Grilled or barbecued halloumi with chilli

 My boyfriend's family has fantastic barbecues as they get all the meat from a local butcher and his mum puts a lot of effort into making salads and side dishes. They had a barbecue recently where I knew I wouldn't be able to prepare much food to bring along, as I was coming straight from a choir rehearsal that had taken up most of the day. I wanted something that was quick to prepare and easy to transport, but that would be a little different - so I hit upon the idea of grilled halloumi. I was sure I had seen it prepared with chilli, and found this recipe from Nigella Lawson, which appears in Nigella Bites.

She recommends using 2 tbsp chopped fresh chilli, but I wanted to try out this product I had recently found in the supermarket, aptly labelled "Very Lazy". It contains chopped chilli in white wine vinegar, though the vinegar evaporates while cooking.

Simply mix the chilli with a little olive oil and lemon juice, and leave the flavours to deepen. I sliced the halloumi and put it on foil; even with the foil the barbecue seared lines into the cheese which I think looks great. To serve, just spoon the chilli mixture over the cheese.

The halloumi is on this plate somewhere... along with everything else! Now this is what I call a posh barbecue - not a sausage or burger in sight!

I'm sending this to Four Seasons Food, as their theme this month is barbecue. The challenge is hosted by Louisa at Chez Foti and Anneli at Delicieux.

I'm also sending this to Forever Nigella, hosted this month by Victoria at A Kick at the Pantry Door and created by Sarah at Maison Cupcake. The theme this month is party food and a barbecue definitely comes under the category of a summer party (and of course the recipe I used was from Nigella).

Tri-colour pasta with Nigella's Yellow Spaghetti Sauce

 

The theme for this month's Forever Nigella cooking challenge is 'colourful', which reminded me of some tri-colour pasta I had bought recently. I believe the green pasta is coloured with spinach and the red with tomato. I thought it looked interesting and I've not had it for a long time so added it to my basket.

When I came across the theme of the challenge I had a look to see if I could find a suitable colourful pasta sauce from Nigella to go with it. I have plenty of her cookery books at home but I was thinking about this on my lunchbreak at work, so did some Googling - and found a recipe for Nigella's Yellow Spaghetti. I adapted it slightly as I didn't have any marsala, but I thought vodka would work just as well!

For two fairly large portions you need:

Half a packet of tri-colour pasta

a few saffron strands

2 tbsp vodka and 2 tbsp water

2 eggs

6 tbsp grated parmesan

8 tbsp pouring cream

A few basil leaves to serve

Put the pasta onto boil. While it is cooking, whisk together two eggs, the cream and the parmesan.

Put the saffron strands in a small bowl or jug, cover with the water and vodka and leave for a few minutes to infuse

Add the saffron and liquid to the egg and cheese mixture

Toss with the cooked pasta

Add a few fresh basil leaves and serve.

This is a tasty and quick meal that is simple but certainly colourful!

Forever Nigella is hosted by Maison Cupcake and Elizabeth at A Girl In Her Kitchen.

Nigella Lawson Easter Simnel Cake

A Simnel cake is a fruit cake with a layer of marzipan in the middle and one on top, that is traditionally made at Easter. It's usually decorated with eleven balls of marzipan to represent the apostles (minus Judas). Apparently the name Simnel is most likely to come from the Latin word 'simila', meaning 'fine flour'.

My parents came to stay with me over Easter and I wanted to do some baking. I've never made or indeed even eaten a Simnel cake before - I'm not usually a fan of fruit cake or marzipan! - But tastes change and I'm willing to give it a go, and it's the sort of cake my parents would definitely like. There are plenty of recipes around for Simnel cake and variations on the cake, e.g. turned into cupcakes or muffins, but as this was my first Simnel cake I wanted to stick to something traditional - so I turned to my copy of Nigella's Feast, which has sections covering all the major holidays including Passover and Easter.

I adapted the recipe slightly, to leave out the glace cherries (which I don't like) and I also used less marzipan than recommended.

You need:

175g butter, softened

175g caster sugar

zest of 1 lemon

225g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

25g ground almonds

3 eggs

splash of milk

500g mixed dried fruit

about 1 kg marzipan - I used less but it will depend on the size of the cake tin you use and how thick you like your marzipan layer

icing sugar for rolling out the marzipan possibly - though I didn't use any and it was fine

1 tbsp apricot jam, melted

Nigella also recommends brushing the top of the finished cake with 1 egg white then using a blow torch to give it a burnished look, but I don't have a blowtorch so I didn't do this.

Preheat the oven to 170C. Cream the butter and sugar

Add the lemon zest and beat again

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and ground almonds

Nigella recommends adding one egg at a time with 2 tbsp of the flour mixture each time and beating. Repeat three times, then mix in the rest of the flour and the milk.

Fold in the fruit

Pour half the cake mixture into a loose-bottomed cake tin; I sprayed Cake Release into it first.

Roll out a piece of marzipan

 Use the cake tin to cut out a circle of the correct size

Place the circle of marzipan onto the cake mixture

Spoon the rest of the cake mixture on the top and level off

Bake the cake for half an hour in the preheated oven the turn the temperature down to 150C for another hour and a half. I turned the temperature down to about 120C as my oven always seems to cook fast but the edges of the cake still came out a little darker than I would have liked.

