Delicious New York-style white chocolate cheesecake!

So it’s Sunday afternoon when I’m writing this post and I am once again a football widow. It’s miserable outside, raining on and off and the wind is blowing over the bins and garden furniture. All in all it’s pretty grim.

And after several glasses of wine last night during tapas out with friends, I’ve been feeling a little hazy today. I’ve been craving comfort food and sweet things and my mind starting wandering as I thought about how I was going to spend my time alone. There was only one thing for it – a baking session.

One of my favourite desserts, well probably one of everyone’s favourites, but something I don’t often eat, is cheesecake. And I mean the stodgy New York-style cheesecake that is baked and slightly browed in top.

I found this recipe in a magazine a few months ago and put it away for safe keeping for an afternoon just like this. I can’t remember where it was from and who devised the recipe, but it’s one I’ll play with to try different flavours.

I have made a couple of no-bake cheesecakes in the past. A friend of mine, Paul Banks, gave me his recipe for a gorgeous white chocolate and Bailey’s cheesecake which I made for my parents once. Unfortunately it was a hot day and the cake totally flopped when I removed it from the tin. Because I’m such a perfectionist I was devastated but it still tasted good.

Anyway, the baked one has more structure. I wanted to do a raspberry coulis but I forgot to get the raspberries in the supermarket because I was distracted by all the other lovely looking things, but I will tell you how to make it anyway.

Ingredients

200g dark chocolate digestive biscuits

65g unsalted butter, melted

300g white chocolate

400g full-fat cream cheese

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract or essence

150ml soured cream

For the raspberry coulis:

200g raspberries

90g icing sugar

Method

1. Turn your oven on to 160 degrees and line a round cake tin (approx 20cm)

2. Crush the biscuits with a rolling pin or in a food processor until like breadcrumbs.

3. Mix in the melted butter and press into the bottom of the tin, evening out the top. Chill in the fridge while you prepare the filling.

4. Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.

5. Whisk the cheese and eggs together in a bowl using a hand mixer if you have one. Then add the vanilla, soured cream and melted chocolate.

6. Pour the mixture onto the base and bake in the oven for a round 45 minutes until slightly brown in the edges. Leave to cool then chill in the fridge for several hours.

7. To make the coulis, put the raspberries and sugar in a blender and blend. Sieve then put in the fridge until you need it.

Beef wellington with goats' cheese and red wine gravy

You asked for it, so I made it… beef wellington with red wine gravy. A proper manly dish with oomph!!

I decided to ask people on Twitter and Facebook what dishes they wanted me to try and then blog about, and beef wellington came top of the list.

To be honest I’ve wanted to give this a go for ages. I’ve seen Simon Rimmer on Something for The Weekend and James Martin on Saturday Kitchen do it as I’ve drooled over my bowl of muesli, but I always thought it looked too difficult. Plus, I wasn’t a massive red meat lover... that was until I tried my beef wellington and turned into a carnivore over night.

I know I always say this, but it was really easy to make. The only difficulty is knowing when the beef is cooked just right as it’s wrapped in a huge blanket of pastry that browns really quickly.

The recipe says 20 minutes but I put it in for longer as I was using the old broken oven that had to be gaffer-taped shut (which has now been replaced with a shiny new one thanks to engagement money!!).

I did however leave it in a minute too long so it wasn’t as pink as some would like it, although for me it was just right because the meat was still really tender. In fact it wasn’t just tender, it was juicy and gorgeous and we ate the whole thing, drenched in red wine gravy.

This isn’t a traditional beef wellington because it uses goats’ cheese instead of paté but I like to try new things. I thought the paté would be too rich and after all the rich food and booze over Christmas I’m still feeling like I could develop gout at any moment.

Serve with broccoli (for colour and so you feel like you’re doing something healthy) and a glass of the red wine used in the gravy and this is a winner.

Ladies, I would suggest this is a great dish for your man on Valentine’s Day! (Unless he’s a veggie of course).

Next on the list of things you asked for is lemon meringue pie!
Don't forget to follow me on Twitter @SarahLPoole

 

Ingredients

300g beef fillet

1 tbsp olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

200g ready-rolled puff pastry

100g firm goats' cheese, sliced

1 beaten free-range egg

For the red wine sauce

1 tbsp olive oil

half a small red onion, finely sliced

pinch of sugar

150ml red wine

75ml hot beef stock

½ tsp cornflour

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 230C/450F/Gas 8.

