The sun is out, and it’s making me feel all summery so I thought I’d share with you, the recipe for ‘Snog’s’ Matcha green tea yoghurt ice cream. It’s absolutely delicious, has great health benefits (plenty of antioxidants) and can be topped with all kinds of things – my favourite is strawberries, but I know they’re not in season at the moment so you could use other berries, or even chocolate drops and honey – yumm!. If you’re struggling to find Matcha green tea powder at a decent price, you can either leave it out all together, or buy online at a fraction of the price that the supermarkets sell it for, from the Matcha tea factory http://www.matchateafactory.com/

Ingredients:

3 cups of greek yoghurt (full fat)

1 cup of semi skimmed milk

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon Matcha green tea powder

1 cup of Agave nectar (you can buy it from supermarkets, or health food shops)

Instructions: 

1. Put all of the ingredients in to a mixing jug and whisk together until nice and smooth

2. Pop in to the ice cream maker until set, or if you don’t have one – put in to a shallow plastic tub, place in the freezer and then remove after 1 hour and give it a good stir to break up all of the ice crystals. return to the freezer and do the same thing half an hour later, then once it’s set it’s ready to eat.

Enjoy with toppings of your choice – and some winter sunshine

Starting from Sunday 1 January and finishing on Monday 31 December 2012, I’ll be uncovering and sharing a wealth of British finds – 366, to be precise! I will be showing and making the products themselves and also sharing the stories behind them.

I’m in desperate need of your suggestions, comments and even constructive criticism! and If you’re a UK business, then you’re very welcome to get in touch and suggest your wares for me to try.

Visit The Great British Challenge website now and get involved

www.thegreatbritishchallenge.com

A very Happy New Year to all – here’s my gift to you for 2012 – the quickest, easiest route to a New Year hangover cure!….

Ingredients: 

Big Tom spiced tomato juice

Limoncello

Lots of ice

Fresh lemon

Instructions: 

1. Take a long glass and add the ice, a shot of limoncello and fill to the top with tomato juice.

2. Give it a good stir, add a slice of lemon and enjoy on the sofa with a good film!

The first of the Christmas snow is coming down, and at last it feels like the festive season has started, so we’re cooking up some condiments to accompany our Turkey dinner in advance of next Sundays big day. This is so quick and simple to make, and will keep sealed in the jar for up to three months… great with cold meats on Boxing day as well in a nice toasted brie & cranberry sauce ciabatta.

Ingredients: 

300g fresh cranberries

200g granulated sugar

50ml port

zest of one orange

Juice of half an orange

1 whole star anise

- makes 2 large jars -

Instructions: 

1. Place all ingredients in to a large saucepan and simmer slowly on a low heat.

2. Stir frequently, and ensure that all of the sugar has dissolved.

3. Turn the heat up to a rapid boil, and using a potato masher, squash all of the cranberries so that they’re soft and roughly broken up.

4. Boil on a high heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.

5. Transfer in to clean, sterilised jam jars and secure with a tight lid. Date, label and store in a dry dark place until needed.

6. Once opened, store in the fridge for up to 7 days.

Enjoy!

A great way to use up the last of the seasons Quince, and the best accompaniment to any cheeseboard for Christmas. Perfect served ‘Spanish stylee’ with Manchego, but just as good with a good British goats cheese and crackers.

Ingredients: 

1,000g (1 kilo) of quinces

Zest of half a lemon

Zest and juice of half a lemon

Water

White granulated sugar

Instructions: 

1. Wash the quince, and then roughly chop them in to chunks. (core and all)

2. Pop them in a saucepan along with the lemon zest, and cover with boiling water. Place a lid on the saucepan and leave to simmer slowly for approximately 1 hour or until soft.

3. Drain and discard the water – then blitz the quince with a hand blender until smooth

4. Measure the weight of the quince once smooth and then add the same amount in weight of sugar.

5. Add lemon juice and return the pan back to the hob to simmer until the sugar has dissolved

6. Turn up the heat slightly and stir often to prevent sticking to the bottom of the pan. The colour will turn from pale to a darker redish colour.

7. Once the quince has become thick, and can see a trail when running a spoon through, the quince is done

8. You can pour in to lightly greased moulds or tea cups, or place some greaseproof paper in to a deep baking sheet and pour the mixture in.

