The plans of mice and men, or women and cats in my case! Yesterday's Foodie Friday post was curtailed by a very poorly Jakey cat. Thankfully after some emergency surgical intervention, he's home and doing well, so I'm now slightly less stressed and relaxed enough to get my blog on.
As it happens the recipe that I was going to share with you yesterday, is a perfect one for when you're feeling stressed or fragile. Whilst it's not a comfort food in the traditional sense, Eggs In Purgatory is a quick, one pan dish that really hits the spot, when you need a bit of boost. I know it a super popular brunch or quick lunch dish but for me it something that you could eat anytime of the day or night.
The premise of eggs and tomato is a staple of the traditional English breakfast but for me it brings back memories of Friday night teas, or evening meals with my dad, all be it with the volume turned up. Nigella Lawson's recipe for Eggs In Purgatory (which you can find here) is quick simply the best and the simplest, and more often then not that's how I make it, but this is my slightly spicier version, that easily feeds two, and that's perfect for the colder weather x
My Twist On Nigella Lawson's Eggs In Purgatory
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 Clove Garlic
Chilli Flakes or Fresh Red Chilli
Chorizo or Vegetarian Chorizo or Pepperoni
A Sprinkle Of Salt To Taste
2 x 400g Tins Of Tomatoes
2-4 Eggs
Grated Parmesan Or Any Other Hard Cheese
Bread To Serve
Chilli Oil To Taste
1. Take a large frying pan or saute pan, and then add your olive oil, then grate, crush or finely chop your garlic clove and add it the pan, Then turn you pan on to a medium heat. Like the original recipe then either add a sprinkle or two of chilli flakes depending on how you hot you like it, or if you have them or you like the freshness and heat add as much finely chopped red chilli as you like.
2. Cook it for about a minute and then you can either move onto the next step or you can do what I like to do and add a bit more spice with some chopped chorizo or spicy salami sausage.
Obviously I'm vegetarian so I tend to use either a vegetarian chorizo or some vegetarian pepperoni. I normally use Quorn but if you fine with wheat Realeat also do a really good, hot and spicy, vegan chorizo. Cook it for about a minute till the red / orange spice filled oils start to come out of the meat or meat substitute.
3. Then add your tinned tomatoes - I'm serving two people here so I'm adding two tins, and a sprinkle of salt to taste.
Then give it a stir to combine all your ingredients, and cook for at least 5 minutes until the tomatoes have reduced slightly, and their hot and bubbly.You want tomatoes to be hot enough to poach an egg in.
4. Then carefully, without breaking the yolks if you can add your eggs into the bubbling tomatoes. I'm using 4 eggs for two people. I find it easier to crack the eggs into a cup and then add them into the tomato mix.
Sprinkle a little bit of Parmesan or any suitable vegetarian cheese (I'm using cheddar) over the eggs and partially cover with a lid till the eggs are cooked.
5. Ideally your yolks should still be a little bit runny, but it depends how you like them :)
And your done - remove for the heat and either eat directly from the pan or spoon it in to bowls, and top with some more grated cheese, and for some extra spice some chilli oil if you have some. Serve with a spoon to scoop it up, and lots of crusty bread (I using gluten free ciabatta) to soak up all of these spicy, tomato and egg juices.
Over the last few months this has been one of my go to dishes, it's soft, a recent must for me, it's filling and warming, and in a strange way quite soothing. I feel a bit of a fraud calling this a recipe really it's so easy but all hail Nigella, and those other innovators for inventing such a delicious yet simple combination of ingredients x
As much as I love buying clothes and beauty products at the moment I'm really enjoying buying and choosing things for the home and more specifically things for my bedroom. Because of my ME and Fibromyalgia even the simplest task like reorganising and tidying my room seems to take a lifetime, At last though I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and although I still have a few things to do before I move onto my craft room / office, it's time to start buying pretties.
My bedroom really is my sanctuary - I want it to be cosy, and comfortable and I want it to smell nice, hence my obsession with candles, and room fragrance.
