Ingredients

150 millilitres regular olive oil (plus more for greasing)

50 grams good-quality cocoa powder (sifted)

125 millilitres boiling water

2 teaspoons best vanilla extract

150 grams ground almonds (or 125g plain flour / 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour)

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 pinch of salt

200 grams caster sugar

3 large eggs

Method

1 Preheat your oven to 170°C/gas mark 3/325ºF. Grease a 22 or 23 cm/ 9inch springform tin with a little oil and line the base with baking parchment.

2 . Measure and sift the cocoa powder into a bowl or jug and whisk in the boiling water until you have a smooth, chocolatey, still runny (but only just) paste. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then set aside to cool a little.

3. In another smallish bowl, combine the ground almonds (or flour) with the bicarbonate of soda and pinch of salt.

4. Put the sugar, olive oil and eggs into the bowl of a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment (or other bowl and whisk arrangement of your choice) and beat together vigorously for about 3 minutes until you have a pale-primrose, aerated and thickened cream.

5. Turn the speed down a little and pour in the cocoa mixture, beating as you go, and when all is scraped in you can slowly tip in the ground almond (or flour) mixture.

6. Scrape down, and stir a little with a spatula, then pour this dark, liquid batter into the prepared tin. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the sides are set and the very centre, on top, still looks slightly damp. A cake tester should come up mainly clean but with a few sticky chocolate crumbs clinging to it.

7. Let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, still in its tin, and then ease the sides of the cake with a small metal spatula and spring it out of the tin. Leave to cool completely or eat while still warm with some ice cream, as a pudding.

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It’s a Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK this weekend – hooray! No Sunday night feeling this weekend  If you’re planning to cook something a little special, then look no further – we made this amazing lamb dish at Easter and it is my new favourite. It serves 4 people but we served 2 people with this meal and then used the other 2 portions for a fab leftover recipe – look out for that soon…

The recipe for the roast shoulder of lamb with herbs and honey is by Valentine Warner and comes from the BBC website. The recipe for roast red onions with basil comes from Nigella Lawson’s ‘Nigellissima’. I’ve written the method here combining the two recipes, so that you can just follow one thing if you want to make them both!

Ingredients

For the lamb:

1.4kg/3lb shoulder of lamb, trimmed
A handful of dried camomile (or the contents of 4 camomile teabags)
½ bunch fresh thyme, leaves only
4 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves only
12 fresh sage leaves, roughly chopped
1 tbsp dried oregano
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon, juice only
1 tbsp good Greek or wild flower clear honey
2 tbsp olive oil
125ml/4fl oz water

For the roast red onions with basil (for 4 people)

500-600g small red onions, quartered then peeled
70ml olive oil
1 tsp fennel seeds (we actually used cumin seeds because Tom hates fennel!)
1 tsp sea salt flakes (or to taste)
1 tsp best-quality balsamic vinegar (or to taste)
Large bunch fresh basil (approx. 50g)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.

2. With the tip of a sharp knife, make shallow scores through the outer layer of skin and fat of the lamb shoulder, but not into the meat, cross-hatching the entire surface.

3. Mix the dried camomile, the thyme, rosemary, sage and oregano together in a bowl. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

4. Press a handful of the herb mixture into the skin of the lamb, massaging it in well all over the flesh of the lamb. Sprinkle some of the herb mixture across the bottom of a casserole dish with a lid, and then place the lamb into the dish.

5. Squeeze the lemon juice over the top, before sprinkling with any remaining herb mix. Then drizzle the honey over the top of the lamb and pour over a little olive oil.

6. Pour the water into the casserole, then put the lid on. Transfer to the oven and cook for 2½ hours. Check the dish after one hour – the lamb should be taking on a little colour. If the water has evaporated, add a little more to maintain the dish’s moisture.

7. When you check the lamb after 1 hour, tip the quartered onions into a roasting tin. Pour the olive oil over them and then scatter over the fennel (or cumin) seeds, and then shake the tin to ensure that all the onions are coated. Put the tin in the oven and cook for 1 hour.

8. After 1 hour, remove the onions from the oven and sprinkle with the salt and drizzle the balsamic vinegar over the top. Leave (for up to 1 hour) to come to room temperature, or keep warm if you prefer.

9. After the 2½ hours cooking the lamb meat should pull away easily from the bone. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 4-5 minutes. We made some gravy with the meat juices by adding a few gravy granules.

10. To serve, using a knife and fork, pull large pieces of meat away from the bone and arrange on plates. Add the basil leaves to the onions and mix everything together before plating up. We also had Yorkshire puddings (not homemade – sorry!) and the gravy too. We’ll be making this again very soon!

The post Roast shoulder of lamb with herbs and honey served with roast red onions and basil appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

I changed the original breakfast bars recipe to suit my personal tastes, and my changes are given in brackets next to the original ingredients. I used my brownie pan to make these and cut it into 12 pieces – the original recipe says to use a 23 x 33 x 4cm tin or a throwaway foil one.

