Chocolate Brownies

This is one of my favourite recipes, it's quick and easy, great when I need to scratch that baking itch. It's ingredients tend to always be in my cupboard so I can whip up a tasty snack in no time. It also has a lot less sugar that most other Brownie recipes I've seen so it's more chocolatey and less sickly.

Ingridients

100g Butter
40g Coca powder (not drinking chocolate)
2 eggs
150g sugar
50g flour
50g chocolate chips (optional)

Method

Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 5. Melt the Butter over a low heat. When completley emlted take off the heat and stir in the cocoa powder. Mix until smooth.

Beat together the eggs and sugar until light. Add the cocolate mixture and combine.

Sieve in the flour and add the chocolate chips, fold until completley combined.

Pour into a 9 inch tin and bake for about 20mins until cooked through.

Malt loaf

100g All-bran
350g Sultanas
450ml Milk
250g Self raising flour
1 Beaten egg

Mix together except flour leave for one hour. Add flour and the egg and mix together well bake in a 1lb loaf tin and bake at 130°c (fan oven) for an hour or gas mark 5 for an hour and a half.

Bran, Dried fruit, and milk

After it's been left to absorb for an hour 

after mixing in the flour and egg

Then spoon out the mixture into a prepared loaf tin. After you've put it in the oven keep an eye on it, if it looks like it will burn put some foil over the top.

When cooked through leave to cool, enjoy a slice with a thick spreading of butter.

Ta-daaa

Carrot & Orange Soup and Parsnip & Apple Soup

So once again it's blowing a hooley and raining horizontally. I've cooked up some warming soups to keep us going through the inevitable power cut.

Firstly these recipes are not that exact and a lot of it is down to personal taste.


Carrot & Orange (V)

5 large Carrots
1 medium red onion
1 large potato
2 pints of vegetable stock
1/2 pint Orange juice
salt and pepper to taste

1. Finley dice the onion and gently fry until soft but not brown.

2. Peel the carrots and potato roughly chop and add to the pan with 1 pint of the stock. Bring to the boil, then simmer until the veg is soft enough to break with a fork.

3. When the vegetables are tender blend the soup until smooth, return to the pan and over a low heat stir in the Orange Juice.

4. Add the rest of the stock, how much you put in is up to you, depending on how thick you like your soup. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Both of these soups go really well with a little bit of Stilton on Toast, perfect for a cold winter afternoon.

Parsnip & Apple

5 largeish Parsnips
1 medium red onion
3 apples (I used royal gala but any apple would do)
2 pints of Chicken stock
1/4 pint milk
paprika, salt and pepper taste

1. finely chop the onion fry over a low heat until soft.

2. Roughly chop the Parsnips and apple add to the pot with 1 pint of the stock.Bring to the boil them turn down to a simmer until the apples and parsnips are soft enough to be broken with a fork.

3. Blend the soup and return to the heat. Add the milk and stir. Add the rest of the stock or enough to give your preferred consistency.

4. season with Paprika, Salt and a little Pepper to taste.

Again this soup goes well with some stilton on toast on the side. Finish the Soups with a dash of cream and a sprinkling of herbs.

Purdy was disappointed she couldn't try some

Much love Alice x 

Double BBQ Cheese Burgers with Bacon

My first recipe, how exciting!

When cooped up in the long winter months, with the wind and the rain battering at the windows I like cooking things that remind me of Summer. I based this recipe off a wonderful canadian friend of mine, Captain Barbecue. I've taken how I think she did things and put my own spin on it. These burgers are juicy, full of flavour and so easy! Great on the grill or the BBQ. This recipe serves 4 people and makes 8 small-ish patties.

Ingredients:

For the Burgers
460g Good quality Beef mince
1 small onion
1 tbsp BBQ sauce plus extra for glazing
A pinch of salt
1tsp mixed herbs

Extras
4 rolls
4 rashes of smoked back bacon
Cheese (whatever kind you fancy I use a mixture of Cheddar and Red Leicester)
Salad to Garnish (I didn't have any this evening as the boat didn't come in yesterday so there was none in the shops)

Method:

1. Finley dice the onion and place in a large mixing bowl. Add the minced beef, BBQ sauce, salt and mixed herbs. Mix with your hands until well combined.

This is the sauce I used because it's my favourite and really yummy. You can use any you like :)

one finely diced onion courtesy of my lovely boyfriend

Then just kinda smush it all together

2. Now to form make the burgers. The best thing for this is a burger press, you can pick them up for about a fiver on the inerwebs. I'm using my mum's which was her mum's before that, practically an antique. You can just form them in your hands but I can't promise how well they'll stick together. Divide the mixture into four and then each of those into two. Form your burgers and leave to rest in the fridge for about half an hour.

Burger Press

Burger meat pre squash

Burgers ready for Grilling

3. If it was sunny outside I would Barbecue these, however I live in the west of Scotland so even in the summer this is a rare occurrence. What I do when I can't cook alfresco is firstly grill the burgers on the highest setting, searing the outside. Baste each Burger with a little more BBQ sauce when brown turn over and repeat. When brown n both sides finish them in the oven on a moderate heat until cooked through.

Basting some burgers

5 mins before serving add cheese and return to the oven

(My Bf tried them with Mozzarella 'approved')

add bacon

Add a toasted roll...

And some chips...

and voila!

Time for your close up hunni

So yeah Burgers! Next time I might try frying the onions first to get that fried/caramelised onion vibe. now...Pub...

Hello!

Failte! This is my food blog,  where I shall blog about food...obviously...

Here you will find recipes that I enjoy cooking in my Kitchen. Some I have created from scratch, others are modifications from people I know and any other gems that I come across in my travels.

I'm a short, stocky ginger girl from the hebrides. I love cooking, Morris Dancing and the sea (as long as I'm not on it or in it). I thought I should do something more creative with my love of food than just gaining a few extra pounds so I thought I'd share it with you.

Feel free to ask me any questions and I'd love some feedback.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Much love,
Alice x