I love Yankee Candles but in my room I want quick, and easy fragrance and whilst I still burn candles, I really love wax melts for speed and for intensity. The last time I was in the Metro Centres I went to one of my favourite Yankee retailers Collectables and bought a few melts / tarts. I got one of my all time favourite Lemon Lavender, and a few more seasonal fragrances, Christmas Memories and my current my have fragrance Pain Au Raisin.
I'm a huge fan of Christmas fragrance and whilst Yankee always do some amazing spicy and foodie fragrances, my favourite Christmas fragrance is actually Next's Festive Spice. It's the perfect mix of spices, orange and red fruits, and I always stock up while I can.
This time round I got one of the Festive Spice Fragranced Candle Jars which £6 and one of the Next 70ml Festive Spice Fragranced Diffusers which was £6.50.
As much as I love proper candles, you can't leave lit candles unattended, and sometimes with pets they just aren't suitable. Although I haven't really started on my office / craft room yet I though that this Set of 3 Festive Spice Flameless Candles would be ideal for my festive windowsill.
For just £16 you get three substantial wax candles, which are fragranced with the Festive Spice scent. They are battery operated and they come with a remote control, with 2 different timer settings and you can also alter the appearance of the flame. We have flameless candles all over the house and they're are safer, and cleaner way of enjoying candle light, but unlike the rest of them, these ones have a bit of fragrance.
I'm all about mood lighting at the moment, I love candles, tea lights and fairy lights and for a while now I've been trying to embrace the LED star light trend but I haven't had much look. I never managed to get my hands on the Primark one and the only other ones I could find with around £60. that was until I saw this one from Studio for just £14.99.
I wasn't expecting much for the price but this is actually really nice for the price. It's battery operated and made out of a sturdy cream, coated metal, and it features 10 warm LED lights. I was going to hang it on the wall but I've tried it in a few places and I like it best on top of my Muji make up storage.
As well as my star light, several strands of fairy lights, a lava lamp, and some lanterns I also have a set of twig lights, that I originally bought in Primark, which have been quite happily living in a tall lilac vase from Asda. Louise is a clumsy person though and a couple of months ago I broke this vase - sad times :( Since then though I've been looking for a replacement without much look - they were either too small or the necks weren't wide enough for the battery packs. Eventually though I found what I was looking for in this gorgeous silver, mercury glass vase that I got from B&M Bargains.
I'm not sure how much this was but I think it was around £6.99 - £7.99 which isn't the cheap for B&M, but it's definitely worth the money and it's something that you would probably pay way more for elsewhere. The picture below isn't the best but it looks so pretty with the lights reflecting through it.
I love my bargains and I got another lighting piece from another bargain tastic store, Home Bargains.
I'd wanted a one of these for the longest time, but when I first saw them they weren't that cheap. This one was only a couple of pounds and it came with batteries.
I only picked up another one of Mason Drinking Jars, which was on special at just £1. I already have a Kilner one but it didn't comes with a lid so I was happy to add this one to my collection :) I would really love the shot glass versions of these so if you know where I can get some please leave me a comment and let me know x
Ever since I was a tiny tot I've loved stationery and over the last month or so I've become obsessed with it all over again, and I can't seem to stop buying pretty notebooks and office bits. The first stationery item that I got was this notebook from Home Bargains.
I love the black and gold combination and what's not to love about polka dots. Again this one was just a few pounds and I believe they also sell one in a black and gold chevron design. I love my polka dots so I also got this pocket sized brown, craft style notebook, with tiny gold polka dots from BHS. This should have been £5 but I got 20% off.
In the picture you can also see a lovely Orla Kiely Stem Print notebook that I got from TK Maxx. It was £6.99 was is pretty pricey for a plain notebook, but it should about £14 so I still want bargain hunting credit ;)
One of the highlights of going back to school or university after the Christmas or summer holidays was getting a new pencil case, I must of owned dozens over the years, but although I don't have as much use for them as a once did I had to get this one from ASOS.
Eat Sleep Blog Repeat really needs to be my mantra but sometimes real life gets in the way ;) This comes from a brand called James & Friends which I'm lead to believe is Jim Chapman's range. I think I might use it in my newly sorted office but it is big enough to be used as a make up bag so we'll see.
