Eat More Variety Alphabet Challenge: C for Cabbage: Fried Cabbage with bacon

So we´ve arrived at the second C for cabbage recipe in the Eat More Variety Challenge,in which I decided to use cabbage as a side dish. Cabbage is a vegetable we hardly eat and neither of my children have tried it before and this is a great way to jazz up cabbage and make it more palatable for fussy eaters or those who aren´t keen on it. Add bacon and garlic and what´s not to like??We loved it and even my 1 year old gobbled it down although my elder daughter wouldn´t  even try it. So an epic fail on trying to get my fussy eater to eat more variety and get more veggies down her! I won´t be giving up though, I have found some other cabbage recipes that I´m going to try out and hopefully eventually one of them will persuade her to try it!!I do know that I´ll be repeating this cabbage dish and cabbage is going to become a vegetable we consume more often.

The recipe I used was adapted from Delia Smith´s Complete Cookery Course, with the changes being that I used less cabbage than in the original recipe.I used around 350g as although we are 4 I knew that both my 1yr old and my daughter wouldn´t eat a huge amount of cabbage and I think there was plenty...we even had leftovers. I still used the full amount of bacon though. I´d definitely reccommend trying this dish as the bacon gives the cabbage a lovely taste and the crispy charred bits of cabbage and bacon are full of flavour.

Don´t forget that you are welcome to join in the Eat More Variety Alphabet Challenge anytime. All you have to do is publish  your cabbage recipe on your blog linking it back to this post and leaving a comment on this post and at the end of this month I will publish a round up of all the recipes with links to your blog.

Eat More Variety Alphabet Challenge C for Cabbage: Bubble & Squeak

Hello,it´s been awhile and I won´t kid you, what with a teething, clingy baby turned toddler and two night owls by the time I get them off to sleep, I´m usually pretty exhausted myself and barely have time during theday to cook and bake,never mind blog!!

So here is the long overdue monthly Eat More Variety Alphabet Challenge...this time it´s the letter C´s turn and I chose cabbage. I neither love nor hate cabbage..I can take it or leave it but it´s something we don´t eat a lot of as it´s not my favourite. Plus it smells like farts when you cook it so the whole house stinks and it makes you fart-hehehe!

Cabbage is a good source of Vitamin K, Vitamin C and dietary fibre and in fact contains more than 20% of the daily value for each of these nutrients per serving. It is also a good source of Vitamin B6 and folate.Studies suggest that cabbage and other similar leafy vegetables may have protective effects against colon cancer. Red cabbage may also contain potential anti-carcinogenic properties.

I decided to make the British classic,Bubble & Squeak, despite never having facied trying it before and was pleasantly surprised at how tasty it actually it. It is a great dish to use up leftovers, particularly leftover cabbage and is also vegetarian. Sorry about the photo...it tastes a lot nicer than it looks...but like I said as everything is done in a rush and I didn´t want my Bubble & Squeak to go cold, didn´t have much time to spend taking a better photo! Apparently, Bubble & Squeak was a popular dish during World War 2 because it´s an easy way to use up leftovers during a time when food was subject to rationing. I used the following Delia Smith recipe and the only alterations I made were that I didn´t use a whole cabbage and instead of using beef dripping for frying, I used either olive oil or sunflower oil. I´d definitely make these again as it´s a tasty way to use up leftovers and eat cabbage. Unfortunately I couldn´t persuade my daughter to try it though!

Eat More Variety Alphabet Challenge: Avocado: Creamed chicken & Avocado

One of my New Year´s resolutions is to eat a more varied diet,as I believe that a varied diet is healthier and also because there are many ingredients I either hardly eat or cook with or don´t like. So, I came up with this Eat More Variety Alphabet Challenge to try and encourage me to eat more things I don´t like or don´t eat very often and discover recipes that use these ingredients in ways I like. I also want to encourage my daughter to try more things and also eat a more varied diet as she is quite fussy.

