Tattie Scones

It's Sunday and I have nowhere to be, so Rory and I decided on a fry up for breakfast. Going back to his Scottish roots he insisted on Tattie scones, which didn't seem to be a difficult task on my list, just the kind of thing I've never bothered to make before. So here is my Scottish Sunday...

I love a dish with just 3 ingredients!

Carving it up!

Into the frying pan!

Rory's idea of a true Sunday morning breakfast

Tattie Scones

Makes: 6-12 serves

Prep Time: 15mins (included making the mash) Cook time: 5mins

1 cup mashed potato (I usually add a little butter and milk to my mash but I didn't for these as I didn't want the mix to be too soft so ultimately this should say 1 cup of squashed boiled potatoes)

1/3 cup unsalted butter (melted)

1/2 cup plain flour

1. Preheat a dry frying pan over moderate heat

2. Mix together all the ingredients until blended

3. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and divide into 2 (I put the second half of the mix into the freezer at this point for use at a later date)

4. Roll each part into a circle and flatten to about 3/4cm thick and cut into quarters

5. Place the quarters into the frying pan and brown on both sides (approximately 5 mins)

6. Serve with bacon, eggs and sausages (yes, I know they should have been square sausages but with a distinct lack of proper sausage mince, shop bought ones had to suffice) Oh and don't forget the HP sauce!

I intentionally made mine a bit thicker because I like the lighter fluffier texture than when they're a bit thinner. These definitely got the tick of approval from Rory and he's happy too because he knows how easy they were to do. I really should have saved this dish for next weekend when it's his birthday and I've promised him something good!

Massaman Beef

I felt that it was time to transition away from the sweet stuff (for a while) and contemplate a dinner item. I wasn't feeling overly adventurous with my cooking today so I went for the Massaman Beef off my list. I am pretty comfortable with my Indian cooking I was hoping that my Thai cooking skills wouldn't be too shabby either, the ingredients all sounded familar, what could go wrong? 

Ingredients for Step 1 and 2 ready to go

This is where we need the power to send smells via the internet, divine

Step 2 complete

Ready for step 3

Spicy, coconutty goodness

Nearly done

Dinner is served!

Massaman Curry

Makes: 4 Servings
Prep Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 50mins

Step 1
2 Tbsp Vegetable oil
1/3 cup onion, diced
1" ginger, grated
4 cloves garlic
1 red chilli, sliced

Step 2
1/2 cup chicken stock

1 stalk lemongrass
3 bay leaves
1 tsp turmeric
1/4 cup chopped unsalted dry-roasted almonds (or cashews)
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp whole cumin seed
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/8 tsp cardamom
1 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp brown sugar

Step 3

1 lb goulash beef

2 medium potatoes, cut into chunks
400ml coconut milk

Step 4
1 small red capsicum, thinly sliced
1 medium tomato, diced

1.Heat a soup-type pot over medium-high heat. Drizzle in the oil and swirl around, then add the onion, ginger, garlic and chilli. Stir-fry for 1-2 minutes to release the fragrance.

2. Add the ingredients from step 2. Stir with each addition and bring to a light boil.

3. Add the beef, stirring to coat with the spicy liquid, then add the coconut milk and potatoes. Stir and bring back up to a boil. Reduce heat to low.

4. Simmer for 40mins, stirring occasionally until beef and potatoes are tender. Add red capsicum and tomato during the last 15 minutes of cooking time.

I simmered my dish with the lid on for most of the time to help thin out the sauce, but leaving the lid off would make for a thicker sauce if that's how you like it.

This recipe didn't quite have the look that Massaman usually does but the taste was right, the level of spice was good and I must say I was pretty chuffed with the results. Next time I'll go for slightly bigger cuts of beef and maybe slightly chunkier potato. Rory wasn't a fan of the nutty texture so next time I'll try whole nuts (so he can pick them out) or I might blend them to a finer state.

Swiss Roll

I'm not really sure what inspired me to take this on as challenge number 2, with that vision of cracked and broken cake all over my bench still very clear in my head, but hey I had to get to this sometime. For all intents and purposes the actual cooking of a swiss roll is kind of easy and it seemed like it would be the perfect dessert to accompany the roast I plan on making for dinner. So there's no time like the present...

