Cooking England County by County: Cheshire: Cheshire Cheese Soup

 Cheshire is in the north-west of England,very close to my neck of the woods and is known for its cheese, which is a crumbly, mild cheese,similar to mild Cheddar or Lancashire cheese. It also features in many regional recipes,including this one for Cheshire Cheese Soup. If you are unable to buy Cheshire Cheese you could substitute it for a mild Cheddar.

I´m not really that keen on soup but I enjoyed this soup and it is lovely to mop up with a fresh, crispy French baguette...even if it doesn´t look so appetizing in the photo. Perfect for cold, autumn and winter days! I used the following recipe. Enjoy!

Individual Apple Crumbles

 Blogging seems to be taking rather a backseat at the moment as I can hardly find a spare minute to write,particularly as my daughter very often doesn´t go to sleep till after 11.30pm!!
I have been baking loads recently though but again finding time is difficult...I have to get up extra early and try to finish before my daughter wakes up. I had a lot of surplus apples so decided to make apple crumble to try and use some of them up but instead of making one huge apple crumble,which would mean a lot of eating up, chose to make smaller, individual ones,based on the following recipe:
 http://irreverentbaker.wordpress.com/2012/06/30/mini-apple-crumbles/. I also chose to use wholemeal flour and oats to make the dessert just that tiny bit more healthier and surprizingly enough you couldn´t tell the difference.It was just as tasty as traditional apple crumble,if not more!! Also as the apples from my tree are very small, I probably used between 8-10 apples!!Try it, I´m sure you´ll enjoy it and it´s so easy and quick to rustle up this family favourite dessert!

Healthy Banana & Oat Muffins

I´m on a bit of a healthy eating mission at the moment and when I saw these muffins, I knew they´d be perfect as they are very healthy and full of goodness. Even more to the point, I thought they might tempt my daughter to eat some breakfast as she has become rather picky at breakfast. These muffins are an ideal wholesome breakfast and a great way to get some fruit and cereal down your children and what´s more they don´t even contain any sugar....although I have to say, it didn´t quite work with my daughter. She nibbled at them but didn´t tuck into them in quite the way I was expecting and hoping!!!

 I got the recipe from "365 Recetas para bebés y niños en edad preescolar" and I pretty much followed the recipe to the letter. Unfortunately, I myself don´t like banana so I don´t know how they actually turned out but both my husband and a friend seemed to enjoy them, even if my daughter didn´t.

Here is the recipe for about 8-10 small muffins:

Ingredients:

25g unsalted butter
3 tsp of clear honey
2 large,ripe bananas
100g flour
50g rolled oats/porridge oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
75ml milk
Method:
1.Preheat the oven to 190ºC and fill a muffin/cupcake tray with muffin or cupcake cases.
2. Heat the butter and honey on a low heat till melted.
3. Mix all the dry ingredients together.
4. Mash the banana up with a fork and add to the honey mixture, then add this and the milk to the dry ingredients.
5. When well-combined, pour the muffin batter into the cases and bake for 25 mins (Note: temperature and time may vary depending on your oven....I baked mine at 180º for 15-20 mins) or until muffins are a golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted.

Green Papaya Salad with Prawns and Meat

About two years ago upon my return from my honeymoon in Vietnam, I promised I was going to share with you some Vietnamese recipes but basically it went out of the window and I´ve hardly cooked anything Vietnamese since. One reason being that it´s difficult to find the ingredients where I live and the other being that I just haven´t got round to it.

I have cooked this salad before and enjoyed it so decided to make it again for my mum. It´s a lovely, refreshing salad, ideal for a hot summer´s day,which takes me right back to my honeymoon and the flavours of Vietnam. This salad is a bit of a faff to make though so I don´t do it on a regular basis but it´s great if you want to impress someone or for a special dinner party. This recipe is based on a recipe from the book Delicious Dishes from Vietnam.