For letter A, the ingredient I´ve chosen is avocado.I neither dislike nor love avocado...it´s just something I don´t eat much of...in fact I only eat it in guacamole.I used to buy them for my daughter and mash them up for purees when I was weaning her and she loved them but as she got older I stopped buying them and needless to say, she stopped eating them!!

Avocados contain a lot of fat but it is "good" fat and they are also rich in B vitamins, K vitamins, Vitamin C, Vitamin E and potassium so they are a great ingredient to include in your diet.You can read more about the nutritional benefits of avocados here.

Of course, the obvious choice of recipe to make with avocado is guacamole,which I want to do one day, but I was looking for something different and more original and came across the following recipe for Creamed Chicken & Avocado, taken from Delia Smith´s Complete Cookery Course. The avocados didn´t appear to be ripe and I found this trick on the Internet about how to ripen avocados quicker by placing them in a plastic bag with a banana as the banana contains something which speeds up the ripening process, so I did this and it worked for one of the avocados but not the other.Unfortunately, I couldn´t persuade my daughter to try even the smallest bite of this dish but we thought it was absolutely delicious and my husband even went so far as to describe it as being in his top 10 of sauces so I will definitely be repeating this dish despite it not being maybe the healthiest dish!! I served it with wholemeal pasta which is great with the creamy sauce and it´d be lovely with some crusty bread to mop up the sauce!

If you´d like to join in with the Eat More Variety Alphabet Challenge all you have to do is post a comment or send me an email, write a post on your blog using this month´s ingredient: avocado and link it back to this post and at the end of the month, I will write a post linking and sharing your recipes. The recipes can either be sweet or savoury. I look forward to seeing and trying your avocado recipes!!

Ingredients:(2 people)
1 chicken breast(fried)or leftover chicken, about 250g,chopped
25g butter
25g flour
125ml milk
75ml chicken stock(I used an Oxo cube)
75ml cream
1tbsp dry sherry
lemon juice
1 ripe avocado
pinch of salt & black pepper
25g cheese,grated( I used extra mature Cheddar cheese)
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200ºC
2. Melt butter in a saucepan and then add flour to make a paste and cook for 2 minutes, stirring all the time.
3.Add milk, cream and chicken stock and bring to simmering point, then cook gently  for 2-3 mins, stirring all the time.
4. Remove from the heat and add chicken, sherry, salt,pepper & lemon juice.
5. Halve & quarter the avocado and remove the stone and skin, slice thinly and place in a casserole dish.
6.Spoon creamed chicken on top of the avocado and then sprinkle grated cheese on top and cook in the oven for 20-25 mins.

Cheese & Herb Sausages

First of all Happy New Year to you...it´s been awhile but haven´t been able to find much time to make the recipes I want to blog, let alone blog about them, with one thing and another. So with the New Year, comes the new resolutions. Have you got any? Would love you to share them with me. I have a couple of resolutions, one of which is to eat a healthier and more varied diet and the other is to try not to waste food so hopefully you´ll see some of this reflected in my blog.

While waiting to get around to making my next British county, Great British Bake Off technical challenge or dish from Asturias, thought I´d leave you with this quick recipe for Cheese & Herb sausages. It may not be the healthiest of dishes but it is tasty, vegetarian and is British into the bargain!This is a recipe taken from Delia Smith´s Complete Cookery Course and is based on the recipe for the famous Welsh dish, Glamorgan sausages so without further ado, I´ll leave you with the recipe. This is so simple that you could even try making them with kids and I think most children would enjoy these, however we couldn´t get my daughter to so much as try them!!! BTW, I know the photo is horrendous but when there´s no natural light, you don´t have a lot of time, you are hungry and you don´t want your dinner to go cold....there´s no choice but to rush the photos!!!

