Im going to Cornwall!!!

I'm so excited, I'm going on a road trip to St Just in Cornwall with my Boyfriend and four of our friends for a whole week on Saturday. We've rented a gorgeous cottage overlooking the sea, we have a lovely big garden and one of the oldest buthcers in the UK on our doorstop so fingers crossed there will be many BBQ'S and I'm going to stuff myself silly with Cornish pasties, cream teas and fresh locally caught seafood.
I 'll be back next week with loads of photo's and some lovely recipes, in the meantime here is a chicken Tikka pasanda I made using a recipe from 'The Curry Secret' by Kris Dhillon, a curry cookbook that tells you how to make curry's the same as the ones you get in UK takeaways so they aren't authentic but GOD Damn that was a seriously delicious curry!

Pork Belly

I love pork belly and would eat it every day if I thought I could get away with it, it's creamy fat that renders into the meat so it's meltingly tender and of course the best bit of all....the crackling.
It's a very sad affair when your crackling doesn't crackle and there are many tried and tested methods for getting it right and I have tried them all. The trick is to the skin as dry as you possibly can, I cover my slab of belly in rock salt and leave it for around an hour then wipe the salt off with kitchen towel a nd try to soak up as much of the moisture as possible for using a hair dryer to dry it out even more!!!
To cook my pork belly I cover the sides in tin foil to protect it when the oven is turned up to the fullest to achieve the crackle!!






Here she is in all her glory with cauliflower cheese, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, Roast parsnips and lot's of lovely veg. There was of course cider gravy and apple sauce as well.

Salted Chocolate and Almond Cheesecake

Ive made another cheesecake I couldn't help myself, the last one was so delicious not making another seemed bad and almost wrong like a puppy or a fairy ( Fairies are real) would die somewhere if I didn't...at least that's what I told my boyfriend when he asked why I was making cheesecake again, think of the puppies and fairies God damn you. I made my cheesecake with Lindt chocolate and I used there 70% coco bar and two of the salted almond bars which were heaven, that tiny bit of salt seasons the chocolate so well and it made the most delicious cheesecake. I always make no-bake cheesecakes and one day I may change that but for now I am happy just mixing melted chocolate with cream cheese, creme fraiche and double cream mmmmmmmmmm

Beef Shin Stew

Hellloooooo summer where are you???? Were ready for you now, it's a bit miserable and grey here and everyone would really appreciate it if you just hurried up and started spreading all those lovely D vitamins around with your sunny rays, no....fine well F you then I'll just make a big vat of delicious stew and I don't even actually mind because I secretly prefer winter food anyway so I win.

Beef Shin Stew

Beef Shin cut into chunks
Beef Stock
Shallots
Carrots
Red wine
Bay Leaves
Seasoned Flour
Mushroom Ketchup

Cover your beef in seasoned flour and brown off in a big casserole dish, then add your peeled whole shallots and carrot's, fry gently for a few mins the add red wine, beef stock, bay leaves and a splash of mushroom ketchup.
transfer it into a pre heated oven and cook for as long as your dare or as long you have, I managed 3 and a half hours and I served it with mashed potatoes and savoy cabbage, lovely jubbley.

Triple Chocolate, Dime Bar and Raspberry Cheescake

There are loads of recipes that I have never made but really feel like I should have and cheesecake is definitely one of them, it also happens to be one of my most favourite things to eat so what the hell have I been doing for the last 26 years for the love of God?! I wanted to make a chocolate and raspberry cheesecake but then I thought why just use one type of chocolate when I could use three? So I used three, dark chocolate, white chocolate and two large bars of Milka with bits of dime bar in it, yea boy!!
I'm not gonna lie guys I didn't measure anything as usual because I like to live dangerously, so here is what I put in my cheesecake minus the measurements....

Dark Chocolate
White Chocolate
Milka with Dime bar
Chocolate Chip digestives
Butter
Coco Powder
Double Cream
Cream Cheese
Creme Fraiche
Icing Sugar
Raspberries
Caster Sugar




I used the choc chip digestives, coco powder, caster sugar and butter to make my base


I combined my cream cheese, cream, icing sugar and creme fraiche


Chocolate!!!!




I tried swirling in all the different chocolates to give it a marbled effect and the I added my raspberry's


Here she is in all her glory ready to be put in the fridge to set


My beautiful cheesecake...TA DA!!!!!

Pork Fillet with roasted Apples and Bubble and Squeak

The weather has been really nice recently until yesterday and it all went a bit tit's up with a thunderstorm, rain and full force winds that nearly blew me over
so I felt like eating something a bit comforting and pork fillet with apples sounded like fine idea to me!




I started off by pan frying the fillet in butter with apples and onions. I also put some potatoes to boil for my bubble and squeak.


I then transferred everything into a baking dish with some more butter (because I love it!) and half a can of scrumpy cider and left it to cook for around half an hour.


I mashed my potatoes with milk, butter, mature cheddar and pepper. I also added some cabbage to the mash that I had sauteed in butter but for got to take a picture of because I am a fool.


Bubble and Squeak!!!!


Here's my lovely pork when it's out of the oven.


And here is the finished article and yes it was amazing and yes I did it all myself and no you can't have any......

Stawberry and Raspberry Trifle

I adore trifle, laden with all that cream, custard and lovely fruit, it reminds me of long hot summer days, pimms with mint, cucumber and strawberries and running through sprinklers! It also reminds me of Christmas when my Mum makes one with Damson's or plums with crystallized violets on top which is delicious(My Mum said I mention her a bit often in my blog but I have just done it again so take that Mother!)
This is a very very simple version without jelly or sherry and I have cheated by using good quality shop bought Maderia cake and vanilla custard and the result was absolutely fabulous darling!!

One packet of maderia cake
Large pot of whipping cream
pot of vanilla custard
punnet of raspberries
punnet of strawberries
Good quality strawberry jam


My naughty shop bought Maderia cake cut into slices.


I covered the slices of maderia cake in 'Bon Mamma' strawberry jam.


I then covered the cake in strawberries and raspberries.


Look! The custard I used instead of making my own, I'll tell you what though Sainsburys 'taste the difference' Madagascan vanilla custard is truly delicious and has lot's of real bits of black vanilla in it which can't be a bad thing.


Instead of the usual one layer of cake and fruit, I went for two with a layer of custard in between.


I can assure you that is custard and not cream, if you look very closely you can see the vanilla..ooohhhhhh


Sorry about the less than great view from my balcony but I think my trifle needed some natural light to show it in all it's trifle glory!


The best thing of all about my trifle is that my stupid boyfriend doesn't like trifle so ha bloody ha to him because I'm going to eat it all and if I put on any weight then it's his fault for not liking the trifle.