A couple of students were given the job of baking a cake and bringing it in for the free hour. You can easily see why this the class was my (and others’) favourite class in school. The two most baked cakes were chocolate cake and bladan kage(grøn gift kage) aka poison cake. As you can see from the picture, who wouldn’t want to put that in their mouth when you are young, or even young at heart?

600grams Butter
600grams Sugar
6 Eggs
600grams Flour
2.5tspns Baking powder
3.75dl. Milk
2tbspns Almond Flavouring
4tbspns Green food colouring

Mix the butter and sugar together then add the eggs one by one into the mix. Mix the flour and baking powder in. Then the milk, food colouring and almond flavouring, try to mix these things before, just so that you can see the green milk :)

Put this in to a pre-buttered oven tray (this is a rather large cake!) and put it into a 200c pre-heated oven for around 25-30 min.

When it have cooled down, yes I know it is hard, you can apply a healthy helping of icing or frosting, chocolate or plain sugar icing, on top.

Enough new potatoes for 4, scrubbed and cut into 2cm chunks.

Heat the oil in a hot frying pan and fry the cumin and mustard seeds for a minute. Now add the ginger, garlic and onion and continue frying for a further minute before adding the turmeric, garam masala and chilli powder (optional). Cook for 1 more minute.

Now turn the heat down to low and add the potatoes to the pan. Mix in half a mug of water, put the lid on and continue cooking for about 10-15 minutes, stirring regularly, or until the potatoes are just tender. You may need to add a little extra water to stop them sticking to the pan as they cook. Add just what you need to keep the potatoes moving in the pan, though, so they’re quite dry when you serve them.

Enjoy!

You have to test that the cake is edible, don’t you? You wouldn’t want to serve something that is crap would you? What do you do?

Stares at the Victoria Sponge cake that Peli has just pulled out of the oven.

Ingredients:
knob of butter, melted
225g/8oz butter, softened
225g/8oz caster sugar
4 large free-range eggs
225g/8oz self-raising flour, sifted (you may need a bit extra)

For the filling:
6 tbsp good-quality raspberry jam
300ml buttercream (butter creamed with icing sugar with dash of milk to soften)

To serve:
icing sugar, for dusting

Preparation method:
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

Gently heat the knob of butter in a pan and brush two 6in-7in/15cm-17.5cm cake tins with the melted butter. Line the bottom of the two cake tins with a circle of greaseproof paper.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy, using an electric whisk or a wooden spoon. Beat well to get lots of air into the mixture (this should take a couple of minutes).

Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add a tablespoon of flour if the mixture curdles.

Fold in the flour using a large metal spoon. Be careful not to over-mix it.

Pour the mixture equally between the two cake tins and level off the top with a spatula.

Place in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cakes spring back when pressed gently with a finger and are pale golden in colour.

Remove from the oven and take them out of the tins after about 5-10 minutes. Place them on a wire rack to cool completely (for about half an hour).

Spread the sponge with the jam and the buttercream, then carefully sandwich together.

Dust with icing sugar and serve.

Enjoy!

Method:
In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
In a small mixing bowl, beat the eggs, yoghurt, peanut butter and oil until well mixed together; stir into the dry ingredients (don’t stir too much or your muffins will lose their lightness).

Fill muffin tins half full.
Top each with 3/4 teaspoon jam and remaining batter.
Bake at 180 Celsius for 16-20 minutes or until golden brown.
Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to a wire rack.

Enjoy!

For the salad dressing:
4 tbsp olive oil
Grated zest and juice of 1 unwaxed lemon
1 tsp honey
1 clove garlic, crushed
black pepper
sea salt

Method

1. Cook the rice as you would normally (I usually use the microwave).
Use water with a teaspoon of bouillon for added flavour.

2. Allow the cooked rice to cool.

3. Mix together the cooled rice, pepper, onion, mushrooms, cherry
tomatoes, and coriander.

4. Make the salad dressing by mixing together the olive oil, lemon
juice, honey and garlic. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

5. Pour the salad dressing over the rice salad and toss through.

Peli had it as you can see with fried haloumi cheese and I had it with roasted chicken breast. And it was right up there on the yummy scale.

