The Food Monologues

My dad called me last night and asked if there was going to be bringing cakes round as it was my niece's birthday this week.  My sister told me that she was going to buy some cake to bring round, but I thought I had better make some low sugar cakes too, as my mum is diabetic and shouldn't really be eating cake, but as its a birthday treat I didn't want her to miss out.  So at eleven o'clock at night, I set about baking some Hokkaido cupcakes, which are filled mini chiffon cakes which are super light and fairly low in sugar.  I used this recipe, Hokkaido Cup Cake Recipe and tweaked the recipe a bit by using stevia sweetener for half the sugar in the recipe and scaled the recipe to a four egg recipe so that I could make 12 muffin sized cakes.

They rose beautifully in the oven and I had to wait for them to cool down before I could fill them and as soon as they cool down, they will deflate.  As it was past midnight when the cakes were done, I thought I would call it a night and would fill the cakes in the morning.

The early the next morning, as it was snowing outside, I really didn't fancy a trip to the local convenience store to see if they might have any cream, which is what I normally fill Hokkaido cupcakes with so I looked up a recipe for cream patissiere. that was not too sweet and that I had the ingredients for.  I found this Cream Patissiere Recipe that fit my bill.  Substituting with semi skimmed milk (because that was all I had) and replacing half the sugar with stevia again, I added a whole scraped vanilla pod in with the milk as well.  I have never made cream patisserie before but it was very straightforward and I was very pleased with the smooth rich taste - though with the stevia added it tasted a little too sweet, so maybe next time I will reduce the amount I add a little.

Chinese cream cakes, like the ones you get from a Chinese bakery are often topped with a vast array of fruit, and these cupcakes are a little bit like mini Chinese cream cakes.  In my fridge I had some blueberries and kiwi fruit and in my cupboard I had some tinned peaches, so I was good to go and prepped the fruit and was ready to assemble to cakes.  Filling the cakes with the cooled cream patissiere plumps the cakes back up and then topping with lots of fruit to complete the look.  Finally, I finished the cakes off with a small amount of apricot glaze made from apricot jam mixed with a splash of apple juice.

I was pretty pleased with the end result and they went down well with my family, my mum was happy to be able to have a little bit of cake and my dad insisted on keeping any of the remaining cakes for later .  I worked out that each cake contained about 150 calories each and contained about 6g of sugar in total.

Labels: Baking, cake, Using Sweeteners

One of Hubby's favourite cakes is Battenburg cake, and as I was in a baking mood this weekend, I agreed to make him some little cakes.  I followed the Hairy Biker's Battenburg Cake Recipe, but scaled back the recipe to two eggs as I was baking some other cakes as well this weekend.  The result were some petit four sized little cakes, perfect for afternoon tea on Sunday.

Labels: Baking, cake

Labels: Baking, bread

Labels: Easy Dinner, One Pan Dinners, Recipe, Rice

I was sent a text message by my sister this evening with the question - 'do you have the recipe for the anchovy pasta?'  It must have been a good few years since I made this dish, but as I was busy cooking dinner  at the time when I got the message, I sent her two very brief recipes in less than 140 characters:

Heat chopped garlic in oil until soft, add cooked pasta with a bit of cooking water & anchovies. Stir well. Season with black pepper. Serve

Or

Reduce mixture of chopped tomatoes, garlic, onion, black olives, olive oil & tinned anchovies until thick. Stir into pasta and serve.

She opted for the non-tomatoey one and I got a message from her later saying it was a good - another easy dish I should remember to make again.

Labels: Easy Dinner, Fast Food, Fish, In less than 140 characters, Pasta, Recipe

My first bake of 2016 are some little Bakewell fairy cakes.    As it is the new year and after eating our way through masses of Guylian over the festive season.  I thought I would try my hand at making smaller batches of baked goodies and try reducing the amount of sugar in the recipe.


Ingredients

Labels: Almonds, Baking, Recipe, Using Sweeteners

The first lunch of the New Year was a simple pasta salad rustled up from various ingredients I found in the fridge and freezer.



Ingredients

75g dried pasta twists
1/2 a yellow pepper diced
A handful of broccoli florets broken into bite sized chunks
4 button mushrooms, sliced
2 spring onions chopped
1 piece of pepper mackerel broken into bite sized pieces
Lemon juice from half a lemon
1 tablespoon of mayonnaise

Method
Place the pasta in a roomy saucepan and cover with enough water to cover plus a little bit more and cook for 8 minutes. Then add the vegetables and let them cook until for a couple of minutes more.  By now there should only be a little bit of liquid in the pan.  Add the peppered mackerel and put a lid on the pan for a minute or two to heat through and then add the spring onions and lemon juice and mix thoroughly.  Take the pasta off the heat and stir in the mayonnaise.

The proportions here fed one hungry small boy and one mummy.  The hubby decided he wanted an omelette instead, so I made him a cheesy omelette with yellow pepper and spring onion filling served with a big hunk of bread.

Labels: Easy Dinner, Fish, Lunch, Pasta, Recipe

Labels: Chicken, Easy Dinner, Recipe, What to serve with rice

Over the past few days, post the Christmas excesses, I have been thinking more about random foodie thoughts - mainly what sort of food resolutions to make this year as well as what crazy food related experiments and recipes I would like to try in 2016.

It has been a very long while since I last updated this blog - erm seven years in fact.  I guess that has been rather a long time and a lot has happened in that period.  Motherhood being the biggest event and I am now the very proud mama of a growing four year old little boy and the most recent food thoughts have often been on making sure he, and hubby too have good, healthy (though sometimes treats are nice too) food that we can eat as a family.

The Resolutions

1.  Family friendly, easy to make, quick and healthy meals is sometimes a real struggle - especially if I am lacking in inspiration or short on time which is why I should keep notes on meals that work and what doesn't and hopefully be able to draw inspiration from.

2. Keep food waste at a minimum and portion control!  This is not only good for your pocket, the environment but also for the waistline.  The problem when you love cooking is sometimes your imagination runs away with you and you really want to make everything and try everything.  I have a foodie wish list of things I would like try to make that is ever growing but I don't always have willing food tasters.

3. Have fun with food and keep on experimenting - especially with baking and write down the recipes!  Especially the ones that work really well.