Pouring, Pouring, Pouring...

Peeling back the paper and holding my breath until it was safely off

I think the cream was a little thick for me to be able to spread it nicely but hey!

Rolling... again hold your breath until it's all done

Not too shabby!

Swiss Roll

Makes: 6 servings

Prep Time: 20 Mins Bake Time: 10 Mins

For the Swiss Roll
3 Eggs 
1/3 cup Golden Caster Sugar (I had to get creative here not being able to find this but I used an organic caster sugar and it worked OK)
2/3 cup SR Flour

For the Filling
Strawberry Jam 
Cream
Strawberries (Thinly sliced)
* The original recipe I used suggested 75g of Jam, 125ml of cream, 100g of Strawberries but I found this was a bit much so I adjusted to suit my own taste

To Serve
Icing sugar
Strawberries 
Cream

1. Preheat Oven to 200C. Grease and line a 23cm x 30cm tin.
2. Whisk eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy
3. Fold in flour and pour the mixture slowly down the length of the tin. Bake for 10 mins, or until light and springy to touch
4. Remove from oven and cool slightly before turning the sponge onto another piece of greaseproof paper
5. Spread the jam onto the sponge and then spread the cream, leaving a small gap around the edge
6. Place a row of strawberries along one edge and roll the sponge to cover before adding another row and rolling again
7. Dust with icing sugar and serve


It wasn't as bad as I feared, though I'd like to add it wasn't as perfect as I'd hoped, but my Type A personality doesn't like to accept much less than perfect and for a first attempt I think I should be gentler on myself, especially with my makeshift ingredients! 

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

I stumbled upon this site while looking for something different to do with the scone recipe I was working with for Saturday's breakfast. I'm not quite sure how looking for a breakfast idea had me find the recipe for Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes, but it did and with Rory suddenly obsessed with the idea of these I started wondering what else there was that I just hadn't made. There began My Kitchen Bucket List.

Named after the drink, but a whole lot more decadent and with no risk of curdling... I decided the only fair place to start on my bucket list was to create the recipe that got me onto this idea of recipes that I want to try but have never mustered up the courage to do. 

So here goes:

I was a bit sad about the sunken centres (I blame the altitude)  however the best bit of this  recipe is, it doesn't matter as you cut them out anyway!

No more evidence of my sunken middles and gee those crumbs tasted good!

That ganache was to die for...

Not my best decorating efforts, but without a tip for my piping bag, it'll do!

1 word: Divine!

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

Makes: 24 cupcakes

Prep Time: 45 minutes, maybe? I have no clue! | Bake Time: 18 minutes

Cupcakes:
250ml Guinness
225g unsalted butter (room temperature)
¾ cup cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1½ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Whiskey Ganache Filling:
250g bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
30g butter (room temperature)
2 tsp Irish whiskey

Baileys Frosting:
450g unsalted butter (room temperature)
5 cups powdered sugar
8 tbsp Baileys Irish Cream

1. Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Place cupcake liners into the cupcake trays. Simmer the Guinness and butter together in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Cool slightly. Mix the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl to combine. Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sour cream on medium speed until combined. Add the Guinness mixture to the egg mixture and combine. Reduce the speed to low, add the flour mixture and beat briefly. Using a spatula, fold the batter until mixture is consistent. Divide the batter among the cupcake liners. Bake until a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes. Cool the cupcakes on a rack.

2. Whiskey Ganache Filling: Finely chop the chocolate and place in a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then, using a spatula, stir it from the center outward until smooth. Add the butter and whiskey and stir until you have a consistent mixture. Let the ganache cool and thicken but make sure it is still soft enough to be piped.

3. To Fill the Cupcakes: Using a knife (a small cookie cutter would have been ideal but I didn't have one), cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes, going about two-thirds of the way down. Transfer the ganache to a piping back (in my case a zip lock bag with the corner cut off) and fill the holes to the top.

4.Baileys Icing: Using an electric mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium-low and gradually add the powdered sugar until all of it is incorporated. Add the Baileys and increase the speed to medium-high and whip for another 2 to 3 minutes, the icing should be light and fluffy.Using a piping bag or spatula, (I went with a plain plastic piping bag, but I'd wished that I'd had a decorating tip on the end so they'd have looked prettier) ice the cupcakes.  Store the cupcakes in an airtight container.