9. Leave in the fridge for cool for 24 hours. Once chilled, it will set like a hard jelly and you can cut pieces off to serve alongside your cheese board.

Enjoy

Don’t be fooled into thinking that this looks burnt… it’s crispy caramilsed skin with Scrumpy cider gooeyness is perfect for a winters Sunday afternoon. I took inspiration from Nigella’s recipe in her Kitchen book of ‘Beer-braised pork knuckles with caraway, garlic, apples and potatoes’. Unfortunately I didn’t really like the beer with the pork and so I amended to include cider, and think this works much better.

Instructions: 

1 x 1.20kg boneless pork should

2 teaspoons caraway seeds

2 cloves crushed garlic

2 teaspoons sea salt

2 white onions sliced in to rings around 1cm thick

500ml Scrumpy/flat good quality cider

4 large baking potatoes chopped in to chunky wedges

2 cox’s apples chopped in to chunky wedges

- serves 4 -

Instructions: 

1. Mix together the salt, garlic and caraway seeds, then dry the pork and score its skin. Preheat the oven to Gasmark 7

2. Rub the salt mix in to the pork, making sure to get it in to all of the cracks.

3. Place the onions on the bottom of a baking tray, and then sit the pork on top of it, skin-side up.

4. Pop the pork in to the oven for half an hour

5. Remove the tray from the oven and turn the heat down to Gasmark 4. Quickly scatter the potaoes and apples around the pork, and pour 250ml of the cider over the top of the pork.

6. Return the pork to the oven and leave to cook for an hour and a half.

7. Remove the pork from the oven, turn the oven up to Gasmark 7 and pour over the remaining cider and return to the oven for half an hour.

8. Remove everything from the tray, then place the baking tray on the hob – pour in 500ml water and str with a wooden spoon, scraping off all of the juicy blackened sweetness from the bottom of the pan. Once hot and bubbling, sieve and serve in a gravy jug.

9. Carve the pork, giving everyone a nice bit of crunchy crackling, and a good helping of the potatoes, onions and apples. Serve with some green veg, and the delicious gravy.

Enjoy

We have an abundance of octopus in our British waters, but unlike the Greeks and the Spanish, we seem to shy away from wanting to eat or cook them. The next time you’re at the fishmongers, be adventurous and buy yourself one – I promise you won’t be disappointed! They’re easy to cook, once they’re cleaned and prepared, so long as you follow the instructions below and don’t skip the simmering stage as this is the part that helps to tenderise the octopus. Without this, you’ll end up with a leathery horrible piece of meat that’s inedible.

Preparing the Octopus:

There are four things that you need to do to the octopus before it’s ready to cook with. You could just ask your fishmonger to do this for you – or if you’re happy to give it a go yourself, then simply follow these four steps.

1. Turn the the octopus’s head inside out – and you’ll see a sack full of not to very nice looking goo. Try not to cut the sack as this will release inks and all sorts of nastiness, so taking a sharp knife, carefully cut the sack away from the head meat and then throw it away (this isn’t good for anything!)

2. Flip the octopus upside down and you’ll see a little brown chestnut colour circular type shell. This is called the ‘beak’. Pushing your fingers from the other side of the octopus with your thumbs, push the beak until it pops all the way out – remove it and discard.

3. You’ll see two eyes just below the head – cut these out with a sharp knife and discard.

4. On the outside of the head, you’ll see excess grey coloured skin. Make a small slit with a sharp knife, and then simply peel the skin from the meat – discard the skin as although it’s edible, it will  just go slimy once cooked. Finally, give the octopus a good rinse, removing any dirt from the suckers and you’re good to go

Ingredients:

1 x medium-large English Octopus (cleaned and prepared as outlined above)

2 x dried bayleaves

1 egg cup full of red wine

2 large potatoes (Desiree or Cyprus as best as they have a nice waxy texture)

2 tablespoons olive oil

Paprika

sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Instructions: 

1. Place the octopus snuggly in to a saucepan and add the bayleaves, red wine and black pepper. Put on a tight lid and leave to simmer gently for 20 minutes.

2. Slice the potatoes in to rounds approximately 1 inches thick and lay them out in a deep baking tray.

3. Once the octopus has been cooked, remove it from the pan, discard the bayleaves and place the octopus on top of the potatoes in the baking tray.