Enjoy.

A few splashes of olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
5 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
400g mushrooms (any variety). Roughly chop half of them. Whizz the other half in a blender for ten seconds to create tiny mushroom pieces
Sea salt and black pepper
Finely chopped parsley

To serve:
400g dried spaghetti
a good handful of fresh rocket or watercress to serve pine nuts
50g Parmesan cheese, finely grated
Place a large pan over a medium heat. Add oil. When it’s hot, add the onions and garlic and cook until softened, 10-15mins. Add the mushrooms. Season well. Cook until the mushroom mixture is nice and moist, kind of like a rough pate/pesto.

Cook your spaghetti in salted water.

Then, fold in the herbs. Add the pasta to the pan with the mushroom mixture, and with two forks, work the mixture through the pasta. Plate up and finish each with a mound of greenery (rocket, watercress or just a nice handful of chopped parsley), a little drizzle of olive oil and some parmesan.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and garlic (lots) and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. The add mushrooms and then add the leek. Add the rice and stir for 3 minutes. Add a ladle of stock and cook, stirring, until the liquid evaporates. Sprinkle the oregano in.

Continue cooking, adding a ladle of stock at a time, until the rice is tender but still slightly firm in the centre and the mixture is creamy.

The process will take 20-30 minutes.

Add the blanched asparagus pieces and stir until they are heated through. Remove from the heat, stir in the butter and Parmesan, and season to taste with (lots) pepper.

You can use pretty much any kind of potato for this and get the same result. Though new baby spuds right out of the ground we all know are best boiled with a bit of butter, mmmmm. Anywhoo, back to roasting.

Fire up your oven to around 220C/Gas mark 6-7 (that is in a fan oven though).

Then clean your potatoes, scrub behind the ears and cut the nasty bits off and leave the skin on. I think they taste better and are crispier with the skin on. Chop them up into good sized bits, though not too small.

Then boil the potatoes just until they start to get soft on the outside, don’t boil them fully. Drain and throw in a few lumps of butter into the pot. Then put the lid back on and give the potatoes a good old shake, before you place them on a oven tray.

Now this part is where you get creative. Plenty of oil (sunflower or olive) and then what every you fancy that day or have in the cupboard.

Black ground pepper is the easiest. Sprinkle some mixed herbs over the potatoes are also good. Pretty much any spice you want to used.

Getting more creative, chop some onion, garlic even red cabbage and throw into the oven tray.

The way I get the roasted potatoes nice and crisp is to sprinkle a bit of soya sauce and balsamic vinegar over them.

How long I leave the potatoes in the oven I can’t say, just that I mix it all together and then give the potatoes a good stir now and again. The longer you leave the potatoes between the stirs makes them more roasted and crispy. And to get even more gluttonous get some cheese to great over the roasted potatoes.

Tonight’s roasting was with some garlic and some chilli flakes sprinkled over. Then served with Able and Cole’s ever so yummy free range chicken breasts also roasted but just with a bit of ground pepper over. With a a tomato, radish and spinach salad that Peli knocked up.

Enjoy!

1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
1 butternut squash, diced
1 whole head of garlic, half finely chopped, half still full cloves
1 tsp mixed herbs
500g pack lentils (I used Merchant Gourmet Puy lentils)
1.7l vegetable stock
1 tin tomatoes
2kg floury potatoes, such as King Edwards
100ml milk
50g grated cheddar

Roast the butternut squash in a hot oven (200C) for 40 minutes until soft and the edges are browning. Add the garlic cloves halfway through and roast for 20 minutes until soft.

To make the sauce, heat the oil in a pan, then gently fry the onions and garlic for 15 mins until soft and golden. Add the tinned tomatoes
and simmer for a few minutes. Stir in the herbs, and add the lentils.

Pour over the stock and simmer for 40-50 mins until the lentils are very soft. Now season to taste and take off the heat.

While the lentils are cooking, tip the potatoes into a pan of water, then boil for about 15 mins until tender. Drain well, mash with the butter and milk, then season with salt and pepper. Add the roasted garlic to the mash and stir through.