Ingredients (for 2-3 people)

1 green papaya (about 450g)....if you can´t get a green papaya,a normal papaya will do
100g -150g pork belly
150g prawns (I think I used slightly less prawns as am not overkeen on prawns)
1 carrot, finely grated
a pinch of chili flakes or 1 jalapeño pepper,seeded,1/2 grated,1/2 minced
2 shallots, thinly sliced and soaked in vinegar for 10 minutes
2 tsp crushed garlic
50g roasted peanuts, crushed
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce (if you can´t find fish sauce, use soy sauce)
4 tsp salt
2 tbsp lime juice
1/4 cup coriander, chopped
fried shallots or crispy fried onion
1/4 cup vinegar
bag of ready-prepared prawn crackers

Method

1. Peel papaya,remove seeds and grate,add the grated carrot to the papaya.Sprinkle 2 tsp of salt on the carrot and papaya and squeeze out the juices,then rinse and drain well.
2. Wash prawns. Mix 1/4 cup of vinegar with 1/4 cup of water and 1 tsp of salt.Place prawns in a saucepan and boil in the vinegar mixture for 5 mins. I used frozen prawns but still cooked them in this way...if using fresh prawns, peel shells but leave the tails on.
3. Boil belly pork in 1/2 litre of water and 1 tsp of salt  for about 20 mins. When cooked, slice into 3cm long pieces.
4. Mix fish sauce, chili flakes, lime juice,garlic and sugar together.
5. Mix papaya, carrot, prawns, meat,shallots,coriander together with the fish sauce dressing.
6. Sprinkle salad with fried onions and peanuts and place prawn crackers around the salad attractively and enjoy the taste explosion in your mouth.

Coronation Chicken Salad

After watching the Olympics Opening Ceremony, I have been very patriotric. Also, the fact that I´m off back to my home country this week for a holiday and to catch up with friends and family is filling me with excitement! So what could be more ideal than to share a traditional English dish perfect for the summer, especially the hot weather (even if it´s not so hot in the UK at the mo!).

This is Coronation Chicken Salad based on the BBC Good Food recipe- I did the creamy version!Coronation Chicken was invented in 1953 by Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. This is my version, just slightly different but not much!

Ingredients (for 2)
1 bag of mixed salad leaves
2 skinless chicken breasts
1tsp mild curry powder
2tbsp mild mango chutney
1/2 cucumber, cut into sticks
2tbsp flaked almonds
handful of sultanas
4tbsp natural yoghurt
3tbsp olive oil
juice of 1/2 lime or lemon (I used lime)

Method
1. Combine curry powder with  2 tbsp of yoghurt and cover chicken breasts.
2. Cook in 1 tbsp of olive oil,then slice chicken.
3.Stir remaining yoghurt, mango chutney and lime juice together.
4. Place salad leaves, cucumber and chicken slices in a bowl and add the yoghurt,lime and mango chutney dressing, add almonds and sultanas and toss!

You could make this healthier or more low fat if you use low fat natural yoghurt.

Vegetarian Paella -style rice

Now that I´m no longer pregnant and need to eat as much protein as possible, I´ve started cooking some vegetarian dishes again as I was eating far too much meat!! This dish is tasty, quick to cook and low in fat and is quite similar to a paella!The recipe has been slightly adapted from Cocina Vegetariana rápida by Anne Wilson.

Ingredients (for 2)
1 cup long grain rice (I used Basmati)
pinch of saffron
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion or 1/2 large onion, chopped
3 mushrooms, sliced
handful of frozen green beans
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp tumeric
1/2 tbsp sweet paprika
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 litre vegetable stock (you might need to add a little more)-I used veggie Oxo cube
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1/2 tsp salt

Method
1.Place vegetable stock in a pan and add saffron strands.When it reaches boiling point, remove from heat.
2. Heat oil in a large frying pan and fry the onion, garlic, tumeric, paprika, cinnamon and rice until rice is infused with spices.
3. Add vegetable stock, red pepper,mushrooms, green beans and salt.
4. Once boiling point has been reached, lower the heat and cook slowly for 20 minutes until rice is tender.

Vegetables with Polenta

I didn´t take many photos as I was making this dish as I wasn´t thinking of blogging it but it looked so tasty(and was) that I´ve ended up posting it. As I eat a lot of meat, I sometimes like to eat a healthier, vegetarian option but find it really difficult to find different vegetarian recipes that I don´t find too bland or boring. I was flicking through my Weight Watchers Made to Measure Cookbook by Ann Page Wood when I came across this recipe and as I had some polenta lurking at the back of my cupboards waiting to be used up, I thought this was recipe was ideal.

