This is a great side dish for a roast meal, particularly pork, while I love serving this as a side on Christmas day.
This lemon cheesecake has a strong and smooth lemon flavour, which is supported perfectly by the ginger base.
Serves 6
Preperation: 30 minutes plus time for freezing.
Ingredients:
300g of ginger crunch biscuits
75g of butter
300g of philadelphia cream cheese
200g of icing sugar
100g of mascarpone
100ml of double cream
3 lemons (jest and juice required)
1tbsp on caster sugar
Method:
Crush the biscuits with a rolling pin, or your method of choice, until they resemble crumbs with the occasional bigger piece perfectly fine.
Melt the butter and mix together with the crushed biscuits.
Place in a round cake tin and push down to form a smooth base.
Put the tin in the fridge while you make the cream.
Add the icing sugar, philadelphia and mascarpone and whisk until it becomes a smooth cream - this is hard work at first but persist and whisking will become easier.
Seperately whisk the double cream and once thick add the jest and juices of two lemons.
Now fold this in to the cream cheese mixture until well combined.
Take the cake tin from the fridge and add the lemon cheesecake mixture - smooth the top and place in the freezer.
Finally, over a heat use a small amount of water to melt the caster sugar. Add the juice from the remaining lemon and heat until the mixture begins to caramalise. Take off the heat and allow the mixture to call.
Briefly take the cheesecake out of the freezer and using a teaspoon drizzle the cooled lemon mixture over the surface.
At Christmas you are allowed to indulge on treats such as this rocky road, which has been adapted from a recipe by the delightful Nigella Lawson.
Ingredients:
300g of good quality chocolate - as dark as your tastes dictate
125g of softened butter
2 generous tablespoons of golden syrup
100g of fruit soaked in brandy (sultanas and cherrys for example)
100g of small marshmallows
150g of roughly crushed biscuits (ginger crunch and digestives work superbly)
Method:
Place the butter, chocolate and syrup in a bowl and place on top of a saucepan of simmering water. Mix together until a liquid. Now add all the other ingredients and mix together until all is covered in chocolate.
Now pack together in a foiled tin. (The foil will make it easier to remove the mixture for cutting into desired pieces when chilled)
Place in a fridge for at least three hours. Once chilled dust with icing sugar for presentation.
If kept out of the fridge this biscuit will not melt, but it is nicer to be relatively chilled.
I decided this year to fill my Christmas yule log creation (recipe to follow) with some brandy cream. I am so pleased with how it tastes I am sharing it with you all:
Ingredients:
200g pot of mascarpone
250ml double cream
3 heaped tablespoons of icing sugar
1 large tablespoon of brandy
Method:
Combine the all ingredients in a large bowl and whisk furiously until thick enough that the cream doesn't fall off the whisk. How simple is that? Use in a cake, or serve up alongside Christmas pudding
Alternatively, you can use single cream for those watching their wasteline, although brandy cream should only ever be a rare indulgance anyway. Also, use good cocoa powder if you want a dark cream, while substitue the brandy for your liquor of choice.
A roast dinner is not complete without flavoursome and hopefully crispy roast potatoes. You can't go wrong with this method, although it is of course best if you prepare these in the same tin as a joint of beef or a leg of lamb for example.
I think rabbit accompanies coconut so well, but of course it can be replaced by your meat of choice if you are not a fan of rabbit, while it even works well with potato in a vegetable curry!
Honey and orange marinated gammon recipe - perfect for a sumptuous roast or to serve cold, as our house love to do for tea on Christmas Day.
Ingredient:
This lasagna is simple, but very tasty. It can be put together in under 30 minutes and could easily feed a family of four.
This is sprouts at their best and a perfect accompaniment to a Christmas dinner.
The English have a reputation for dull and uninspiring food, cooked in a manner depriving its recipient of its flavour and nutritional value. Is this fair? Well, yes and no. Some English dishes are sensational and in no way inferior to its counterparts from across the seas, however, as a nation we have narrowed our mind to the power of food.
I am not alone in being brought up on a limited menu of microwave and oven food prepared in a factory on a massive scale, with the occasional 'treat' of a roast dinner. The Sunday roast was the peak of culinary expertise in my family, but consisted of a lump of meat cooked in an oven and a mixture of vegetables cooked by boiling water and salt. Mouthwatering, I am sure you will agree. This, is not what God intended when he invented a raft of plants that contain delicious flavours and nutrients. We are blessed to have so many wonderful raw ingrediants, but the English seem unable to use their immagination and maximise the power of these tools.
My generalising continues, but I am sure other nationals are culprits too, with the assertion that the English fear experiementation with food. Food does not come with rules attached, you can do with it what you like and you'll find some fascinating outcomes. You'll also uncover some combinations that do not work, but by all means try!
I grew up not knowing the power that food possessed, a deficiency I was not concerned about until freedom allowed me to experiment with this substance of limitless opportunities.
I am now attempting to make up for lost time and hope you will join me on this journey as I look at all aspects of what we can not do without - food.
This page is in progress
Read more...© Blogger template Simple n' Sweet by Ourblogtemplates.com 2009
Back to TOP