Poundland is one of those shops where you go in for one thing and come out with about a dozen. If you follow me on Instagram, you've probably already seen this cute stationery set.
Yes I know I'm an adult but come on Hello Kitty as Elvis what is not to love. For just a pound you got 2 pens, 3 pencils, 3 erasers, a pencil sharpener, a ruler and a metal pencil tin :) You all seemed to love it on my Instagram and a few of you couldn't find it so I went back and bought another one to giveaway :) All you need to do is be a follow of my blog and fill in the Raflecopter form below before the 1st December 2015. This giveaway is open worldwide so if you're a Hello Kitty or an Elvis Presley fan get entering x
As well as my Hello Kitty bargain, I also managed to pick up an adult colouring book. I love the idea of these to promote mindfulness and relaxation but I really can't justify some of the prices. This Natural Wonders Colour Art For Everyone book contains a variety of beautiful and intricate floral patterns and for just a £1 I'm looking forward to trying to giving it a go.
The minute that Halloween is over, out comes the Christmas things, and Poundland as per usual have a pretty substantial festive selection. This item though doesn't scream Christmas.
There seem to be a lot of these inspirational type signs mixed in with Poundland's Chritmas offerings this year, in both wood and ceramic. These three ceramic hearts come suspensed on a red ribbon, and feature the words " Live Laugh Love" in a red type. I don't think these have to be for Christmas so I'll be displaying them all year round.
Speaking of love, I am the typical crazy cat lady, I don't mind the stereotype at all and there is nothing in life that can't be improved by putting a picture of a cat on it.
This luck black cat from the H&M Divided line is in fact a sticky tape dispenser. Sticky tape annoys the hell out of my but dispensing if from this little guy will hopeful make my Christmas wrapping less of a chore.
Cats seem to a pretty popular motif at the moment and I also got this mug from H&M, which is covered in a montage of cat pictures and features the phrase "You've Cat To Be Kitten Me Right Meow". Slightly cheesy but the perfect pressie for a cat lover.
The final thing that I'm going to show you in this rather large haul, is another item that I was inspired to purchase after looking at instagram pictures, reading blogs. and reading tweets.
Deliciously Ella by Ella Woodward is probably the perfect cookery book for me, it's full of healthy vegan, gluten and sugar free recipes, that sound and look amazing. I'm still trying to eat healthily at the moment but I'm taking a break from the diet thing for a little while x I'll explain why in a post on Monday but as soon as I can I'm going to be working my way through all the recipes in this book, and I already have the sequel on my Amazon wishlist x
I know there was quite a few items in this haul for you to contemplate, so I've an accompanying You Tube video so you can have a better look at your leisure. You can find the video below or via my You Tube channel here x
If you have any questions on anything that I've bought please leave me a comment and of course don't forget to enter my Hello Kitty giveaway x
One of the reasons that I think I like Christmas so much is because of the food. I love my food and at Christmas time we seem to eat so much, and so many yummy things that don't appear on the menu at any other time. I'm not just talking about the Christmas dinner itself I'm talking about all those little treats that make Christmas, Christmas. For us it's the inevitable cheese board, an assortment of spicy and creamy dips, homemade sweets, cakes and pies, those overpriced party nibbles that you would normally baulk at and an array of meals, nibbles and bits that are either too complicated or too expensive to make that any other time of the year.
Yes a lot of things that we make and eat are traditional and have been part of my family Christmas for what seems like forever but over the years we've introduced a lot of new things that fall under that same celebratory banner. A lot of things are made up recipes and concoctions but we do get inspiration from elsewhere, mainly Christmas cookery programmers, and Christmas themed cookery books.
Both me and Mummy Lou have been pretty much glued to Good Food and Food Network since November, revelling in droolworthy, festive recipes from esteemed cooks such as Delia, Nigella, The Hairy Bikers and Nigel Slater. Yes they can over complicate things at times, but we've been so inspired by the delights on show, that we actually now have a couple of festive cookbooks in our rather extensive collection.
Delia Smith's Christmas is probably my mums favourite. First broadcast in the 1980's the TV series, was legendary for sparking the country's obsession with lattice pastry cutters, and fresh cranberries. Some of the recipes in this book are designed to impress for example the Chocolate Truffle Torte and of course her Creole Christmas Cake, but this book is a pretty traditional Christmas recipe book with the odd twist.