Ingredients(for 2-3 people):
150g white/wholemeal breadcrumbs
1 medium onion, grated
110g extra mature Cheddar cheese,grated(this is personal preference,you could use a milder cheese if you prefer)
1 tsp dried mixed herbs
3/4 tsp English mustard powder
1 egg yolk
salt & black pepper to taste

Coating & frying:
10g breadcrumbs
10g grated Parmesan
1 egg white, lightly beaten
oil

Method:
1.Place breadcrumbs, Cheddar cheese, onion and mixed herbs in a bowl and add mustard powder and season with salt & pepper.
2.Add egg yolk and stir ingredients together until they bind.
3. Divide into 12 small portions and shape into a sausage form using your hands.
4.Mix breadcrumbs and Parmesan, then dip each sausage first into egg white and then in breadcrumbs and Parmesan to coat.
5. Heat oil and fry sausages until crisp and golden on all sides and drain on kitchen paper.

Cooking England County By County: Berkshire: Eton Mess

Time to move onto the next county, Berkshire, which I´ve never visited.I decided to kick off Berkshire by cooking the renowed pudding,Eton Mess, although surprizingly enough,it´s yet another dish which I haven´t tried before!This is an ideal summer dessert as it´s served cold and strawberries are in season (at least in the UK anyway!). It´s also great for those of you who have never made meringue before as it doesn´t matter if the meringue goes wrong,as it´s going to get broken up anyway!! Also, it´s a fairly simple and quick dessert to prepare and you can even use ready made meringue nests if you are short of time.It´s definitely a winning dessert and I shall be making it again although my daughter unfortunately wouldn´t try it!

However, it definitely lives up to it´s name...Eton Mess by name, Eton Mess by nature. It´s quite difficult to make this dessert look presentable!Eton Mess was served in the 1930s at Eton College in the tuck shop and orginally consisted of strawberries and bananas mixed with ice cream or cream..meringue was a later addition. It is now served annually at the Eton College cricket game against Harrow School although it has gained popularity throughout Britain.I used the following Delia Smith recipe but used less cream! Enjoy!

Super Simple & Quick Crunchies

 This recipe is great if you don´t have much in the cupboard or have unexpected guests and need to whip something up very quickly as it is so simple and quick to make. It is also ideal to make with older kids because it´s so easy to do. I don´t know the origin of Crunchies so I´m not sure if they are British or from elsewhere...however this particular recipe comes from Delia Smith´s book The Complete Cookery Course and what´s more it only has 3 main ingredients so is pretty economical too! You could always adapt the recipe too and add dried fruits, nuts or coconut...anything you want really.

Ingredients (makes about 12)
110 g porridge oats (or 50g whole or jumbo oats(very difficult to find!) and 60g porridge oats)
75g brown sugar (preferably demerara)
110g butter or margarine

Method
1. Preheat oven to 190ºC(375ºF), Gas Mark 5.
2. Grease a shallow square tin of roughly 28 x 18cm (I´m not sure my tin measures this but it did the job anyway!)I´d also reccommend that you use some baking paper as despite greasing the tin with baking spray, it did stick a little.
3.Place oats and sugar in a bowl and combine.
4.Melt the butter over a low heat so it doesn´t brown, then add to oats and sugar and combine well.
5. Tip mixture into baking tin and press it out evenly using your hands, the back of a spoon or a knife.
6. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until a pale golden colour and remove from the oven.
7. Cut into 12 equally sized bars while still warm and then leave to cool and crisp.

Mincemeat & Apple Crumble

Firstly, I apologise for my absence in blogging but there has been a whirlwind of activity going on what with moving house, Christmas and then the usual reasons so I just can´t seem to find time to fit in blogging!!Secondly, I have to apologise for posting a very similar recipe to my last post!!

I thought you might like it though as it´s a delicious way to use up any leftover mincemeat after Christmas (we had a humungous jar!!).It´s based on a Delia Smith recipe which I tweaked to fit with the leftovers I had and because I wanted to make a smaller portion.Also this recipe is so quick and simple you could make it with your children. I tried to get my daughter to join in especially with making the crumble but she didn´t want to...I think she didn´t want to get her hands dirty!!She did help me put the crumble topping on though and flatten it out with her hands,which she seemed to enjoy doing!!I think she thought it was like playing in the sand!!