Ingredients (serves 2) (adapted from Weight Watchers Made to Measure Cookbook)

1/2 pint (300ml) water
2 oz (60g) polenta (I used quick cooking polenta)
15g Parmesan cheese & 30g grated Cheddar cheese
1 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
4 oz (120g ) leeks, sliced
45 g fennel, thinly sliced
1/2 -1/4 red pepper, cut into squares
2 oz (60g) canned sweetcorn, drained
2 oz (135 g) drained canned chickpeas & 2 tbsp of chickpea liquid
1/2 tin of tinned tomatoes
1/4 tsp dried mixed herbs
salt & pepper to taste

Method
1. Boil the water and add polenta (add salt to taste) and cook for about 15 minutes till polenta thickens and absorbs all the water (keep stirring so polenta doesn´t stick to the saucepan).
2. Take pan off the heat and add all of the Parmesan and some of the Cheddar and mix.
3. Wet a chopping board and spread the polenta on board till about 2cm thick and leave to set.
4. Heat olive oil in a saucepan and add garlic, leeks, pepper and fennel. Cover and cook on a low heat for 5-6 minutes.
5. Add the rest of the ingredients and season with salt & pepper.
6.Cover and cook for about 20 minutes.
7. Place vegetables in a casserole dish and place polenta, cut into triangles, on top and sprinkle remaining Cheddar cheese over everything.
8.Place under a preheated grill until golden brown and bubbling.

* I´m not sure how English this dish is but seeing as it´s in a British recipe book, it´s now British!

Goat´s Cheese and Cranberry Salad

I´m so excited as this is the first time I´ve taken part in a blog event! Nuría over at Spanish Recipes is hosting a new bimonthly event Eating Good Feeling Good which will look at a different ingredient from the Food Pyramid in each event. The first ingredient of this month´s event is olive oil and I knew as soon as I saw it I knew which recipe I would be submitting!

Living in Spain I have been converted to olive oil and use it every day in my cooking from frying to salad dressings.I even use it for Chinese stir-frys!! My favourite ways to use olive oil is for frying and in salad dressings. However, I still can´t get used to putting it on toast in the mornings for breakfast and I prefer a mild olive oil as it doesn´t have quite as strong a taste as Extra Virgin Olive Oil, so it is more versatile and can be used in all types of dishes. Although olive oil is very good for your health, it is still a fat and I only use a little when frying-one bottle lasts me for at least a month!I believe that olive oil is good for your health because it is rich is monounsaturated fats which lower the risk of coronary heart disease and it actually lowers the cholesterol in your body.

Anyway, although olive oil is not strictly the main ingredient in this recipe, it is a very important ingredient in the recipe. As the days are starting to get warmer (at least they were!) sometimes it´s too hot to be slaving over a hot oven, so a salad is just what you need. And what could be healthier than a salad? The idea for this salad came from a recipe I saw for Goat´s cheese and Cherry salad in Allrecipes which I adapted to what I had in my fridge at the time and it has become a firm favourite. I think the flavours just blend together really well, the tart sweetness of the cranberries and pear with the crisp tang of the lettuce leaves and the creamy bite of the goats cheese.

Ingredients (serves 2 as a main dish)

85g bag of mixed salad (baby leaf salad is particularly good)

1 medium/large ripe Conference pear, peeled and chopped

1/3-1/2 cup dried cranberries

55g goats cheese, chopped or crumbled

a couple of slices (smoked) ham or turkey, chopped (optional)

pinch of salt to taste

about 1 tbsp mild olive oil

about 1 tsp red wine vinegar

Method

1. Place ingredients in a bowl.

2. Season with salt and dress with the olive oil and red wine vingear. Toss to cover salad completely with the dressing.

Mixed Mushrooms in a Thai Red Curry Sauce

I´ve made this dish a couple of times and always mean to blog it but have never got round to it or taken a picture of it. I really wish I had though!! It´s a simplified version of a recipe from a recipe book called Cocina Asiática Vegetariana by Anne Wilson, as there are many ingredients which I simply can´t get hold of where I live. However, I think this adaped, simplified version is probably just as good as the original version. It´s also a very easy and quick dish to prepare.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

A packet of mixed Asian mushrooms (around 200g) (shiitake, enoki and beech mushrooms for example)
an inch of ginger, finely chopped
1-2 tsp red curry paste (depending on your spice threshold level!)
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
80ml (1/3 cup) vegetable stock (I used Oxo veggie stock cube)
1/2 cup of coconut milk/cream (this time I used coconut powder, about 65g powder mixed with around 125ml hot water to make a thicker milk)
1/2 tbsp lime or lemon juice (whatever you have in the fridge!)

Method:

1. Fry curry paste and ginger together for 3-4 mins till it becomes aromatic.
2. Add vegetable stock, sugar, soy sauce, coconut cream or milk and lime/lemon juice and lower heat (to around 4 on an induction electric hob) and simmer for 3-4 mins until the sugar dissolves.
3.Add the mushrooms and cook 3-5 mins until mushrooms are cooked.
4. Boil some Basmati rice in the meantime to serve with the mushrooms.