To assemble the pie, add the lentil mixture to the bottom of a large oven dish, then top with mash. Scatter over the roasted butternut squash cubes, followed by the cheese.

Bake for 30 mins until the topping is golden.

Enjoy!

Our good friend Fi in Australia is a big outdoors person and she gave us a fantastic tip for cooking pasta while touring. Use ‘Angel Hair’ spaghetti, which is very thin and cooks in no time at all!

We didn’t have any problems finding it in Australia and New Zealand and I have seen it here in the UK. Elsewhere, I’m sure that they would have something like it.

And as you know, pasta is easy to cook: either make your own sauce or get some pesto or pre-made tomato sauce to stir in, add some vegetables such as mushrooms or asparagus, and you’ve got a filling, nutritious meal. With Angel Hair pasta that empty stomach will be filled in no time.

Enjoy!

Though, they suffer from the classic “Serves 2″ syndrome, so we use two packets along with other stuff to fill our cycle starved stomach and tired legs. As you see on the photo we used fresh asparagus, they were in season while we toured in New Zealand (yummy), and some cheese to fill out the meal. You can easy put in broccoli, red or green peppers, spinach or anything else that just need to be boiled for a few minutes.

All the meals need some water and some flavours a bit of milk, you can cook these without milk, though they do taste better with.

The pasta ‘n’ sauce are also “easy” on your fuel for your camping stove. Pretty much bring the water and a bit off milk to the boil and then simmer until the pasta is “al dente”.

Eat with some bread to soak up the sauce and enjoy!

Dice the potato into 1crn (1/2in) pieces and pop them into a medium to hot ovenprooffrying pan with a few glugs ofolive oil. Give them a toss every minute or so while cooking.

While they are sizzling away,wash and chop your leek by splitting it lengthways from the root end three or four times (don’t cut through
the root or the layers will come apart). Rinse the leek and then chop into finger-width pieces – the root has served its purpose now so you
can chop it offand bin it!

When the potatoes are golden brown and cooked through, throw in your leek and onion and give these a toss. l until the onion becomes softened and translucent.Turn the heat down to low and spread the spinach on top of the other veg, lightly pressing
down with the back ofa spatula for another minute or so until the spinach starts to wilt.

Now pour over your eggs and top with cheese. Sprinkle with paprika and seasoning and put into the oven for about 10-12 minutes or until the top is nice and golden. Remove from the oven and let it sit for 2 minutes before slicing and serving.

Anywhoooo, she persisted and did her wonders in the kitchen and shortly after the wonderful smell came drifting through the flat.

2oz/50g cocoa powder
6oz/175g plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
7oz/200g caster sugar
250g pack cooked beetroot
3 medium eggs
7fl oz/200ml sunflower oil
3.5oz/100g dark chocolate, finely chopped
Icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas 4

Then grease and line the bottom of a 9″/23cm springform cake tin. Sieve the cocoa, flour, baking powder and sugar into a large mixing bowl.

Drain and halve the beetroot, then blend in a food processor. With the machine running, add the eggs one at time, then pour in the oil. Blend until the liquid is just smooth.

Stir the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and mix in the chocolate. Pour into the tin and cook for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and set aside for 10 mins, then turn out and leave to cool. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

This set aside bit is rather hard with this very so yummy cake.

Able and Cole now delivers so much, much more compared*) to when I was working there. And to be honest their produce is much better now than back then. Well and truly yummy! It is always a great pleasure to open up one’s boxes to see what we are going to eat that week. Sometimes we do have to look at the order to see what weird and wonderful vegetables are.

*) Back in the day it was pretty much only potatoes and eggs, with mineral water and veggies on the side.

We have now enjoyed their organic deliveries for little over a year. Always on time and never bashed up. The few times we have emailed them about a veggie not being to their unseal standards. They have replied right away with offers for a refund, without a moan.

Price, well compared to the supermarkets they are maybe a little bit more dear but the quality is so much better. So it is well worth it getting your fresh, and it is, fruit and vegetables from them and get the rest from the supermarkets.

