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What could possibly be more wonderful than blueberry buttermilk pancakes for brunch!? Very little I would think!
Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes
2 cups self raising flour
2 tbls caster sugar
1 egg – lightly beaten
2 tbls melted margarine
600ml buttermilk
1-2 punnets of blueberries
spray oil for greasing the pan
the Sunday paper – these pancakes are thick so you might want to get in some perusing while you’re waiting.
Sift the flour into a bowl. Add the lightly beaten egg, melted margarine and buttermilk and mix with a wooden spoon until combined. Gently fold in as many blueberries as you care to. You can break them up in the mix, but I recommend keeping them whole as when they’re hot in the pancakes they will give a nice little burst of flavour!
Spray the pan with a light layer of oil and place on about a half cup of the mix. These babies are thick so you might have to flatten them a little with your wooden spoon. When you see the bubbles on the top of the batter it’s time to flip them over. They’ll need about 2-3 mins on each side – during which you can catch up on the Sunday gossip pages!
Easy done! You might want to put the ready made pancakes into a warmed oven while you make your way through the rest of the batter. I recommend serving with a dash of golden or maple syrup – but this, of course, is entirely optional as these pancakes taste fabulous all on their own!
Today I am making, yup, you guessed it, soup! Believe it or not it’s actually winter in sunny downtown Illawarra and although it’s nowhere near cold out I have a hankering for some good old fashioned home made soup. So, pea and asparagus it is! And it’s souper easy!
Ingredients
2 cups asparagus, chopped.
2 cups green peas (fresh or frozen).
5 cups stock (chicken or vegetable).
A handful of parsley.
Salt.
Pepper.
Bend and snap asparagus spears. Set aside the woody part and chop the nice fresh green bits. Place stock into a pot and bring to the boil. Add asparagus and peas and simmer for around 15 mins until they’re nicely soft. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside and allow to cool. Place cooled soup into a blender and puree. I recommend doing this in parts as you may end up with green soup all over the walls! Place the parsley into one of the batches and stir through the remainder. The soup can be gently reheated before serving. You can always add a blob of sour cream to the individual portions if you feel the need. Enjoy!
As some of you may be aware, I have a penchant for baking cupcakes. Well, on Saturday I experienced cupcake heaven! It only took me my fifth (I think) visit to London to actually make it to the Hummingbird Bakery on Portobello Road, Notting Hill, but boy was it worth it! I didn’t have a lot of time in London this time around so bought a red velvet cupcake to eat on the fly. I carried the box with me for about 20 minutes before the temptation became too much and I dived into the little take home box. Heaven, I tell you, heaven! Soft, sponge cake covered in light fluffy cream cheese frosting! It comes in regular cake size too, although it felt a little early in the morning for me to be indulging quite that much…next time!
I will definitely be getting their cook book for home, and highly recommend you stop by one of their locations on your next trip to London! Yum!
Image borrowed from Tamarind and Thyme because my cupcake didn’t last long enough for a photograph!
So, I’ve been cooking again…and this time not your run of the mill cupcakes either. I had been having a craving for shepherd’s pie, I love my Mum’s version with a nice helping of tomato sauce! Yum! That would make a great main, but what about dessert?! Well, I have two baking dishes, so why not make the most of the oven and go an apple crumble. The results, while they may not look like they came from Gordon Ramsay’s kitchen they definitely hit the spot! Although, one suggestion, I would vary the crumble recipe a little as I felt there was WAY too much sugar in it, a little too sweet, now there’s an achievement, for my taste buds.
SHEPHERD’S PIE
For the shepherds pie I took inspiration from Gordon Ramsay’s the F Word. I made a few modifications to the recipe, the most significant of which was that I used beef rather than lamb. I find that some of the ‘lamb’ available here is actually closer to being mutton. This probably makes it less of a shepherd’s pie and more of a farmer’s pie, but anyway. I do know that I’m probably risking mad cow by opting for the beef, but on this occasion it was the better option. I also, unfortunately, couldn’t locate a bottle of Worcestershire sauce and had to replace the Parmesan cheese with a mature cheddar…what can I say, sometimes the local corner super market doesn’t have everything you need. So, for my recipe you will need:
- olive oil
- 500g minced lean lamb
- 1 large onion, finely grated
- 2 carrots, finely grated
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp tomato puree
- 250ml red wine
- 200ml chicken stock
- 1kg potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
- 2 egg yolks
- aged cheddar, for grating
- salt and pepper
Firstly, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Season and brown the mince in a little oil for a couple of minutes. Throw in the grated onions and carrots and grate in the garlic. Stir through. Add in the tomato puree and continue to fry for a couple more minutes, stirring as you go. Pour over the red wine and allow it to burn off. Once it has evaporated add the chicken stock. I added it a bit at a time as it looked way too liquidy. Allow the stock to boil and as it evaporates it will thicken into a nice gravy.