2. Rub the beef fillet with olive oil and season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

3. Heat a frying pan until smoking hot and cook the beef until golden brown on both sides but not cooked through. Set aside and leave to rest for ten minutes.

4. Place the puff pastry onto a floured work surface and place the beef on top with a layer of goats' cheese slices. Wrap the pastry over the beef to make a parcel and brush all over with beaten egg.

5. Transfer to the oven and bake for 15 minutes, or until the pastry is golden-brown and the beef is cooked to your liking.

6. Meanwhile, for the red wine sauce, heat the olive oil in a saucepan, add the onion and cook gently until softened.

7. Add the sugar and red wine and bring to the boil. Boil until the liquid has reduced by half. Add the stock and simmer for five minutes.

8. Mix the cornflour with a bit of cold water to make a paste, then whisk into the sauce. Cook for 2-3 minutes until thickened slightly.

9. To serve, cut the beef Wellington into slices and place onto serving plates. Pour over the red wine sauce and serve with vegetables of your choice.

When cakes go wrong - Happy New Year

At this time of year when most of us spend the holidays shattered and hungover yet still try to host parties and get-togethers for friends and families, at some point something is probably going to go wrong, especially in the kitchen.

Sometimes recipes and dishes you’ve created time and time again just don’t work out because you’ve taken your eye off the ball for one minute while you check Aunty Mary’s sherry is topped up, or you’ve had one too many Buck’s Fizz.

For me, Christmas was a haze as I celebrated a surprise engagement with Paul. So this afternoon, as I came back down to earth and realised I still hadn’t made cakes for my friends as planned, I decided to bash together a round of cupcakes and put them in the oven.

They looked fine as they went in and I bragged to Paul about how fast I was getting at turning them out. But when I pulled them out of the oven they sunk.

I would love to blame it on our rubbish appliance (which is most definitely being replaced in the sales!!) but I just wasn’t concentrating, and now I can show you that things do go wrong, even my cupcakes which I’ve made countless times.

Tip: Usually when cakes sink it is because they’re not cooked properly so put them back in the oven and turn it down slightly. Mine had browned on top which means my oven was too high.

I’m afraid this week’s post doesn’t include a recipe as I’ve been lucky enough to escape the responsibility of Christmas dinner and since then we’ve been dining on takeaways and leftovers. Although Paul is currently making a turkey and chorizo risotto and I will post the recipe soon as it’s really easy and really yummy.

Anyway, I’m too happy to let a few sunken cakes get me down and on Christmas Eve I produced around 40 beautiful Christmas themed ones which you can see by going to my gallery page (I made all the Christmas trees by hand by the way – no stencils involved!!)

So now all that is left is to wish you a very happy New Year and here’s to 2012.

Spicy meatballs in tomato sauce with pasta - Merry Christmas

Now it’s only days away, we can scream and shout about the fact that it’s Christmas! Although many of us, okay me, have been secretly bursting with excitement since August, we can now officially get out the Santa hats and put on the Xmas tunes without the guilt.

It’s only Wednesday and I’ve already watched enough Christmas food programmes this week to get me through the next five Christmases, currently sitting on the sofa with a mug of mulled wine watching Nigel Slater (ooooh, naughty).

If you've managed to escape this array of festive food programmes you clearly don’t own a TV, but you can pick up some great festive ideas, a favourite of mine being The Hairy Bikers’ Christmas pudding vodka.

This week my recipe isn’t exactly Christmasy I admit, but when do spicy meatballs in tomato sauce not go down well, whatever the time of year?

There is a tenuous festive link however, as the recipe was originally given to me by a friend Jill, who I will see this weekend for the first time in ages while she’s home for the Christmas period.

It’s a really easy recipe and fun to make with the kids (not that I have any, but I am one at times) because you can get your hands in. Add the chilli sauce to suit your taste, serve with spaghetti and parmesan and you will not be disappointed.

And apparently, according to my personal on-call taste-tester, it tastes even better heated up the next day when the flavours have intensified.