The recipes ideas you get with your delivery are always spot on and written with a little humour. The meat, bread are always in top quality and I really their organic beer box last Christmas.

And then there is the milk they get from Berkeley Farm Dairy which uses a herd of Guernsey cows. I know and love my milk, ain’t milk brill? But this is probably the best milk I have every had. I got my thing about cheeses and cheddar (that is for another post) but boy is the Green’s Farmhouse Mature Cheddar ever so yummy. I think it is the first thing we nibble on while going through the boxes.

Our box along with the extras we get last pretty much a week. A few times are out of goodies on the night before and have to resort to tins, left overs or takeaways.

Able and Cole is probably one of the best websites I have ever used. The amount of options and settings you can do to your order, every week or month etc. is done by a simple click. If you don’t like something just click dislike and you will never see it in your vegetable box again.

The little treats they send you now and again, halloumi cheese and mince pies etc. go down a treat. This along with the great flyers, recipes etc makes sure that you will come back and use them.

LINK : http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/

Preheat oven to 200°C/ 400°F/ Gas Mark 6.

Cut the aubergine into 3 mm thick slices. Heat half of the oil in a fry pan and fry each of the aubergine slices in batches until golden brown on each side. If the pan becomes dry, add more oil. Drain on kitchen towel.

Halve the tomatoes.

Lightly cook the sliced fennel in salted water.

Arrange the tomatoes, aubergine and fennel in a shallow ovenproof dish. Season with salt and pepper and then sprinkle with Parmesan and breadcrumbs.

Bake for 30 minutes until browned.

Leave to stand for a few minutes before serving.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10-15 minutes

Peanut Dressing:
6 tablespoons peanut butter (chunky for sure)
1 tablespoon soy sauce (dark and a bit more if you like it)
1 garlic clove, finely minced (e.g. plenty of garlic)
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, finely grated
A sliver of fresh red chilli, finely minced (Lazy chilly as Peli calls them are just as good)
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon rice or cider vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 ½ teaspoons ground turmeric
4-6 tablespoons water (that depends on how much peanut butter you used)

Noodles & Veg:
250g soba, udon or brown rice noodles or spaghetti
A mug of leftover roast chicken, pork, beef or duck (optional)
3 carrots, cut into matchsticks
4 spring onions, sliced
1 cucumber or courgette, cut into matchsticks
A handful of thinly sliced red or green pepper, runner beans, shredded cabbage, fresh podded peas, or any other veg you need to shift from your fridge
A handful fresh coriander leaves
Olive or sesame oil

Mix all the peanut dressing ingredients together until combined. You can make this up to a week in advance. It also freezes well – a great thing to have a standby. Cook the noodles according to instructions on the pack. Drain water off, add a splash of olive or sesame oil. Fluff through. Set aside. Place another pan of water on the heat. Bring to the boil. Plunge the carrots in the water and cook for 3-5, just to soften them a bit so your jaws aren’t lumbered with too much crunch. Add the spring onions right at the end and then drain. Add a sprinkle of salt and a splash of oil. Tip the peanut dressing into one of the pans. Place over low heat. Whisk to mix and gently warm through. Add the noodles. Gently fold them into the peanut dressing. Scatter meat over, if using. Arrange a handful of veg on each plate. Top with noodles (and meat, if using). Then, layer veg and noodles until everything’s used up. Finish each plate with a handful of fresh coriander leaves and a splash of soy sauce. Serve. Delicious with a cold beer or a crisp white wine.

Then they have to go and ruin a nice cuppa with milk and sugar! WHY?

Yes I did when I was younger have a bit of sugar in my tea. But I figured out why I did that, it was because the tea I was drinking was rather bitter. PG-tip I’m looking at you.

I used to work at a place where we had a tea lady. One day she made a cup of tea extra, instead of it going waste I put my hand up, when asked. I then got served a cup of hot milk with sugar in it. There was no what so ever any taste of the tea I had been served. Needless to say one sip and in the sink it went.