As much as I love St Delia my favourite festive recipe book has to be Nigella Christmas. I'm a huge Nigella fan at the best of times, but I have a particular fondness for her Christmas offerings. This book pulls nearly all of her Christmas specials pre Nigellisima. The book covers all of her Christmas dinner offerings from her turkey in brine, to her cranberry sauce and gingerbread stuffing but it also covers more general ideas for entertaining over the festive period as well as numerous ideas for edible gifts.
I know it's probably obvious from the rather dishevelled appearance of my copy but we've given this book a lot of love, and we've tried quite a few of the recipes inside. From her Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups, to her Chocolate Fruit Cake, and Christmas Puddini Bonbons, her Corn Chow Chow and her fabulous Chilli Jam, there really is a recipe in this book to cater for the spice fiend, or the person with the sweetest tooth on this planets.
Something I tried for the first time last year, was her Triple Cheese And Onion Strata. Cheese is one of my big weaknesses and any recipe that contains it, I'll probably like, but this one is just a little bit special. A cross between a savoury bread pudding and a cheese souffle, the taste reminds me a little bit of that slightly addictive cheese and spring onion sandwich filling. I'm replicating this recipe almost to the letter here because I don't really think it can be improved. Obviously I'm using gluten free bread but more on that later x The cheese and cream elements make it a little bit pricey to make but it a great way of using up stale and old bread.
Nigella Lawson's Triple Cheese And Onion Strata
225g Stale Bread - Baguette, Ciabatta, etc.
6 Spring Onions
1 Ball Mozzarella
50g Parmesan, Pecorino or Gran Padano
100g Cheddar Cheese
100ml Sour Cream
6 Eggs
1. Starting about 24 hours before you want to eat this line a large baking dish with slices of stale baguette or bread. Gluten free baguettes are quite hard to find so I'm using a mixture of dry bread buns, ciabatta and a couple of bagels. This dish is great for using up old and dry bread.
2. You can make this recipe by hand but in my opinion it's way easier with a food processor. First of all you want to flake your Parmesan. The original recipe contains Parmesan but any Italian hard cheese will do. If you're vegetarian like mine you can often find Pecorino or Grana Padano which are made with vegetarian rennet.
3.Then roughly chop your mozzarella and your cheddar and add them to the food processor, and give it a quick zap.
4. Next roughly chop your spring onions, and in a small bowl beat your eggs and add them to your food processor bowl.
5. Finally add the sour cream
and zap until you get a smooth, creamy, cheesy, egg sauce flecked with green
6. Then pour the sauce over the bread, pressing it down with a spoon as you go. Unlike what I've done here you might want to leave some edges of the bread exposed so they go crispy when baked.
Then cover the dish with cling film, and either refrigerate it or put it in a cool place and leave it overnight - I normally leave it for about 24 hours. This will allow the bread to soak up the cheesy egg sauce.
7. About an hour before you going to bake take it out of the fridge or cool place (I put mine in our unheated porch) to allow it to come to room temperature.
8. Then bake for about 30 - 40 minutes in an over preheated to around 180 C until it's gold brown and puffed up.
I'm going to hold my hands up here and say that this one didn't go quite right. I think I used too much bread and being gluten free which absorbs liquid differently it ended up quite solid, but it's horses for courses. If you like it softer and more eggy and pudding like use the amount of bread in the recipe, if you want to make it firmer, drier and slice able use a bit more bread.
No matter it still tasted amazing eggs and cheesy with just a hint of onion. This would easily serve 6 people but it's okay for a day or so in the fridge and is equally nice served hot or cold. We just had it on its own but it would also be nice with a green salad and Nigella herself recommends it alongside some slices of crispy bacon, not for me obviously but I'm sure it would work.
This recipe has became one of mine and Mummy Lou's new festive favourites and it takes so little effort that it's a brilliant recipe for when you just can't be bothered or you don't have much time- just remember to start it the day before you want it.