If you get fed up of turkey this Christmas and want something stodgy and warming to cure a hangover, give this a go and you will thank me, I'm sure.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Ingredients

For the meatballs

Standard pack of minced meat (about 500g)

1 small onion

2 garlic gloves

1 beef stock cube

1 tsp hot chilli power (or more if you like it extra hot)

1 tsp paprika

1 small red chilli, finely chopped

Twist of salt and pepper

Fresh parsley

1 egg

Squeeze of chilli sauce (to taste)

For the sauce

1 glove of garlic

450g can of chopped tomatoes

Pinch of oregano

Salt and pepper

Method

1) Mix the meatball ingredients together in a large mixing bowl and combine with your hands. Add chilli sauce to combine or use ketchup if you like it milder.

2) Mould the mix into small balls and fry lightly in a frying pan with a little oil for a few minutes until sealed and slightly browned. Set aside and keep warm.

3) Meanwhile, make a tomato sauce by lightly frying a crushed garlic glove in a pan and adding the tomatoes along with some seasoning and a pinch of oregano.

4) Bring to the boil and leave to simmer for a few minutes, then add the sealed meatballs.

5) Cover and leave to simmer for about 45 minutes to one hour on a very low heat, stirring partway through.

6) Serve with spaghetti and parmesan.

The sacrilege of food waste and an easy recipe to use up left-over bananas

Light and moist banana loaf cake

One of my pet hates is food waste. According to the BBC, figures released in November suggest that the average UK family wastes £680-worth of food every year – shocking really.

I suspect a lot of this is down to ‘use by’ dates and people being too careful about eating something that’s a day or too past its best. In truth, most foods will be edible for even weeks past their ‘use by’ dates, but some people aren’t willing to take the risk, and I must admit I'm sometimes culpable of this.

Sometimes, when it comes to meat for example, out-of-date food really isn’t safe and it’s not worth worrying about that. I used to feel really guilty about throwing away food, but I remember reading a Paul McKenna weight-loss book in which he said we won’t stop starvation in Africa alone by not throwing away leftovers.

But whenever I can, I'll freeze or use up what’s in the fridge instead of throwing it away, mainly because I can’t afford to waste food.

One thing that’s always lying around at the end of the week in our house is a handful of over-ripe bananas. These are perfect for a yummy banana loaf so there’s no excuse for binning them. This recipe is really simple, not like when TV chefs show you ‘leftover’ recipes using ingredients that you just would not have lying around.

Perfect with a cup of tea!

It's a recipe I created myself using basic ingredients which you will probably already have in your cupboards.

It takes about ten minutes to prepare, less if you have a mixer, and it lasts for about a week once baked, getting more intense in flavour over the days.

Remember, don’t throw away black bananas - use them in this easy, moist cake which goes perfectly with a cup of tea for breakfast or an afternoon snack.

Ingredients
6oz margarine or butter, softened 

6oz sugar (half caster, half muscovado)

6oz self-raising flour

2 medium, free-range eggs

2 large or 3 small over-ripe bananas, mashed

drop of vanilla extract

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180c and line a medium loaf tin with baking sheet.
2. Beat the butter and sugars until light and coffee-coloured.
3. Slowly add the eggs to the mixture, then mix in the self-raising flour.
4. Add the mashed bananas and vanilla and mix gently, taking care not to over-mix.
5. Scoop the cake batter into the tin, dust with a little brown sugar.
6. Bake for about an hour or until a skewer comes out clean.  
7. Leave to cool then remove from tin and wrap in foil. Doesn’t need to be refrigerated.

Yummy winter warmer - easy caramelised red onion and brie tarts



As far as I’m concerned, when it comes to cooking, simple and classic flavour combinations work the best.



If you take basic pairings (ie leeks and potatoes; cheese and onion; salmon and dill) and get the seasoning right, an easy dish can be transformed into something extra special.

This evening I wanted something vegetarian and light that I could have with salad, but something really tasty, warming and satisfying.

This week I have the privilege of having a week off as I prepare to start my new job, so I have a little extra time to think about what I’m going to cook and plan ahead. Funnily enough, this dish didn’t take a lot of planning and preparation at all, aside from taking a block of pastry out of the freezer the night before.



I’m not confident enough yet to make my own pastry, and frankly why should I? Even Jamie and Delia are telling us to use shop-bought pastry nowadays.

For my caramelised red onion and brie tarts (if you can call a square a tart?) I used half a pack of puff pastry because that’s what was in, but you could use shortcrust which would need pricking with a fork and blind baking for about ten minutes before adding the topping.

