Saturday 29 March 2014

Banana Walnut Bread

Inspired and adapted from the recipe by passionatebaker.com 



So it’s ‘Let’s try to be healthy and not bake week’. We'll have a healthy detox Fruit and Vegetable week we said...  
Epic fail. 
Trying to stay away from baking is virtually impossible for me and since I’m trying to be good as summer is coming I decided to use up my very ripe bananas to make some good old Banana Bread. 

This is really nice in big thick slices just out of the oven. 
This recipe makes one loaf which will yield up to 12 slices! 

Hope you enjoy as much as I did! 



Makes 1 loaf (21cm long)



Ingredients
4 ripe bananas
1 tablespoon milk
2 medium eggs
160ml maple syrup
40ml olive oil
200g plain flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
60g walnuts, roughly broken


Method


 1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Lightly oil a 21cm loaf tin & line the bottom with some baking parchment.

 2. In a medium bowl, mash the bananas, add in the tablespoon of milk and combine the two together.

 3. In a stand alone mixer, whisk together the eggs, maple syrup and olive oil until thoroughly combined. Next add in the banana mixture and whisk again to incorporate.

 4. Sieve the flour and baking powder into the wet mixture and fold carefully to combine. Finally add the walnuts & fold again until just combined.

5. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin. Bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes or until the loaf is golden & risen on top & a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

 6. Remove from the oven & leave to cool in the tin for five minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.



Thursday 27 March 2014

Avoca Seedy Brown Bread



Ingredients: 
350g course brown flour 
200g plain flour 
50g bran 
25g wheatgerm 
2 heaped teaspoons of baking powder 
1 level teaspoon of salt 
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds 
1 tablespoon of poppy seeds 
1 tablespoon of linseeds 
2 tablespoons of pumpkin seeds and sunflower seed mix 
75g sultanas 
1 tablespoon of treacle 
500ml milk (more if needed) 
tablespoon of sesame seeds to spindle on top of loaf 

Method: 
Preheat the oven to 180DC. 
Grease using a pastry brush the inside and sides of a 9lb loaf tin with a little sunflower oil.
In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and mix together. Add in the treacle and milk and mix until you a stiff dough.  Shape into the loaf tin and sprinkle with sesame seeds on top. 

Bake in the oven for up to 1hour, I tend to turn off the oven after 50minutes and leave in the remaining heat to ensure even cooking. 

This bread can be enjoyed on its own or with a little butter and Blackberry Jam for a little extra sweetness.

Enjoy! 




Sunday 23 March 2014

Chu Chee Chicken Curry with Sticky Thai Jasmine Rice


This is my signature dish. I like to make this for people when trying to show of my skills and my ultimate comfort food dishes. I think I’ve cooked it so often I may have even overdone it. I recently cooked this for a group of good pals from work and it went down a treat and I’m delighted to say the recipe has been passed along nicely!  



The dish Chu Chee chicken curry is a dish adapted from the Asian restaurant Wagamamas. 

Wagamamas is such a cool place it’s where myself and two of my best pals used to meet up for food straight after work before those two lovely ladies Lorna and Naomi left me for Australia! Never quite feels the same going there now without them! I love the quirky interior layout, the laid back atmosphere, the bench tables and seating and the always lovely staff (did I mention I also have a 20% discount card?!). 





Ingredients: 
2 x chicken fillets chopped into chunks
1 butternut squash 
1 tablespoon of sunflower oil 
1/2 red pepper
juice of one 1 whole lime
1 teaspoon of fish sauce
2 tablespoons of light soya sauce
2 tablespoon of palm sugar chopped
1 tin of creamy coconut milk (400g) 
1 tablespoon (30g) of panang curry paste
4-5 leaves of thai sweet basil 
200g / 1 cup of thai jasmine rice 



Equipment needed: 
1 large frying pan, small pan, wooden spoon, saucepan, cup, kettle, sharp knives, chopping boards (red & green) tin opener, 


The ingredients for this dish are readily available from your local Asian supermarket of which there is so many now. I buy the panang paste, palm sugar, thai sweet basil and the sticky thai jasmine rice from the Asia Market on Drury Street in town which has such a huge selection of oriental products. I also go to the Asia Market in Ballymount industrial estate as it is also very close to my work. It’s worth investing in large sizes of the thai jasmine rice and palm sugar as they are cupboard staples and can be used in a variety of different dishes. All of the other ingredients for this dish are easily available in your local supermarket.      


