The Philadelphia Cookbook by Philadelphia UK

December 28, 2016November 26, 2016Leave a comment

I was searching through our bookshelves while writing the bookcase tour post and I stumbled across this Philedelphia book which I realised I haven’t yet reviewed. I love cooking and having my own kitchen has made that so much easier. I’ve made a dozen of the recipes from this book many times, especially when I’ve had to make dinner for lots of people on a tight budget, so I thought I would share my favourites with you.

Everyone adores cool, creamy Philadelphia, and it’s not just for spreading in a bagel – it’s an incredibly versatile cooking ingredient. Here for the first time are 110 fabulous recipes from the Philly team, from Party bites, Breads and bagels, Soups and light lunches, to Salads, Pasta, Fish and seafood dishes, Chicken, Rice and Risotto, and of course lots of Sweet treats and Divine cheesecakes.

Every single recipe has a handy Top Tip, and there are easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions for Philly novices and cooking experts alike. Packed with beautiful colour photography throughout, The Philadelphia Cookbook makes an invaluable addition to any kitchen.

I guess the main thing I’ve got to get across, probably like in every cookery book review is that this shouldn’t be another cookery book that just sits on your shelf. Since I got my tiny mitts on this book every time I’m lacking some inspiration it’s one of the first ones that I pick up. The book is split up into lots of sections including, soups, light lunches, breads & bagels, dinners, (including pasta, fish, rice, chicken and vegetables,) sweet treats and a separate section for cheesecakes if you’re into that thing.

So, how is it to use? The book is really easy to use and there are never too many ingredients. I always find that some cookery books have incredible looking dishes but they just have too many things going on. The most ingredient heavy recipe is the butternut, cauliflower and chickpea curry (which is delicious) and even that once you’ve bought the vegetables has mainly things you’ll find in your cupboard (such as chopped tomatoes, stock, olive oil etc.) The top tips are actually really good – some are a little obvious but it does explain some cooking styles (like sweating) or how to change up the dish for different tastes and the photographs are brilliant.

I think the book is really versatile – when I bought this I was a little suspicious about the bagels breads and the cheesecakes, there are the usual suspects (the classic smoked salmon bagel,) but other interesting combinations like roast vegetable and roast pumpkin bruschettas and also some fruit bagels (which don’t taste as odd as they sound,) are also included.

My favourites from the book include the thai green curry which has only a handful of ingredients and can be whipped up in only 15 minutes. The creamy mushroom risotto is also a goodun and although takes a bit of cooking tastes incredible and the baked sweet potatoes which are super healthy and also delicious. All have only a few number of ingredients and taste like they’re kinda difficult (but they’re super easy.) The desserts are also extensive and go beyond the sterotypical vanilla cheesecake including summer berry charlotte, a carrot cake and even a tiramisu.

I have to make a quick aside and mention that each of the recipes has a calorie and macro count. I realise for a lot of people that this probably isn’t important but, for me, and for anyone that is trying to keep an eye on their weight it is SUPER HELPFUL. Additionally, cream cheese tends to be pretty bad for you, but I find that a lot of the recipes, especially the soups are really reasonable.

So would I recommend this? Hella yes I would – although I guess if you don’t really like cream cheese it might not be for you? But if it is, then definitely invest in this book. I’m off to make a massive batch of creamy bean soup, I don’t know about you but that sounds amazing.

Linnnnnks

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The Christmas Bake Off Kindle Edition by Abby Clements

December 10, 2015July 18, 2016Leave a comment

Helllllo readers, I’m not usually one for Christmas stories but as I’ve been getting into the Christmas spirit a little earlier especially with all the Christmas markets I’ve been visiting I thought a festive read would be fitting. This year I’ll have (hopefully) done Birmingham twice and also Manchester and both I am sure will be wonderful. It’s a shame this year I’m not going with my parents but the weekends just haven’t added up but I thought today I would read and review for you a super short but super sweet Christmas story. Enjoy!