I ended up taking these to a friend's housewarming last night and they were a big hit, chocolate and booze together in one decadent mouthful. What more could you ask for?

My Kitchen Bucket List

I'm having a "stay-at-home" weekend right now and for anyone who knows me, knows that this will equate to kitchen time. I love my kitchen, I'm by no means a whizz in it, but I like trying out new recipes. Having lived in Singapore for the 2 years before moving here I was exposed to some amazing food and well quite frankly, I miss it! So, I scour the internet looking for something that sounds vaguely like something I once ate, or somedays I type a few ingredients into google and see what comes out, oh and my other trick, flicking through my bookmarked recipes and seeing what interesting stuff is linked off those. 

The result: A fairly varied list of recipes that "one day" I am going to try my hand at. The list is not final, I'll come back to it as time goes by add more things that I find, or you can set me a challenge. Some of the items on this list already have been set to me as a challenge by my friends/family and I like a challenge so feel free to suggest something and I'll give it a go.

Meals

• Roast Turkey (I’ve never cooked a turkey before, those memories of my mother getting up at the crack of dawn on Christmas morning and the tension in the kitchen that day has always scared me and made me think I wouldn’t succeed)
• Yorkshire Pudding (My Mum is from Yorkshire and I feel like I should be genetically programmed to be able to cook these)
• Baked Beans (I don’t actually like these but Rory does so I feel I owe it to him to give it a go)
• Steamed Pork Buns (I loved these when I was in Singapore, they’re not easy to make though, so they’ve been saved in my bookmark folder for a while now)
• Egg Rolls (I have made these using rice paper as I can’t get the proper casing here, but if I can make dumpling dough surely I can make this too…)
• Massaman Beef (Rory likes my attempt at cooking Indian so he figures I shouldn’t go too far wrong with this)
• Eggs Benedict (Rory loves these too)
• Thai Green Curry (My favourite...)
• Vegetarian Lasagne (The pressure is on with this one, Rory has high standards when it comes to Vegetarian lasagnes...)
• Mexican Lasagne (see above)
• Spinnach and Ricotta Pastries (Yummmmm)
• Tandoori Salmon (Two of my favourite things in one dish, how can you go wrong?)

Breads

• Sourdough (I have a breadmaker now but I feel like this is the kind of thing I need to make by hand…)
• Braided Fruit Loaf (I adore bread and it’s hard to come across good bread in Bogotá without paying a fortune so I am determined to succeed at my own varieties)
• Spinach and Ricotta Pull Apart Loaf (A favourite from home that no one here makes…)
• Tattie Scones (A request from Rory, not necessarily hard to make just not something we bother to do)
• English Muffins (You can't have Eggs Benedict without them...)
• Crumpets (I love these more than words)
• Peshwari Naan (If I succeed at this Rory might never ask me to make anything else ever again)

Desserts

• Irish Car Bomb Cup Cakes (I found this recipe this morning and it was from that site that I then built my bucket list idea)
• Lemon Meringue Pie (Kathryn and I were discussing this at work the other day and she told me I should give it a try, so here it is on the list… It’ll be one that has to wait until we have yellow lemons in the supermarket again)
• Rich Chocolate Truffle Pie (I love chocolate ‘nuff said?)
• Chocolate Meringue Pie (see note above)
• White Chocolate, Cherry and Almond Brownies (I think I found this while searching for nice Christmas cooking ideas so we’ll give it a go) 
• Rhubarb Pie (I'm concerned about this one as I don't know I've seen Rhubarb here, but hey)
• Swiss Rolls (I'm petrified of this, every time I think of it I see cake crumbs all over my bench)
• Key Lime Pie (Rory has never eaten it but when I asked him if he had any requests this is what he came up with, best part of that is that even if I mess it up, he won't know)

Fun Stuff

• White Chocolate Peppermint Bark (What did I say about loving chocolate earlier… add mint and I am in heaven!)
• Rudolf Tartlets (Chocolate…)
• Cream Cheese Penguins (These are too cute, how can you not want to make them…)