Preparation is key in this dish. The butternut squash needs to be roasted for about 30minutes in a hot oven before being added to the sauce to give the dish its authentic sweet flavour. This is very easy to do. The squash needs to be first peeled and roughly chopped in chunks, sprinkled in a little sunflower oil and roasted in a hot 180DC oven in a casserole dish for 30minutes until tender. 


Make sure and keep an eye on the butternut squash in the oven as it can easily be overcooked and become soggy. It needs to be firm and tender as it will become softer once it has been added to the sauce to cook for a final few moments.    

Next to make the sauce: weigh out all your ingredients and have them ready to go as the sauce can be prepared very quickly. The ingredients are the 1 tablespoon of panang paste (more if you like it hot), 1 tin of creamy coconut milk, juice of 1 whole lime, 1 teaspoon of fish sauce, 2 tablespoons of soya sauce and finally 2 tablespoons of palm sugar roughly chopped.  Begin my heating 1 tablespoon of canola oil/sunflower oil in a frying pan and add in the panang paste. Stir for two to three minutes until the paste starts to cook, make sure it doesn’t start to burn. Pour in the full tin of coconut milk and stir until the paste dissolves into the coconut milk. Next add the lime juice, soya sauce and fish sauce. Finally add in the two tablespoons of palm sugar and mix gently until you have a nice smooth sauce. Once achieved turn down the heat to a low setting and leave to one side. 




In a separate frying pan heat some oil and gently fry the chicken pieces until white. Next stir in the peppers and fry gently for 3-4 minutes.
For the rice I adopt Jamie Oliver’s philosophy which is one full cup of rice to 2 cups of boiling hot water. This is the perfect ratio and will result in perfectly fluffy sticky rice. The rice generally takes no more than 8-10minutes to cook with the lid on a pot. 
Once the chicken and peppers are done add to the sauce and increase the heat. Next add in the tender butternut squash and mix gently. Finally I like to break up some thai sweet basil leaves and garnish the dish generously with this. 




I like to use a little coffee cup to assemble the rice mould on the plate. The thai jasmine rice is perfectly sticky and will remove from the cup easily onto the place and keep its structure and shape.  

Finally serve and enjoy! 

If you would prefer the dish a little hotter you can use two tablespoons of panang paste when making the sauce to increase the spice level. 



Above is a link to a video from a wagamamas chef demonstrating chu chee chicken curry! 




I have also included the ingredients to use if you would prefer to make your own paste at home, however I do find it is a lot of work and the panang paste that I buy from the Asia Market is very good quality. Ingredients list below:  
1 tablespoon peeled and chopped ginger
2 tablespoons lemongrass, sliced thin
6 kaffir lime leaves, chopped
2 tablespoons peeled and chopped coriander root
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons black peppercorns, crushed
2 shallots, sliced thin
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon fermented shrimp paste
1 tablespoon coriander seeds, toasted
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted
4 pieces of mace, toasted
2 cardamom pods, toasted
4 big green peppers, toasted
10 big red dried chillies, reconstituted in water for 10 minutes

Pound all the ingredients together, incorporating them one at a time in a large mortar and pounding with a pestle until the paste is smooth. 

Tuesday 18 March 2014

Jammie Dodgers




Food for me is one of life’s greatest topics of conversation. It is a universal vernacular and it seems no matter what your level of skill, it is of interest to everyone everywhere. This paddy’s weekend the question ‘what would be your final meal on earth?’ was asked and for a long time people at the dinner table paused… I think most people were trying to sound grand and knowledgeable listing intricate recipes and dishes and in the end I think I would choose my ultimate comfort food, crusty sourdough bread, lashings of kerrygold butter and freshly cut wafer thin ham and cheese. All Irish quality simplistic food at its best. *(sourdough bread recipe to come)*. 

I love the sense of achievement and pride food can evoke for so many people. Sometimes in my work I don’t achieve this sense among young people all the time and so at home and with friends I love to bake dishes that bring cheer happiness to people. 

For this blog entry I decided to use one of my all time favourite comfort foods, jam. We grew up on jam sandwiches and the all time favourite buttery scones with lashing of strawberry jam. 
I adore any opportunity to use jam in baking and these Jammie dodger biscuits are nice and light and are the prefect compliment with a cup of coffee or mug of tea.  

They do need to be chilled in the fridge for up to 30minutes but the longer you make the dough ahead the better as the dough is so much easier to work with and they take no length in the oven. Home Store and More have a great selection of colourful cutters from hearts to animal shapes to christmas festive bells at very reasonable prices.  





Ingredients: 
225g of plain flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
A pinch of salt
100g of muscavado sugar
150g of butter
1 large egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
9-10 tablespoons of good quality raspberry/strawberry jam (homemade jam is all the better!) 