Ingredients:
Mincemeat leftovers(I used about 215g as that was all I had left)
1/2 cooking apple (Bramley or Reineta)(peeled and chopped)
1/2 Ambrosia apple(peeled and chopped) (I think there was around 150g apple in total)
37g butter(at room temperature)
37g caster sugar
117g plain flour

Method:
1. Mix apples with the mincemeat and place in greased shallow pie plate or dish.
2. Place flour in a large bowl and rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips as if you were making pastry.
3. When all the butter has been rubbed in and the mixture looks like breadcrumbs,add the sugar and combine.
4. Sprinkle the mixture on top of mincemeat and apples and cook in a preheated oven at 180ºC for 30-40minutes or until a golden colour.Serve hot with cream or custard!Delicious!

Simple and Quick Garden Insect Cake

 I offered to make my friend´s daughter a birthday cake but didn´t want to make a cake that would take too long or be too complicated to make, especially the decorating part,seeing as I have relatively little time to bake.Also the lack of fondant etc played a fundamental part in my idea for this cake.

I chose to make Delia Smith´s All-in-One Sponge (this is more or less the recipe I used minus the butter icing), which I flavoured with lemon rind and juice and then filled the cake with raspberry jam and fresh whipped cream. I then made a Lime Velvet Frosting and had a slight disaster,which I managed to rectify and coloured it a mint green colour to represent the grass. I iced the cake with a spatula and tried to get it as smooth as possible. I blasted about 5 Oreo cookies in a food processor for a couple of seconds till they were crushed and looked like "soil". I then sprinkled the "soil" over half the cake,then placed some worm sweets in the soil and some chocolate ladybirds on the grass and there you have it,a very simple and quick birthday cake that looks pretty.

My third Christmas Cake

 Life with a toddler is certainly hectic-I hardly have time to cook or bake,let alone blog. I think I may be starting to sound like a broken record though!! I had to make this year´s Christmas Cake while my mum was visiting so she could look after Chloe while I got on with the cake. I decided to try out this Delia Smith Christmas Cake recipe this year, modifying it slightly as I couldn´t get any currants so added more of the other dried fruits plus apricots.


I thought I had dried the cake out a little but over the next couple of weeks until Christmas, it got a liberal soaking in brandy. I didn´t get round to decorating it until Christmas Eve,when we were at my parents´house and my mum could once again take care of Chloe, so I could finish off the cake! The day before Christmas Eve I marzipanned the cake using Dr. Oekter´s ready-to-roll marzipan-no time to make it from scratch just at the moment!- and apricot jam to stick it on.

                                                   
 After leaving it to dry overnight,the following day I made the royal icing and iced the cake, as smoothly as possible! I then cut out some fondant stars with the leftover fondant from my cupcake course and some biscuit cutters and stuck them on the top with a little bit of water.I then decorated the stars and the cake with silver balls. I also stuck a pretty Christmassy ribbon around the cake (I think I added the ribbon directly after icing the cake before adding the stars and silver balls). I think it´s my prettiest Christmas Cake yet and am pleased with the result. i just wish I had more time to practice and make more elaborately decorated cakes!
                                                     
As for the taste of the cake itself, it was a little dry at the ends (my fault or that of my oven!) but lovely and moist in the middle, fruity but not too heavy! I have to say that I think I enjoyed last year´s cake more so I´ll be sticking to that recipe in the future.

Lemon Curd Butterfly Cakes

I made these butterfly cakes a couple of weeks ago using my Quick & Easy Lemon Curd but have only just got round to blogging about them now. These are light and fluffy sponge cakes filled with tangy lemon curd, taken from Delia Smith´s Complete Cookery Course...Here´s a recipe for Delia´s butterfly cakes similar to the one I used, only the lemon curd is replaced with orange curd and just substitute the orange rind and orange juice in the recipe link for lemon rind & juice.