Serve with a salad

I fried a medium red onion along with a garlic glove, white wine vinegar, brown sugar and thyme, and prepared the pastry, before realising that I needed two onions as I’d forgotten how much they reduce when caramelised.

Once the onions were soft and sticky I piled them onto the pastry and topped each piece with a slice of brie. The tarts should take about 15 to 20 minutes in a 200 degree oven.

In my broken oven, however, they took 30 minutes at 250 degrees which has convinced me once and for all that we really need to get a new oven after Christmas.

Once they were done I was so desperate to try one that I burned the roof of my mouth, but it was worth it as they were very delicious, and Paul agreed, polishing off two each.  

So I’m thinking of doing some mini versions as canapés for a party I’m having in a couple of weeks, and I’m going to try different but simple flavour combinations such as cherry tomato, black olives, basil and feta. Yum yum!

Ingredients (Makes four)

2 tbsp olive oil for frying

2 medium-sized red onions

1 garlic glove, sliced

2 tsp dried thyme (or 1 tbsp fresh)

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tsp soft brown sugar

Ready rolled puff pastry

Large piece of brie

Method

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Roll out pastry and cut into even squares. Score a 2cm border on the inside of each piece with a sharp knife and place onto a baking tray.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large frying pan. Fry the onions on a medium heat for a few minutes. Add the garlic and thyme and cook for five minutes.

Stir in the white wine vinegar and sugar, season, and cook for a further five minutes on a low heat until caramelised.

Put the onions onto the pastry, keeping within the borders, and add slices of brie and a few extra sprinkles of thyme. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until the pastry is golden and risen.   

In memory of my grandpa Lance Taylor

Firstly can I apologise to those who regularly read my blog – it has been an unbelievable few weeks and I have been rather aloof when it comes to the blogging unfortunately.

But I’m back and I’ll start with the good news, I have an exciting new job!!

It wasn’t easy, I spent a good week or so filling in the application in the evenings after work then another week attempting to prepare for the interview, hence not finding time to blog.

But last Sunday, when I was about to start the real hard work, my grandpa passed away. He’d been in hospital for an operation but I never expected he wouldn’t come out again, he was so strong, but his old and fragile body couldn’t take anymore, and I think he wanted to be with grandma so he left us.

It was a shock, and needless to say the job interview was put to the back of my mind for a while. In between all this I organised a charity day at work which involved baking 40 cupcakes and a carrot cake. We raised £230 for local hospices and my cakes went down a storm.

Tough does not explain how these past few weeks have been, but I believe my grandpa was with me during the interview and he'd be really proud. So I hopefully start in four weeks!!

I wanted to show off my cupcakes, but seeing as a good percentage of my recipes are baking related, I thought I’d better find something else. Plus, according to the Daily Mail today, the sweet treats are now as addictive as cocaine, and grandpa wouldn't want me to promote that!!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2057849/Why-trendy-cupcakes-addictive-cocaine.html

Here's a recipe which is really easy to make but it requires patience while the pears cook, it’s a baked pear salad with rocket, gorgonzola, walnuts and crispy pancetta.

The tastes of the sweet pears and the strong cheese explode and mix together on your palette and it’s a zingy, fresh flavour which tastes like a restaurant dish.

As a starter this is perfect for a dinner party to impress friends. I decided to have it as a main course salad one night, and to be honest the strong flavours were too much, so whilst the photo shows a main dish, I would stick to a start portion in the future. Once cooked, the pears and their sauce will save covered in the fridge for up to five days.

Ingredients

Four large ripe conference pears

8 tbsp maple syrup

8 tbsp olive oil

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

200g gorgonzola, broken up with a fork

50g chopped rocket

75g chopped walnuts

Few strips of pancetta, cooked until crisp

Extra virgin olive oil

Method

Set the oven to 160C/Gas 3. Cut the pears in half lengthways and scoop out the core and pips with spoon.

Drizzle over the maple syrup and olive oil, and a touch of salt and pepper, and bake in the oven for around 2 hours, or until the pears are shrivelled, soft and browned.

Put the rocket on a plate then add the cheese, walnuts and pancetta and drizzle with olive oil, adding a little pepper.

Lay two or three pear halves on top of the salad and sprinkle with a little extra chopped walnuts.