Equipment: Mixing bowl, spatula, rolling pin, 2 flat baking tray, electric whisk, sieve, love heart shape cutters (one large and one small) 

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180˚C/ gas mark 4 and line two baking trays with parchment paper.
Using a mixer and beat together the butter and sugar for 4-5minutes until nice and creamy. Add in the egg and mix through.
Using a wooden spoon mix through the flour, baking powder, salt and vanilla extract until you have a biscuit dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. 
Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface and roll out to about 1cm in thickness.
Cut out heart biscuit shapes, place on the lined baking tray, then using a smaller cutter or a small knife cut out the center of each cookie.
Cook in the oven for about 15 minutes until nicely golden brown and crispy. 
Once cooled spoon a little jam on top of the main biscuit and cover with the open heart shaped biscuit. 


Dust with a sprinkle of icing sugar. Keep in an air tight tin to keep them crispy. 


Monday 3 March 2014

Sticky Cinnamon Rolls with Pecan Icing




These cinnamon buns seem to have come to me in a dream or a vision of some sort and since then I couldn’t get them out of my mind! I just knew even though I have actually never tasted them before that they would be incredible. This is a typical example of the way in which I cook/bake purely based on my mood and my likes at any given time. 

They do take a bit of time and patience but they are very much worth the wait. They smell they create in your kitchen alone is well worth the time and effort. 

Cinnamon buns are a sweet pastry originating from Sweden, which are normally eaten at breakfast time but can be enjoyed at any time in my book. They don’t have a very long shelf life and do go stale quite fast however I doubt they will be long round enough to see this.



Ingredients: 

Dough: 
240ml milk 
50g butter 
14g active dry yeast 
475g strong flour 
50g caster sugar 
1/2 teaspoon of salt 
1 egg  

Filling: 
75g caster sugar 
75g light brown sugar
3 tablespoons of cinnamon  
100g really soft butter

White milk Icing: 
110g icing sugar 
2 tablespoons of milk 
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence 

Luscious Pecan topping: 
110g melted butter 
75g light brown sugar 
100g chopped pecan nuts 


Method 
First I began by making the luscious pecan butter topping. You simply melt the butter in the microwave and stir in the brown sugar until evenly mixed. Next chopped the pecan nuts roughly and leave to one side. When you have lined your baking tin with parchment paper carefully spoon the butter and sugar mixture all over the tin and spread out all over the large rectangle tin. Next sprinkle the pecan nuts all over until they stick to the mixture. 


Now to create the dough. 
Mix the flour, caster sugar and salt together in a bowl and leave to one side. 
In a measuring jug melt the butter and milk together in the microwave for 20-30 seconds. Stir and leave to cool until warm not hot. Once this has cooled stir in the yeast and mix. 

Add the yeast mixture to the electric mixer with the dough hook. Stir and slowly add small quantities of the flour mix at a time. When all of this has been added stir in the one egg. This should have formed a nice sticky easy to handle dough. Remove the dough from the mixer and knead for 5 minutes until firm. Place the dough in a bowl and cover with a damp towel. Leave the bowl to rise in a warm area for up to 1hour. 

Next get onto making the sugary cinnamon butter filling. In a bowl mix together the sugars and the cinnamon. Make sure all is evenly mixed. Mix the butter with a knife to ensure it is palpable. Leave to one side. 








Once the dough has doubled in size, remove and begin rolling until it makes a large rectangle shape about 14inch by 10inch. Try not to flour the board underneath as it tends to dry out the dough. Once you have achieved the size you are happy with. Spread the soft butter all over the dough evenly. 



Next gently sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon mixture all over the butter. Begin to roll up the dough into a long log. Half the mixture first and then divide it up until you make 12 equal size rolls. Place these rolls on top of the pecan mixture that we prepared earlier. Finally cover the rolls once more with the damp tea towel and place in a warm area again for another rise for 30-45 minutes until they are almost doubled in size. 
Bake in the hot oven for 15-20minutes. 



While the rolls are in the oven make the white icing. Simply sift the icing sugar, add the tablespoons of milk and the vanilla essence and leave to chill in the fridge. 

Once the cinnamon rolls are brown after 15 to 20 minutes remove the turn the baking tray upside using a wire tray underneath. This will allow the buttery sugar pecan top to drizzle and dry into the buns and create a beautiful glaze on top. 
Leave to chill for at least 20minutes before decorating with the white icing sugar mixture and voila! 
Enjoy! 


Be warned these are highly calorific and need to be enjoyed moderately. I have chest pains since consuming these!