Roll out another piece of marzipan and again use the bottom of the cake tin to cut around. Warm some apricot jam and brush on top of the cake and place the circle of marzipan on top. Roll 11 balls of marzipan to represent the apostles

Using more apricot jam stick the marzipan balls to the top of the cake

I'm sending this to Calendar Cakes, hosted by Laura of Laura Loves Cakes and Rachel of Dollybakes. Their theme this month is of course Easter.

I'm also sending this to Forever Nigella, where the theme this month is also Easter. The challenge is hosted this month by Jen at Blue Kitchen Bakes and was started by Maison Cupcake. 

 

A romantic new year's eve dinner for two

My boyfriend and I decided to stay in on new year's eve and I wanted to cook us a romantic dinner. The menu I chose was: herbed bacon and egg souffle; steak in a stilton sauce with boulangere potato stack; tiramisu. I thought I'd combine all the recipes into one blog post: enjoy!

Herbed cheese and bacon souffles

This recipe is adapted from the Slimming World recipe book Extra Easy Entertaining

Serves 2

You need:
Fry Light spray oil or similar
two rashers lean bacon, chopped
1 spring onion, chopped
pinch of chilli flakes
2 eggs, separated
chopped fresh parsley
dried dill
40g grated parmesan
pinch of mustard powder
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 180C or 160 C fan. Place a roasting pan one third full of hot water in the oven.

Fry the bacon and spring onion and add a pinch of dried chilli flakes.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff

In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with the bacon and spring onion mixture and the herbs, along with three quarters of the parmesan. Add the mustard powder and season.

Fold the mixture into the egg whites, using a metal spoon.

Spray the insides of two ramekin dishes with oil and spoon the mixture into the ramekins. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top.

Bake for around 20 minutes until risen. These can be made the day before and heated up on the day.

We had these as a starter on new year's eve; I think they would work really well for breakfast or brunch as well.

I am sending these to Herbs on Saturday, hosted by Bangers and Mash and started by Karen of Lavender and Lovage.

I am also sending this to Jen at Blue Kitchen Bakes for her Classic French cooking challenge, as the recipe she has chosen this month is the souffle.

Steak in Stilton Sauce

This was our main course on new year's eve. I didn't follow a recipe, and just fried some rump steak; helpfully, when I went to buy some that day they were reduced from £4 each to £1.79 in Tesco. I added some double cream to the meat juices in the pan (also in the reduced price section - I love going shopping after Christmas!) and then added some Stilton - left over from Christmas. The stilton melted and made a lovely creamy sauce.

As this meal used reduced-price steak and cream, and leftover cheese, I am sending it to Frugal Food Fridays, hosted by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours.

Boulangere potato stacks

We had this as a side dish to accompany the steak (I also cooked some broccoli); I took the recipe from my new book Slimming World Extra Easy Entertaining. It was absolutely delicious and I will definitely make this again!

Serves 2
You need:
500g potatoes
1 litre vegetable stock
Fry Light or similar spray oil
tbsp chopped fresh parsley
4 tbsp Quark
2 garlic cloves, crushed or half a tablespoon garlic puree
salt and pepper
25g reduced fat grated cheddar

Peel the potatoes and slice with a mandolin or the wide edge on a grater

Bring the stock to the boil in a saucepan, add the potatoes and bring back to the boil

Drain the potatoes and reserve the stock. Put the potatoes into a bowl.

Mix in the quark, herbs and garlic with 6 tbsp of the reserved stock and season. Toss gently with the potatoes.

Spray a muffin tin with oil and press spoonfulls of the potato mixture down into each muffin cup.

Sprinkle the grated cheese over the top- I used more than the recipe suggested but my boyfriend definitely wasn't complaining! Bake for 25-30 mins. I didn't take a picture of these on the plate but if you remove them carefully you have neat little stacks of potato slices. And they taste fantastic!

Tiramisu

I got Nigella's new book Nigellissima for Christmas and adapted this recipe from the book as our new year's eve dessert.

Serves 2
You need:
50ml coffee (eg made up from instant)
1 tbsp coffee or chocolate liqueur
2 sponge fingers
1 egg white
200g mascarpone cheese
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp marsala
1 tsp cocoa powder

Make up the coffee, add the liqueur - I used a chocolate liqueur I bought in Italy last year -  and leave to cool.

Break each sponge finger into four pieces and place in a martini glass.

Pour the coffee mixture over the sponge fingers.

Beat the egg white with an electric whisk. In a separate bowl, beat the mascarpone and honey, then add the marsala if using and beat again.

Fold in the egg whites then spoon into the martini glasses.

Sprinkle with cocoa powder or grated chocolate

And serve!

I am sending this to the blog challenge Forever Nigella, hosted this month by Recipe Junkie. Forever Nigella is organised by Sarah at Maison Cupcake. The theme in January is "food to cherish your loved ones", and what better way to spoil my boyfriend than to make him this lovely dessert for our romantic dinner together? (Incidentally, we followed our romantic dinner by spending a romantic evening... playing Xbox. It was actually a lot of fun!)