4. Pour over all of the juices from the pan to cover the potatoes and the octopus.

5. Pour over the olive oil and add some salt and pepper to season

6. Place in the oven on Gasmark 5 for 15 minutes. Then remove from the oven, turn the ocopus over and return for another 15 minutes, or until all of the juices have disappeared.

7. Serve on a dish and sprinkle with lots of paprika and a little more sea salt and olive oil.

Enjoy with a nice glass of Rioja

This is such an easy cake to make – inspired by the banana and chocolate loaf recipe from The Great British Book of Baking, I’ve made a few tweaks and added pecan nuts and maple syrup to give it a rich and silky taste.

Ingredients:

250g self-raising flour

150g caster sugar

100g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 medium free range eggs, beaten

250g peeled ripe bananas (roughly 2 large ones)

75g dark cooking chocolate, chopped

1 tablespoon maple syrup

10g pecan nuts, roughly chopped

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4.
2. Mix the flour, sugar, butter and eggs together in a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon.
3. Mash the bananas with a fork, then add them to the bowl along with the chocolate, pecan nuts and maple syrup. Give it all a very good mix until thoroughly combined.
4. Transfer the mixture to a loaf tin that’s been lined with baking paper and greased on the edges to prevent from sticking.
5. Place in the oven for 55 minutes – or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
6. Leave to cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack, carefully removing the grease proof paper.
7. Once cooled, slice and enjoy with a lovely cup of tea

Enjoy!

Don’t waste your money on buying expensive marinated anchovies from the supermarket, Cornish sardines are big, fresh and juicy at this time of year, so get yourself down to your fishmongers and give these a go yourself. You really must make sure that the fish you use is fresh for this dish.

Ingredients: 

4 large sardines

half cup seasalt

250ml red wine vinegar

Freshly ground black pepper

A handful of finely chopped fresh parsley

Half a white onion, sliced

1 garlic clove, minced

100ml good extra virgin olive oil

A handful of cherry tomatoes to garnish

Instructions: 

1. Gut, clean and fillet the sardines so that you’re left with 8 fillets

2. Rub the sardines with the salt so that they’re all covered, then place on a dish and leave in the fridge for half an hour

3. Transfer the salted sardines in to a bowl and pour over the onions and vinegar. The sardines must be completely submerged in the vinegar. If they’re not. add in some more vinegar then leave in the fridge for 24 hours.

4. Remove the onions from the bowl and leave to one side.

5. Run the sardine fillets under a tap in order to remove the salt and vinegar, then dab dry with a paper towel.

6. Mix together the olive oil, parsley and garlic and pour on to a dish. Rub the sardines in the mixture and ensure that they’re completely coated.

7. Sprinkle over the onions and some of the chopped cherry tomatoes

Serve with some flat bread and a nice cold glass of white wine.

Enjoy

A delicious traditional dish for autumn that’s quick and easy to make, with a topping that gives extra crunch and a different twist.

Ingredients: 

1 x 50g tin of anchovies in olive oil

1 large white onion, diced

2 cups of frozen peas

1 pack of Colman’s white sauce mix (made to pack instructions)

3 tablespoons dry sherry

320g mixed fish (suggest salmon, haddock and coley)

2 x 420g tins butter beans

two tablespoons butter

100ml milk

40g grated parmesan

Instructions: 

1. finely chop the anchovies, and put them and their oil in to a large saucepan. Heat through until the anchovies have started to melt

2. Add in the chopped onions and leave to cook on a medium heat. If the pan starts to look a little dry, then add in the sherry

3. Once the onions are nicely softened, add in the peas, white sauce and fish giving everything a good stir

4. remove from the heat before the fish has begun to cook and transfer in to a pie dish

5. Place the butter beans along with their juices in to a small saucepan and warm through on a medium heat

6. Once heated through, drain the butter beans and return them to the saucepan

7. Add in the butter, milk and 20g of the parmesan. Using a hand blender, give them a blitz, adding more milk if required until you’re left with a nice fluffy mash consistency

8. Top the pie dish with the mash, using a fork to fluff up the topping and then sprinkle with the remaining parmesan

9. Place in the oven, gasmark 6/200′C for approximately 25 minutes – or until the centre of the pie has been cooked and the topping is nicely golden

Enjoy!