Butterfly cakes take me back to my childhood. I loved them and my Gran used to make them frequently but filled them the traditional way with jam and cream. Hmmmmmhhhh, delicious! They are so delicate and pretty too- they definitely suit their name!

Easy Spinach & Cottage Cheese Pasties

This is fast turning into a baking blog! However, this time I´ve been baking something savoury and also vegetarian! I´m finally on maternity leave so have more time to make the evening dinner (which is usually a lighter meal, more like lunch for Brits like me!) I had some frozen spinach in the freezer and had bought some cottage cheese so I fancied making these pasties, based on a recipe in Delia Smith´s Complete Cookery Course.

Ingredients (to serve 2)

roughly 112g (4oz)fresh or frozen shortcrust or puff pastry (I used frozen shortcrust pastry to save time)
1 beaten egg

Filling
112g (4oz) frozen spinach
12g (1/2 oz butter
25g (1oz) cottage cheese
20g Parmesan cheese
a small clove of garlic, crushed
splash of lemon juice
1/8 tsp dill
pinch of ground nutmeg
salt & pepper to taste

Method

1. Cook frozen spinach in an uncovered pan until all the moisture has evaporated.
2.Add cheeses, butter and the remaining filling ingredients and cook until butter has melted, leave to cool.

3. Roll out pastry thinly and using a small saucer/saucepan lid (about 15cm in diameter) cut 2 rounds of pastry.
4. Fill one half of the pastry circle with filling, then brush egg around the edge and seal well.


5. Make a small cross in the centre of the pasty and using a fork, press down with the prongs along the sealed edge to decorate.
6. Brush with beaten egg, place on greased baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 220ºC (425ºF) for 15 mins.

Hot Cross Buns (one a penny, two a penny....)

As Easter is drawing nearer, I fancied having a bash at making some Hot Cross Buns as I really enjoy them and I can´t buy them where I live. My plan is to make them now and freeze 8 of them until Easter to have for breakfast when my parents come to visit. Hot Cross Buns are traditionally eaten hot (hence the name!) or toasted on Good Friday and the cross symbolizes the cross on which Jesus was crucified.

As I´ve only made bread- type recipes 3 times before and the last recipe I made was current teacakes, which are very similar to Hot Cross Buns, didn´t turn out as well as I´d have liked, I was a bit apprehensive as to how they would come out. However, not to worry, the recipe was fairly straightforward and I am quite proud of how they turned out (even if I do say so myself!). The recipe is an amalgamation between Delia Smith´s recipe in the Complete Cookery Course and a recipe I´d saved from Hello or Ok as is as follows:

Ingredients (makes 12)

1 tbsp dried yeast

450g plain flour

2 tsp caster sugar

2 tsp mixed spice (the smell as they were baking was heavenly!)

2 large eggs

Grated zest of 1 lemon 150 ml /1/4 pt warm milk

25g/1 oz butter, melted

75g/3oz currants (I actually used about 90g as didn´t have mixed peel and wasn´t adding the cherries or walnuts as recipe stated-I wanted a more traditional hot cross bun!)

4 tsp plain flour

2 tbsp honey (optional)

milk to glaze

1 tsp salt

Method

1. Sieve plain flour and salt into large mixing bowl, then add caster sugar, mixed spice, dried yeast, currants and lemon zest and stir till combined.

2. Whisk warm milk and eggs in a measuring jug and add warm water till 300 ml/1/2 pt level is reached.

3. Add melted butter and gradually add milk and egg mixture, stirring until all the flour is well incorporated (see below) and forms a dough.

4. Knead until smooth & elastic (I found that my dough was pretty sticky so had to add a little more flour and a tiny bit of milk which I eyeballed until I had the "right" consistency!) 5. Leave for 5 mins, then knead again for 2 mins and divide into 12 equal(ish) flat "cakes". 6. Mix 4 tbsp plain flour with 3 tbsp cold water and pipe crosses on top of the buns (yes sir, I had my piping bag out again this week...I´m going to be a piping expert in no time..I wish!!!!) 7. Place on greased baking tray, brush with a little milk and cut a cross in the centre of each "cake", then cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise for 25 mins (be careful as although I tried a trick of spraying baking spray over the plastic wrap which I´d seen on a baking programme, it didn´t work and the plastic wrap stuck to the buns a little...maybe she used oil!)