When you go to a greasy spoon and get your fry up and as for tea. Do make sure that you tell the staff a few times and make it clear if you want a black tea. They make tea with milk hundreds of times a day so it is motor reflexes to grab that bottle of milk. The amount of cups of teas I have to send back because they have put milk in. “Black tea” many places just mean tea that have brewed a bit longer with a bit of milk in. I have yet to find a good cup of tea in a cafe, since they tend to just use a big pot with x numbers of tea bags in and let that brew most of the day.

PG-tips and Tetley seem to be the most popular cuppa out there, but when they get to brew for a long time, it becomes rather undrinkable. Twinings and Typhoo is pretty much the tea that people drink in the UK, if we go by the places we have visited abroad.

My folks had a spell off: we gotta try this afternoon tea malarkey. I took them some various teas and I’m pretty sure that they enjoyed them too. Though the only tea they had left when I last visited was fruit teas, now that is just wrong.

I used to drink English Breakfast and Earl Gray by the buckets, along with Assam, Darjeeling and the like. But never found a tea, that was my cuppa tea, get it?

Then I got introduced to Rooibos (aka Redbush) by a good friend and few years later Peli gave me a cuppa of Yorkshire Tea. Which now are my two favourite teas to drink, both without milk or sugar, as I like taste the tea. Green Tea have its place also and if you get a good cup it is rather enjoyable.

Even Peli have her “tea headaches” when she haven’t had a cup of tea for awhile. She enjoyed the cup we found in Croatia after a week cycling there. While in Australia, while visiting a friend, we found hidden in the cupboard a bag of Yorkshire tea. Which made our day!

Oh, was that the kettle that finished, want a cuppa?

This is the only thing in our household that can bring the family to a fight. “He had more than me”, “I only had the chocolate one”, itsnotfair!

3-4 egg yolks (depending on size).
1 dl of sugar (1/10 of a liter, around a cup I think).

Mix into a eggnog, make sure the sugar crystals are mixed into the egg yolks.

1 pint of double fat cream. Don’t try to get the one that is half fat, the ice cream will not like it. Now whip that into a nice and fluffy whipped cream.

Then mix the lot together along with a wee drop of vanilla flavouring (if you like that kind of stuff).

Then top up with whatever flavoring you like: I have tried with fine chopped marzipan and dark chocolate, toblerone, M&M’s do freeze them first as they will melt, in the mix and turn the ice cream into rainbow, but then again you might like that.

My mum have tried fresh fruits but they have just crystallized and that have ruined the ice cream, might be worth to try out dried fruit.

I made one with milk chocolate and two shots of Baileys mixed in at the end. Now that was a VERY successful ice cream, I didn’t get to taste much, as I got pushed away.

And then bang it into the freezer to “cook” for around 24 hours or until it is solid.

Now remember to lick the bowl and enjoy!

BTW: do make two since the first one will disappear before you know it.

Over the years over here I have had my fair share of fish ‘n’ chips, but have never really gone “Wow, this is good and tasty.”

Because the English like sloppy chips, which I have never understood. It really just tastes and feels like half cooked potatoes. A little longer in the fryer and you’ll get such a lovely crispy chip that tastes so much better.

The other day at our LBS they were having fish and chips and we just had to go via the shop to have a taste since it looked and smelled that good.

We headed down to Fishers Fish and Chips, 19 Fulham High Street, London, SW6 3JH and our palates got treated to the best fish ‘n’ chip I have ever had.

There was plenty of chips which were big and “hand cut” and very crispy and the cod that I had was in a word massive and very tasty, not dry. numnum :)

I normally don’t post about food but I read this article on the beeb yesterday, The unlikely origin of fish and chips, it is the 150th anniversary of the what was the UK’s favourite take away.

Then one day few years ago I was starving and my co-worker gave me his packed lunch so he could hear over my rumbling stomach. And in there was a peanut butter sandwich with raspberry and it went down a storm :)

You can even use your favourite honey or jelly etc but it is proper cycling food, right up there with flapjacks.

Who ever figured out that a peanut butter and raspberry jam sandwich with banana would be numnum. Deserves an Oscar, the Noble peace price, the Prince Philip Designers Prize/Award or just a good old hug.