With Christmas just around the corner, the residents of Skipley village are gearing up for the annual bake off, and tensions are high. Winning means a lot to everyone involved – talented cake-shop owner Katie dreams of baking stardom, Rachel wants to prove she’s more than a stay-at-home mum, and John hopes his culinary skills will impress the woman he loves.

But when the judges discover that some cakes have been tampered with, the villagers’ loyalties are called into question – whose ambition would stretch to sabotage, and why? The Christmas Bake Off is an exclusive short story from Abby Clements, author of Meet Me Under the Mistletoe. This ebook edition also includes bonus recipes for cinnamon cookies and vanilla and almond biscuits.

As the blurb suggests the book follows a baking competition in a lovely little English village. Among the competitors are Katie who wants to make herself known more professionally in the baking world and Rachel who desperately wants to prove she’s more than ‘just a home baker.’ Baking a gingerbread house desperate to impress the judges – there’s a problem. Sabotage? Who will be the winner? Who has tried to stop the competition winning? All will be revealed in this ‘christmassy’ baking read.

Did I enjoy this festive tale? Yes, don’t get me wrong it is incredibly short – you could plow through this on a lunch-break or a longer bus journey but it does pack a festive punch. The characters although lacking in-depth come across strongly and have lovingly created personalities. Although the plot does use the sabotage of the cakes to bring drama it is all very light-hearted and sweet. The bake-off, rural village was played up to make this a really sweet read and I did feel incredibly festive reading it.

I did think that there could have been deeper insights into the characters. The book is very, very (very) short and a couple of extra chapters that could have introduced a sub-plot would have helped to fill out the book a little more. The recipe at the back is a welcome addition and I cannot wait to give them a try and bake some Christmas goodies but the book didn’t quite deliver for me in terms of enjoyment. There is a smidgen of romance between two of the bakers which could have been developed but wasn’t quite enough for me to really invest myself in.

Overall this is the perfect lunch-break read when you just need a minute away from the computer, or curled up on the sofa with a hot-chocolate after a long day at work. It’s a sweet read, with a sweet ending. I found myself wanting more from this due to its short length, but for a couple of pennies on Amazon it’s definitely worth a read.

Linnnnks

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101 things in 1001 days: Host a dinner party and make it beautiful

April 27, 2015April 27, 20152 Comments

So, I’ve been meaning to do this for a while and with many of my 101 things being to improve my ability to cook this one seemed like a good one to test out my newly improved skills at the stove. It’s not that I’m bad at it, I just never make the time and when I do it’s something easy or quick. Although it often tastes rather wonderful it’s never exactly a culinary masterpiece. Now, as you all know I recently moved into a new house and despite telling myself I would have a housewarming it’s been a couple of weeks since I moved in. Perfect excuse for a get together and to invite a couple of wonderful friends round; on the menu, dips and chips to start, vegetarian chilli for main and chocolate fudge brownie dessert for dinner. Pretty simple but pretty tasty.

I started by buying a number of little tea light candles and crimson napkins. The house is so beautiful and the colours are so warm that once I had set the table with the round smooth chocolate coloured plates and had put out the jewel coloured coasters; a criss-cross design of ruby, emerald and sapphire squares it all looked a little wonderful. I then set about on the chilli. I started by cutting up two onions into little squares and two peppers; one red and one green. These were gently softened in the pan with some oil which took a little longer than thought but all in good time; let em get all soft and yummy. I then added the Quorn and browned that off which is a little difficult to do when it starts and ends the same colour but I cooked it off a little. Then I made up 400ml of vegetable stock. It did say 200 and a glass of red wine but I had none in so I just popped in a little more stock. After adding this to the pan with a tsp of chilli powder, ground coriander and cinnamon I pushed up the heat and let it bubble away. I then added two tins of chopped tomato and a tin of kidney beans and turned down the heat. I then let it cook for a little longer and then added a few more shakes of chilli powder.