8. Bake in a preheated oven at 220º C (425ºF) for 20-25 mins until golden brown and when you tap the bottom of the bun, you hear a hollow sound ( this time may vary depending on your oven..I had to turn my oven down to about 200ºC and only baked them for about 15mins!) 9. If you want, you can then brush them with a little honey which gives them a lovely shininess. Voíla! The finished product-great eaten hot or toasted and smothered in butter!

Traditional Pancakes for Pancake Day

This year Pancake Day fell on the 8th March and this year my mum happened to be visiting so we also invited my Spanish in-laws so they could experience this British tradition. Pancake Day, also known as Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday in other countries, is celebrated in Britain by eating pancakes as a way of finishing off all the fats such as eggs, milk and sugar before the 40 days fasting period of Lent. In some cities and towns pancake races are held!

Although the pancake batter is fairly easy to make, it takes a little practice to perfect them (or at least it did with me!). I usually use Delia Smith´s recipe taken from the Complete Cookery Course which always turn out delicious. The secret to making a perfect pancake is to have a good frying pan (preferably non-stick). Heat the fat (I usually use lard) till it´s smoking hot, then drain off the excess fat, then pour in the batter as thinly as possible, tilting the pan till the batter covers all the bottom of the pan. If you have any gaps you can fill them in with extra batter. It´s important to have the pan and the fat very hot otherwise the pancake will stick. After a few seconds flip the pancake over either traditionally tossing the pancake up in the air (v.difficult especially if you don´t want to end up cleaning bits of pancake that have stuck to the ceiling!)or with a wooden spatula and cook the other side till the pancake is a pale golden colour! The traditional way is to squeeze lemon juice and sprinkle sugar over the pancake and then roll it up but you can serve them with golden syrup, maple syrup, raspberry or chocolate sauce, Nutella..the choice is yours!

Traditional Bread & Butter Pudding

I´ve just realized that the majority of British recipes on here are dessert or cake recipes. I´ll have to post some more main dish courses but I suppose it´s because what I miss the most about British cuisine and it´s also what I most enjoy cooking -and eating! ; )

This is a great recipe for using up stale or leftover bread but in my case, it was also to use up some of the dried fruit leftover from making my Christmas cake. This recipe is based on how my mum and gran make their Bread & Butter Pudding with a sneak peak at Delia Smith´s version in The Complete Cookery Course for quantities. The end result is a lovely,traditional, stodgy(ish) but delicious pudding, which is ideal for a cold winter´s day or night. Comfort food at it´s best!

Ingredients (for 2 people)

4oz bread (about 5 small slices), with the crusts cut off

butter

1 egg

5 fl oz milk

37g(about 1 1/2oz) sugar

3oz(about 82g) mixed dried fruit (raisins, sultanas & currants)

a pinch of grated nutmeg (optional)

Method





1. Butter bread on both sides ( you could just butter one side or use margarine if you are watching your weight).Don´t worry if the bread tears when buttering as it will all be mixed up eventually.
2. Place bread in layers in Pyrex or other oven proof dish.
3. Sprinkle sugar and mixed fruit on top of bread.
4. Beat egg and milk together and pour on top of bread, sugar and mixed fruit.
5. Mix all mixture together so bread soaks all egg and milk up and mixed fruit is combined (I like the mixed fruit to run all the way through the pudding, not just to be at the top).
6. Place in preheated oven at 180 ºC (350ºF) for 20-30 minutes.
7. Serve with custard or cream.