Nigella Christmas is filled with mouth watering recipes that are ideal for the festive season and beyond. I've already tried quite a few of the sweet and vegetarian recipes and their are plenty more that I still want to try, which is always the sign of a good recipe book.
Are you a fan of festive cook books and cookery programmes? Leave me a comment and let me know x
Apologies that this post is a day or so later than planned but I'm still recovering from Friday's Metro Centre shopping trip which was shall we say hellish! I've been talking about the subject of this post for the last week or so on twitter and I know a lot of you are keen to see it so here it is :)
I grew up in a family that loved cooking, baking and experimenting with food. In my house my mum and dad, loved trying out new recipes and having fun with food, and from an early ages I was always encouraged to help out in the kitchen, and later I began to experiment, and create my own foodie favourites and recipes. Christmas though was a bit different - Christmas is all about tradition and in my house a lot of them are food related. Some recipes come out year after year, my dad's sage and onion stuffing, my dad's traditional Boxing Sandwich recipes and of course the Christmas cake. Over the years I can only ever remember my mum making three different Christmas cakes, and two are from the original queen of TV cookery Delia Smith. Her Last Minute Christmas Mincemeat Cake is super quick and easy to make, my mum has even made this one on Christmas Eve, and her Creole Christmas Cake is out of this world.
I have to say I love the traditional fruit cake but even if you don't I would recommend this cake. Delia Smith famously said about this cake that it "has more fruit in it than cake, and more alcohol in it than fruit" and she's probably right - it very rich but the flavours are amazing. Mummy Lou has made this cake for quite a few years now, but after I was diagnosed with a wheat and gluten intolerance she did stop making it for a few years now. Thankfully though with a bit of experimentation she's can now makes this cake gluten and wheat free and I have to say it's amazing. First of all I'm going to give you our version and then I'll give you some hints and tips on how you can alter it to suit your own tastes, or by what you have in your cupboard :), and of course how to make it with wheat.
Delia Smith's Creole Christmas Cake Made Gluten Free
For The Pre Soaking
3 Tablespoons Rum
3 Tablespoons Brandy
3 Tablespoons Cherry Brandy
3 Tablespoons Port
3 Tablespoons Water
1 ½ Teaspoons Angostura Bitters
½ Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
½ Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
½ Teaspoon Ground Cloves
½ Teaspoon Salt
1 ½ Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Tablespoon Soft Brown Sugar
1lb Raisins
8oz Currants
4oz Stoned No Soak Prunes Chopped
2oz Glace Cherries
4oz Mixed Candied Peel
2oz Mixed Chopped Nuts
For The Cake
5 Eggs
8oz Gluten Free Self Raising Flour
1oz Ground Almonds
1 Teaspoon Xanthan Gum
9oz Butter (Room Temperature)
1oz Soft Brown Sugar
8oz Golden Caster Sugar
1. One week before you want to make you cake start to pre soak your fruit. Take a large pan (we're using a pressure cooker pan here and add the alcohol, the water, the Angostura Bitters and the vanilla extract - no vanilla essence please the extract has a much better flavour
2. Add the fruit, nuts, spices, and the salt and sugar to the pan, give it a good stir.
3. Simmer gently for around 15 minutes, giving the occasional stir till everything is warmed thorough and the house smells amazing. Allow the mixture to cool in the pan, then pop it into a large bowl, and cover with cling film. When it's completely cool pop it in the fridge or in a cool place like a porch and leave it for one week to infuse all the flavours together. You can give it the occasional stir if you like but it's fine just left as it is
4. One week later - the night before your due to make the cake - take your butter out of the fridge to make sure that it's at room temperature, it will be a nightmare if it's too hard. You can also remove the fruit from the fridge the night before too just so it's a bit easier to mix in, it can go quite syrupy and sticky.
5.Next day line a 8 inch (20cm) square cake tin with buttered greaseproof paper, double thickness on the sides. As you can see we've taken ours over the sides of the tin to protect the cake as out oven it quite hot. Later you can see that we also surrounded the tin in brown paper. We also put a square of greaseproof on the top of the cake just to make sure the top doesn't burn. After you've done that preheat your oven to Gas Mark 1 or 140° C
6. This is probably the easiest cake to make from here on it - you don't need any fancy mixers just a wooden spoon. You can put everything in together but we put the butter in a large mixing bowl first to make sure that it's softened.