While all of this is going on, you probably want to have your peeled potatoes on the boil. When they’re ready, drain them and return to the hot plate for a moment to dry them out. Mash. Beat in two egg yolks and add in some of the cheddar.
Carefully pour the mince into an oven proof dish. Layer the mash potato over the top. It’s easiest to start at the corners and go around the edges before moving into the middle. I used a large spoon and a knife to help even the potato out. Sprinkle some more cheese on top of the potato and place it into the oven. It should only take around 20-25 minutes for the mash to take on a nice golden colour.
APPLE CRUMBLE
The apple crumble recipe comes from the BBC, however, as I said earlier, I’d probably use less of the sugar next time, but here’s the original recipe should you want to try it anyway. You will need:
For the crumble:
- 300g plain flour, sifted
- 175g brown sugar
- 200g unsalted butter cubed and at room temperature
- butter for greasing
For the filling:
- 450g apples, peeled, cored and cut into slices
- 50g brown sugar
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- 1 pinch of ground cinnamon
This recipe is pretty easy. First, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. For the crumble, mix the sugar and flour in a bowl until combined. You’re probably better off doing with with a wooden spoon than with an electric mixer as it takes about a minute this way anyway. Using your hands take a cube of butter at a time and rub it into the sugar/flour mixture. Keep doing this until all the butter is mixed in and the mixture resembles a wet sand. I like my crumble with a few lumpy bits in it. If you don’t like this too much, keep rubbing until the mix is more like course breadcrumbs.
For the filling, place the cored and sliced apples into a large bowl. Add the sugar, flour and cinnamon. Stir through being careful not to break up the fruit. Easy!
Grease the ovenproof tray with some butter. Pour the fruit mix into the bottom of the tray. Cover the fruit mix with the crumble mix. Bake in the oven for around 45 minutes or until the crumble looks nice and brown and the fruit layer is bubbling away. Let it cool slightly before serving as a mouthful of molten sugar can be quite painful! Enjoy with cream, ice cream or custard (I chose cream)!
I can thoroughly recommend that anyone traveling to, through or near Galway take the time to sit down and chill out at Ard Bia @ Nimmos. The cafe/restaurant is situated in what look like a little stone cottage on the edge of the water by the Spanish Arch. The downstairs cafe isn’t open plan, remaining divided into individual rooms preserving the integrity of the building. The walls make for a nice barrier between you and the rest of the guests at the eatery, but retain the sound of chatter from beyond the doorways.
The decor is homey in a mixed modern country style. The food is, in a word, interesting. But by no means is that a negative assessment, as it’s often the same old chicken and stuffing or ham and cheese sandwich served with a side of crisps around here. While the Ard Bia lunch menu includes sandwiches, salads and burgers, they are tweaked with the inclusion of flavoursome homemade apricot or tomato chutneys, chickpeas and coriander patties, a pinch of saffron, or locally produced GM free cheese. It may not sound like much, but attention to the quality of ingredients, particularly at lunch time, seems to be a rarity.
I opted for the root vegetable dahl on brown rice with tzatziki, also accompanied by a beetroot dip. An interesting mix of a subcontinental staple (the dahl) and Greek condiment (the tzatziki) that somehow came together to be a tasty, and filling, sensation. Coupled with a fresh carrot, apple and ginger juice made this the perfect main meal for the day.
Prices are more than reasonable for what you get – a well prepared, well thought out menu – with my lunch rounding out at 11.90 Euro (8 Euro for the dahl and 3.90 for the juice) for a meal that left me comfortably full well into the evening.
Emmet chose a boring old sandwich, made not so boringly of choriso, Gubeen cheese and onion jam, which he thoroughly enjoyed. Not a bad price at 6.50 Euro plus 1.80 Euro for an accompanying chai.
Unfortunately, no cake on this trip, but if they taste half as good as they look the next time we’re in Galway I’ll be skipping the mains and going straight to dessert!