English Muffins

As I can´t buy English muffins where I live I thought I´d have a go at making them myself, plus I was also dying to try out making some homemade bread. I´ve only attempted making bread once before, which turned out quite successfully.I´m not a big bread fan, however there is something about fresh homemade bread which definitely beats mass-produced bread. Believe it or not, I first tried English muffins as part of Eggs Benedict in a breakfast buffet in a restaurant in Niagra Falls and they became one of my staple breakfast foods during my stay in the States!



As this was my first attempt at making English muffins, I followed Delia Smith´s recipe (I took the recipe from her Complete Cookery Course book but this is almost exactly the same)to the dot. The only difference is that I used normal sugar as I´d run out of caster sugar and I didn´t use 2 0z of lard...I only used the tiniest amount just to grease the frying pan. The recipe turned out to be a great success (as you can see in the photo below!) so I will definitely be making them again!

1. Milk, water, sugar and yeast mixed to form frothy head

2. Forming the dough



3. After kneading (top-left
hand corner) 4. Risen dough (top-right
hand corner) 5. Muffins covered in clingfilm to rise
(bottom left)



The finished muffins after light frying! Delicious!

Time for Tapas! (Spanish Tapas competition)

In Pittsburgh there is a group of Spanish people losdepatanegra who meet up every Thursday, the majority of which are living here permanently and every year they hold an annual tapas contest.I would definitely reccomend any Spanish people moving to Pittsburgh to visit this group. Although my Spanish friends and I don´t usually meet with them, we were lucky enough to be invited to come and participate in this event.


I have never taken part in any cooking competitions so I was very excited and nervous at being involved.However, this is not your usual "serious" Blue Ribbon Cookoff (there are many cooking competitions held by various companies such as Pillsbury or Crisco or food magazines throughout the USA )this competition is more about friends getting together and having a bit of fun. And of course the TAPAS! There were four categories: Best Tapa, Second Best Tapa, Best Presentation and the best dessert or sweet tapa. I decided to do a dessert due to the complications of a hot tapa and the logistics of getting it to the event warm and as a true British person chose to make something that reflected my culture and background: Delia Smith´s Traditional Trifle. I doubled most of the ingredients though as I made quite a large one (apparently it´s quite strategic as the bigger your tapa/dessert is, the more people will be able to try it and hopefully vote for you) apart from the raspberries (it was a little short on them) and I left the banana out as I don´t like bananas. I decorated the trifle with grated Galaxy chocolate as you can see in the photo although maybe my presentation could have been better.

The contest was held at someone´s house and garden. Luckily, it was a beautiful day otherwise it might have been a bit crowded and even though most people were in the garden, it was pretty packed. There were about 120 people at least! I didn´t realise there were so many Spanish people in Pittsburgh!There were lots of beer, coke, lemonade etc which you could help yourself to. As you arrived you had to write down your name and the name of your tapa and then you had to pose for a picture with your tapa. There was plenty of competition as you can see in the following photo.

There were many tapas I didn´t even try because many of them contained fish or seafood. Some I wanted to try, such as the Pinchos Morunos (a type of kebab), I didn´t even see before they were all gone in the stampede to try all the tapas (and the crowd!) However, I managed to sample a fair few including our friend´s, Zarangollo, typical from Murcia,a scrambled egg type of affair with onion, courgette and peppers, Bob´s Polenta, spinach meatballs and my personal favourite, El Logroñes, toast topped with goats cheese, apricot jam and pine nuts.

I went more to town on the desserts and sampled almost all of them including my trifle. Tarte tatin, strawberries in a cream, tiramasu, mini cupcakes with poppy seeds and cherry were just some of the competitors hoping to win. I voted for the tarte tatin although I secretly thought my trifle was a pretty close second (even if I do say so myself)! The standard was very high and everything I had was delicious....there are definitely some very talented cooks out there! Some of the dishes were presented beautifully especially a chocolate flan which was decorated with forest fruits and another dessert, tocino de cielo, which even had the Spanish flag on it.