Ingredients

1 x 397g condensed milk (the low fat version is so much better for you, so I always use this now!)
250g rolled oats – not instant
75g shredded coconut
100g dried cranberries
125g mixed seeds – pumpkin, sunflower and sesame (I just used sunflower and pumpkin)
125g natural unsalted peanuts (used hazelnuts and pecans instead – I left the hazelnuts whole and chopped the pecans a little bit)

Method

1. Preheat the over to 130C/Gas Mark 1/2 and grease the tin.

2. Warm the condensed milk in a large pan.

3. Meanwhile, mix together all the other ingredients and then add the warmed condensed milk, using a rubber or wooden spatula to fold and distribute.

4. Spread the mixture into the tin and press down with the spatula to even the surface.

5. Bake for 1 hour and remove from the oven. Leave to cool for about 15 minutes before cutting into pieces, and then leave to cool completely. Then enjoy with a cuppa!

Post updated 10th August 2016.

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Another of the new recipes that we have tried out this week is Nigella Lawson’s Chicken with Tomatoes and Peppers. This is a super easy recipe to make and it’s really tasty, and you could cook it on a school night which is always great! I also think that leftovers would make an excellent lunch too, or just pop it in the freezer for another day. We served this with orzo pasta, but it would go well with green veg or some crusty bread.

The original recipe states that you should use chicken thigh fillets – we couldn’t find any but bought thighs with the bones. Tom spent ages (and I mean ages!) removing the meat from the bones before cooking, and he has told me to say ‘Do not do this!’ Either cook the chicken with the bone, or use breast fillets – but trying to remove the meat from the bone is really more hassle than it is worth! We couldn’t find a jar of flame-roasted peppers in our local supermarket, so roasted a couple of red pointed sweet peppers instead.

Ingredients (serves 3-4)

1 x 15ml tablespoon garlic oil
1 small brown onion, finely chopped
500g chicken thigh fillets, cut into bitesize pieces
1 tsp dried oregano
2 x 15ml tablespoons marsala
1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes, plus water to rinse out can
1 tsp sea salt flakes, or 1/2 tsp pouring salt
1 x 290g jar (190g drained weight) flame roasted red peppers (or use 2 peppers and roast yourself)

Method

1. If you are roasting peppers, heat the oven and chop the peppers into medium sized pieces. Place on a tray and cover with olive oil before roasting.

2. Pour the garlic oil into a pan and cook the onion until soft, stirring frequently. Add the chicken along with the oregano and turn in the hot pan. Add the marsala and watch it bubble up, before promptly adding the tomatoes and the salt.

3. Half-fill the empty can with water and pour it into the pan, swilling out as much of the tomato as you can.

4. Drain the peppers and snip with scissors into bitesize pieces (or remove your roasted peppers from the over). Add to the pan and then bring to the boil before turning down the heat and leaving to cook at a steady simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes until the sauce has thickened.

5. As the pan is simmering, cook the orzo pasta. When the pasta is done and the chicken cooked through, serve in bowls or serve straight from the pan at the table. Enjoy!

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Ingredients (serves 4)

For the rice:
1 mug (300g) of quick cook basmati rice
1 big pinch of dried porcini mushrooms (or a handful of field mushrooms)
1/2 a lemon
A few sprigs of fresh lemon thyme

For the pork:
500g pork fillet
1 heaped tsp ground coriander
1 heaped tsp sweet paprika
Olive oil
1 small red onion
A few sprigs of fresh sage
1 swig of Marsala
70ml single cream (we used 2 heaped tbsp low fat creme fraiche instead)

For the broccoli:
250g trimmed tenderstem broccoli
Zest and juice of 1/2 unwaxed lemon
30g parmesan (freshly flaked or supermarket tub)
1 x 15ml tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Put one mug of rice and two mugs of boiling water into a pan, tear in the porcini mushrooms and add a pinch of salt, the lemon half and lemon thyme. Put the lid on the pan and leave to simmer. (If you’re not using porcini mushrooms, follow the steps minus the mushrooms – we cooked ours separately and added them later.)

2. Score lengthways halfway through the centre of the pork, open it out like a book and then flatten it slightly with your fist. Rub it with salt, pepper, the ground coriander and paprika, then put it into the frying pan with 1 tbsp of olive oil, turning regularly until cooked through.

3. If using fresh mushrooms, chop them into pieces and cook in a little olive oil. Finely chop the red onion, pick the sage leaves and add them both to the pork to fry for a few minutes. Heat a pan of water (we pre-boil the water to speed up the process) and add the broccoli, which should be cooked until the stalk is tender.

4. Once the pork is cooked through, add a good swig of marsala – you can light it if you wish (we didn’t) and then let the flames subside. Then transfer the pork onto a board, add the single cream or creme fraiche to the pan and reduce to a good consistency.

5. Fluff up the rice (adding the mushrooms if you have cooked them separately) and carve the pork into 1cm slices. Drain the broccoli and transfer into a warmed bowl, adding the lemon zest and juice. Toss to coat before adding the parmesan flakes and the olive oil, tossing again.

6. Pour the sauce over the pork with the greens and rice to the side.

The photo on this post isn’t amazing (sorry!), but I promise that this Pork Marsala with Mushroom Rice and Broccoli with Lemon and Parmesan tastes amazing. You might also enjoy Jamie Oliver’s chicken pie or Nigella’s chocolate olive oil cake.

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