7. Then add the sugar and cream that and the butter together
8. In the meantime beat the eggs together in a small bowl or a jug
9. Slowly add the flour, ground almonds and Xanthan Gum, to the butter and sugar, then add the eggs and beat together till combined.
10. Then gradually fold in your soaked fruit till it's all integrated. At this stage it's a good idea to have a little taste of the mix, just to make sure it's go enough spice for your liking we added a little bit more cinnamon and some nutmeg. You should have a soft dropping consistency - if it's too dry add a bit of water, a bit more alcohol or even some milk, if it's too soft add a touch more flour.
11. Pop your mix into your tin smoothing down the surface the best you can
12. Once it's all covered and wrapped accordingly put it into the middle of the oven. Delia advises that you leave it for 3 hours before checking it, however in our experience this is a bit too long. Don't go opening the door every two minutes, but we normally we have a look after an hour and a half or when we can start to smell it - it smells amazing by the way, if it's going too brown turn the oven down a bit, then check it again after another hour. After about 2.5 hours pop a skewer in, if it feels sticky leave it in for a bit longer, if it clean it's done. Delia recommends about 4 hours for this cake but in our experience it usually only takes about 3. I know this is a bit sketchy but you'll know yourself when it'd done, it depends really on your oven.
13. Once it's done, leave it too cool in the tin, Mummy Lou tends to leave it in the oven with the door slightly ajar usually overnight if it's been cooked on an afternoon or evening. After it's cooled completely pop it out of the tin, as you can see it should a lovely golden brown colour.
14. Obviously you can serve the cake and decorate it straight away, but we normally make it a few weeks before Christmas because the taste only improves over time. You can feed the cake with alcohol if you like, but it already has quite a bit in there to start with but Mummy Lou popped a tablespoon or two of Brandy over this one before wrapping it securely in cling film :)
and a clean tea towel - simply pop into a cool dry place until it's time to eat it or to decorate it :)
Making It With Wheat and Gluten
This recipe can be made very easily with or without gluten containing ingredients simply replace these ingredients
8oz Gluten Free Self Raising Flour
1oz Ground Almonds
1 Teaspoon Xanthan Gum
with this one to take it pretty much back to Queen Delia's original recipe
9oz Self Raising Flour
Simples :)
Hints And Tips
The fruit and nut combination is just a guide, we tend to use what we have, I'm not a huge fan of mixed peel or cherries so we put less of those in and more of other things. Sometimes we use a speciality dried fruit mix which contains pieces of pineapple and papaya which is really nice and adds to the tropical theme of the cake. Use what you have or what you like.
The same applies to the nuts, If your allergic you can leave these out altogether. I love the slightly crunchy texture that they give to the soft, rich cake. We used a combination of chopped almonds and pecans.
The alcohol mix in the original recipe is probably the best one, but again use what you have. this year we didn't have any Port so we added an extra tablespoon of everything else :)
The sugar is also variable in this recipe, we've used a mixture of soft brown sugar and golden caster sugar which produces a lighter coloured cake. If you want a richer cake you can use a dark molasses or demerara sugar.
Now I very much doubt that you have some Angostura Bitters in your cupboard but this makes such a difference to the recipe that I would definitely recommend it. It's predominantly used in the UK for cocktails such as Manhattans and Pink Gin but it really brings out the flavours of the fruit in this cake. You can pick it up from most supermarkets now. You can read a bit more about it here.
This is an amazing cake whether it's made gluten free or not. It's rich, sweet and moist. It lasts incredibly well, probably down to the alcohol content, and it even freezes if perchance you have some left over! I very much doubt you will though, it smells and tastes exactly like Christmas :) You can see Delia's original recipe on her website here, and you can also find it in her amazing book Delia Smith's Christmas, which is one of the best Christmas recipe books out there, mmm Chocolate Truffle Torte. It's also worth having a look out for Good Food Channel or Food Network UK, at this time of year because they also often show the tv series that accompanied the book. Do you like Christmas Cake? and have you tried any of Delia's recipes? let me know in the comments xx
