Some Like it hot - My Burgers

Home Made Burgers

I love burgers however they taste much better, when you know what is going into them.  I had a chat with my local butcher he said you should not really get much shrinkage when you grill your burgers (most of the time burgers are filled with rubbish).  I said to him I'll put your theory to the test and see if that's true

Meaty Burger with minimal fat, very lean beef.

Burgers left in fridge for 30 mins

 Please note I used my own little secret ingredients, only for your eyes.

 Ok now we are talking I did this burger on the George Foreman grill looking good.

 I made some Avacado Salsa, with Tomato, Red and Green peppers, herbs Olive oil garlic and Black pepper.

The spicy wedges were McCains, I didn't have time to make them myself due to time constraints.

 Up close and personal shot again.

 Here you get to see the wider shot, your probably thinking there's not much on the plate, and you are right, however after eating the burger; you be stuffed.

He's the money shot, mouth watering meaty burger, it went down well with my wife and daughter and that's all that matters.

My Siminel Cake

The Easter Cake in Summer

The original idea was to make this cake over Easter however my wife robbed my marzipan so I could not make the cake.  So I trotted off to the shop and got some more marzipan some months later..

 The balls was the hardest part you had to grill them under the grill to get that authentic brown look.

 When I cut into the cake it seemed OK, considering this was my first attempt.

 Seeing the golden balls from a different angle, I guess the perspective is still the same hmm.

 My first cut of the cake, I suppose it was that ritual you go through.

There's always something nice about getting up close and personal with your cake.  Can't quite put my finger on it, but the relationship between cake and camera is something special.

Those golden balls..!

Birthday and Desert - Have your cake and eat it.

Birthday Desert and Cake

I was out at the weekend celebrating my wifes birthday, we went to Browns for lunch, which was nice, they have a good service especially if you have children very fast.  My wife had three different  chocolate brownies on one plate with Ice Cream, it looked really nice too.

 

 

My wife  received a nice birthday present at the weekend, a cake made just for her and it was made on the same day too, shame we couldn't stick my candles in it.

I really indulged a little over the weekend, never had so much desert in one day..!

Work up a sweat

The Pizza that hits the spot

After a hard night of dancing, there is nothing more apertizing than coming home to a nice homemade fresh pizza waiting to be cooked with a nice fresh base made with nice topping (salami, tomato, mozzarella, fresh basil and black pepper.

This is further backed up with garlic bread homemade of course too and a little Greek salad would not go amiss either, oh the two pale balls are dough balls, just in case you were wondering.

Don't forget your fresh cool Apple juice to wash it down with.

Coffee Cake Flava - lick you fingers up and down it's sticky

Coffee Cake Flava

Ok, I have been a little busy with, however I'm still baking and cooking like a mad man when I get the opportunity.

I'm fan of Coffee Cake, however some of the ones I have tasted over time can be dry, I was fortunate to make a rather moist one..!  See my work of art below.

Making your own fresh Pizza is so much more fun.

 

 I made a basic Pizza base, much nicer than a commercial one, Passata with black pepper and basil on the base.  Half the Pizza was ham and tomato, the other half was Rocket tomato and Mozeralla cheese.
 

It needs about 15 minutes in the oven at 200 degrees once it's cooked slide it out onto a wood top and cut into slices, don't forget your salad.

One last thing be creative with your salad, add some olive oil, black pepper & basil.   If you want to add some spice, add a little chilli flakes this will give it a little kick...!

My version of Steak Calzone

I've been cooking but not updated my picture lately.  Well I did a Calzone some time ago but it didn't go according to plan.  So I thought I would do try my hand at it again see the evidence for yourself.

It's always about the curves, well at least I think so..!

Now that's what I call a lovely pair of pastry.

Looking tasty..!

Never leave out the salad.

Very nice.

I guess I'd better start a thinking about eating this.

Fruit does make it taste better.

Right enough of this..

Your all mine..mmmmm

 

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.

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..?

The Healthy version of Rice, Pea's and Chicken

I love my Caribbean cooking however my wife says it's wanted contributed to her putting on some weight in the early years.  I have many version of doing Rice, Peas and Chicken but true Jamaicans would say there's only one version, de real ting..!

I browned the chicken wings then added vegetables and stock and a little gravy granules towards the end of the cooking.  I won't insult you how to cook Rice and Peas, just don't forget to add your coconut oil that really enhances the flavour, some Thyme too.  You can serve up your Rice and Pea's with coleslaw preferably homemade much nicer and fresh too.  However my healthy options is served with cooked veg.

My Bakewell Tart

When your walking around in the Super Market you see a lot of cakes and deserts you often say I could do that.  Do you ever? I think not...!  But I did, I enjoyed fuss of looking for the ingredients that puts this master piece together.  Once you have created your mouth water pie, there's nothing else to do other than eat it..!  Well take a look please don't judge on artistic impression as I would loose on that :)

Olive & Spinach Quiche

You know it's summertime and sometimes you don't always what a plate of meat.  I wanted to make a quiche for my daughter.  It's been a while since I made a quiche.  I thought I'd get creative and see what was in my kitchen.  I looked around a few Super Markets for inspiration and liked the idea of Spinach and Olive Quiche.  The basic principle is the same for making a quiche, you add spinach and Olive to suit, it's quite a refreshing dish served with fried potatoes and salad.  Here is my final creation.

Granny Stockly's Ginger Biccies

I'm a massive fan of ginger biscuits, I've made a lot of them recently.  The recipe was created by Sarah-Jane found in the  goodwithfood.co.uk so all credit goes to Sarah-Jane (The Co-operative food) Issue 3 JULY/AUGUST 2012.

One of the things I enjoyed about making these biscuits they were quick and easy and last quite some time too.  Here's a few photo's of my creation.

When your tart cheats on you.

I'd set out to do a Custard Tart, simple I know.  However I had pastry melt down moment, things went slightly down hill so I ended up adapting my Custard tart base to a Jam tart see the results for yourself.

Let me know how some of your cooking disasters has turned, mine was a stroke of luck, thanks to the wife.  She actually thought it tasted nice Gulp..!