Honey chicken drumsticks

Spring finally appears to be here, the daffodils and other flowers are blooming and the trees are blossoming. Everything looks beautiful especially the magnolia trees-there are some photos below . The weather is a little crazy though....it was snowing a couple of days ago!



I´ve been pretty busy these past few weeks which is why I haven´t been blogging too much although I have been trying out lots of recipes from other blogs and trying to come up with some of my own creations...so keep an eye out! Meanwhile, I thought I´d share this recipe for Honey chicken drumsticks from BBC Food with you as it´s really easy to follow, tastes really good , almost tastes like it´s from a restaurant and is also fairly economical and at the same time healthy. I used the breadcrumbs as didn´t have any sesame seeds and I also left out the chives but apart from that followed the recipe to the letter. I didn´t make the Waldorf salad as me and my boyfriend aren´t too keen on celery and as I had other leftover salad ingredients, I threw together a salad comprising of lettuce, cucumber, pear, goats cheese and walnuts with a little ready-made bottled ranch dressing to accompany the drumsticks, which made for a healthy,light but delicious meal!

3 Bean Chilli (5th February, 2008)

I was a bit dubious about this recipe as beans have never played a vital part of my diet. In fact, apart from baked beans I´ve never really experimented with beans until recently. However, as they are part of a healthy diet and also to make my diet more varied, I decided to try this slightly adapted recipe from Carnegie Cooks and found it to be a tasty alternative to a meat chilli although it was a bit on the mild side. I have made this recently and have improved the recipe so this is the updated version.

Ingredients (serves 2-3)

1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 red & 1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 14oz can chopped tomatoes
1 170g (6oz) can tomato paste
1/2 439g (15 1/2 oz) can black beans
1/2 439g (15 1/2 oz) can of chickpeas
1/2 439g (15 1/2 oz) can of red kidney beans
1 1/2 -2 tsp of chilli powder-put more if you like it very hot! ( I used just under 1tsp and found it too mild)
salt & pepper
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves (I reduced the amount of cloves as my boyfriend doesn´t like the taste of them)
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp of olive oil

Method
1. Drain beans, saving liquid to thin chilli if necessary.
2. Fry onions,garlic and peppers in olive oil until soft.
3.Add chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, chilli powder, cinnamon, cumin & cloves. Cook slowly about 15 mins.
4. Add beans and cook another 15 mins on low heat. Add salt & pepper to season. Thin with bean juice or water, if necessary.
5. Serve hot with rice.

And there you have it! A tasty, filling and healthy meal for everyone to enjoy.

New Year, New Resolutions (Jan 25th,2009)

Happy New Year! I haven´t been doing much blogging because I haven´t been doing much cooking as I haven´t needed to! It´s been hectic times, first I was in Spain for Xmas with the "in-laws" so didn´t do much cooking, apart from a trifle and Egg Nog to have some British traditions over the festive period. Then, it was off to Portugal to spend some quality time with my parents. I made a couple of vegetarian meals for them and a German meal "Jaegerschnitzel & Spatzle" but didn´t get round to blogging them.



A lot of time was spent playing with my parents´ two Cairn terriers, Eve and Amber, reading and watching lots of British TV...particularly Masterchef, Saturday Kitchen and a couple of episodes of Come Dine With Me. I even managed to catch up with some of the soaps like Eastenders. And how can I forget stuffing my face with all my fav food...we even had a delicious if overdue turkey Christmas dinner! It was great to spend so much time with my parents and have a relax. This is the life,eh? We even squeezed in a brief trip to England.



Well, it´s that time of year when people start to make those promises which more often than not get broken, resolutions. After leafing through one of my mum´s books " You Are What You Eat", which is really interesting, this year my resolution is to eat more healthily. A hard task when you´re a foodie and everything that is tasty is forbidden! Eating healthily means eating fish so it means overcoming my dislike for fish and seafood....can see this being broken right off! The book recommends drinking warm water with lemon juice in the mornings and in the evenings...Disgusting, you may think but it´s not actually as bad as it sounds. Tastes a bit like Lemsip. Apparently, it cleans your bowels and it does seem to work. I´ve also been trying to drink more water and drink liquids half an hour before or after I eat as it´s better for digestion. Watch this space for more info about how I get on and hopefully I´ll be blogging some healthy yet tasty recipes as well as the usual unhealthy ones!