Finally, after a slideshow recap to cast our votes and the counting of the votes which seemed to take forever, the winners were announced and the prizes were given. Silvia La Cabra won the best tapa (think it was toast with ham, blue cheese and a bit of olive oil on top)won Best Tapa, Second Best Tapa was Montaditos de Bacalao (toast with a cod spread). Best Presentation was won by the Coctél Castellano (lentils) mainly because the guy was wearing a women´s top or something (I didn´t even notice or see him!) and the tapa that won best dessert was Crema Catalana, which is similar to Creme Bruleé, I think. Apparently, it wasn´t even that good someone told me, they just voted for it because it´s quite elaborate to prepare. I didn´t try any of the tapas that won as I didn´t like them because they had blue cheese, lentils, fish so it just shows that one man´s heaven is another man´s hell!


As for not winning, well I was a little disappointed but you win some, you lose some.Maybe if I ever get to enter another cooking competition, I´ll do better next time! All the winners were from the Patanegra group (surprizingly enough).None of our group of friends were among the winners. It was definitely a lot of fun and as the old saying goes, it´s not winning that´s important, it´s taking part that counts.

Pastry problems

I decided to make some mince pies and a pumpkin pie as my contribution to the Thanksgiving dinner my friends were hosting. As I like to make my own pastry (homemade is always the best I say!)I set to work on making the mince pies and pastry the day before Thanksgiving following this recipe, which always usually works for me...spent a good deal of the morning on the Internet trying to find out the conversions of grams to cups or tablespoons, seeing as I don't have my scales here. I cheated a bit with the mincemeat as I bought a jar of Crosse & Blackwell's mincemeat- I keep saying one day, I will have to make my own mincemeat but as it's usually hard to find all the ingredients in Spain and it's more convenient anyway, I end up just buying a jar from thefoodhall.es. I usually use Delia Smith's recipe for perfect pastry (hopefully) After making your pastry then, comes the most difficult bit rolling it out! Dust the countertop(clean of course!)with flour and dust the rolling pin with flour also, so pastry doesn't stick to either. Roll out pastry to required thickness. As I also didn't have my cookie cutters, I made do with a wine glass dipped in flour to cut out pastry circles....who says you need fancy equipment?!!!Usually you would cut out bigger circles for the bottom of mince pies and a smaller circle for the tops but as I have limited cooking equipment here, mine were the same size. Fill pastry with a teaspoon of mincemeat,not too much as it will all splurge out whilst cooking, causing a lot more cleaning-and who wants that?Wet rhe edges of the pastry top with water and cover the mince filling. Mark with a cross or two little arrows for ventilation. Cook for 25 mins at 395 degrees F/ 250 degrees C (not sure if I've got the temperature right in C!) So far so good. I made the pumpkin pie using the Better Homes and Gardens recipe with a minor adaption as I don't want to end up with loads of spices I don't end up using:

Pumpkin Pie

5oz plain flour

2oz lard

2oz butter

pinch of salt

cold water to mix

1 15oz canned pumpkin

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup half-and-half, milk, single cream

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or if you can't get it, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg)

Method:

Make the pastry and line a 9 inch (25cm) pie dish with pastry.

Mix pumpkin, sugar, spices. Add eggs and beat until combined. Add half-and-half gradually and mix. Pour into pastry shell and cook in preheated oven for 25 mins, lower pie to bottom shelf to prevent pastry from getting too crispy and cook further 25 mins until knife comes out clean, when inserted into centre. Cool and refrigerate.

I had a lot of problems making the pastry base...the pastry kept cracking when I was rolling it out and breaking when I was trying to place it in the pie dish. Don't worry though, if you have these problems...my Gran always says it's supposed to be good pastry if it cracks! Perserverance is the key here and lots of patience although I have to admit after 3 or 4 attempts mine was wearing pretty thin! If the pastry cracks a lot or is too dry, add more cold water and if it ends up to wet and watery, add more flour. Eventually I managed to transfer the pastry to the dish with only mild breakage and as I had some pastry leftover from the mince pies, I was able to patch it up and make a more or less crimped edge...so an important lesson, always hang on to your scraps...you never know when they may come in handy.