When my guests arrived I stuck the rice on and popped a stick of garlic bread in the oven and turned the chilli onto a low heat to warm up. I served the food with guacamole, sour cream and a bowl of chopped up chilli just in case it wasn’t hot enough. Chilli probably wasn’t the best choice because I had no idea for the life of me how hot people like their chilli. If it’s my mother cooking it you better be ready for some serious heat but I just wanted a kick at the end and then everyone could add heat accordingly. I must admit I think it tasted pretty good and was just the right amount. The only small error is I didn’t quite cook enough rice which is a little silly because when it’s me I always end up with a huge amount left over but for five I wasn’t sure how to judge it. Saying that people did have seconds and there was a little left over for dinner the next night. I then served the pudding with passion fruit frozen yoghurt which I think went down a treat.

Overall I think it was a roaring success but then it is me. I’ve always marvelled at my mother’s ability to organise a three course meal and even with almost everything ready I was a little stressed and flustered despite being overly prepared. (Printing out four different chilli recipes and having dinner cooked an hour in advance, I was looking pretty good.) I’m really intrigued to do this again and serve something a little more complex. I make a mean Thai green curry and think that would go down a treat. It was the perfect way to celebrate my new house and the move, and something I will definitely be doing again.

101 Things in 1001 days: Make pizza from scratch

February 4, 2015February 4, 20156 Comments

Good afternoon readers; since I’m a little off book reviews after the book review challenge I’ve decided to bring you a tasty 101 things in 1001 days challenge. Although my culinary skills are not poor, since I started my job I seem to have got into the habit of making the same things over and over again. Although this is no bad thing (I make a mean spag bol) I’ve decided to try and up my tried and tested recipes and add pizza to the mix. There is a reason behind it being pizza specifically but I’ll get back to that. A little side note, I was tempted to pretend that this went perfectly first time however I decided to be completely honest. This took in honesty three attempts before the pizza resembled anything edible; the first time I was so excited I forgot to add the olive oil. A more experienced cook could probably guess how important this is for making pizza but I had no idea and chucked it into my kneaded dough. Then to try and repair this I added flour; don’t do that, it won’t work. Second Bridget Jones moment came the second time when I managed to tip most of the flour out of the bowl onto the floor, over-compensated added too much flour and then couldn’t roll it out. Nightmare. However yesterday I started again and somehow managed to get it done perfectly.

The reason why I decided to specifically include pizza on the list takes me back to Silverstone Juniors aged just eight. For some reason, which I cannot for the life of me recall, one sunny afternoon the entirety of the school made pizza. There must have been an educational link somewhere but I can’t quite put my finger on it. The twenty of us in year four rolled up our sleeves, mixed the dough and kneaded it before adding our toppings and had the teacher pop them carefully in the oven. What came out was an inedible mass that when thrown out to the birds, was also refused by them. It was doughy, chewy and undercooked. When I came to write my list it suddenly pinged back into my memory and so I found a recipe and on Monday night set myself the task of making pizza.

I took the recipe from the GoodFood website but seeing as the scales I was using weren’t working too well and I hadn’t realised we didn’t have a measuring jug there was a lot of guess work. Firstly measure out 300g of strong bread flour. I used the white variety however I assume wholemeal would work equally well. Then add a tsp of yeast, a tsp of salt and a tbsp of olive oil. Then measure out 200ml of warm water, make a well in the mound of dry ingredients and ‘bring together’ with a wooden spoon. It says at this point it should be a wet dough however mine was ridiculously sticky so I added a little more flour until it looked how I thought it should. Then you have to seriously knead the dough; I went all bake off style and started properly working it, until it looked pretty smooth. Then you have the choice of either letting it rise a little or just steaming right ahead. I left mine for a little bit, but it didn’t rise a huge amount so I’d be tempted to skip this step.

At this stage I decided to roast some yellow pepper in the oven; I couldn’t decide whether they would cook if I just put them on the top so I decided instead to roast them off in a little olive oil and salt but it depends on your toppings of choice and how well done you like your ingredients. The next tricky step is rolling it out, this dough is seriously stretchy. Not only did it keep pulling back when I stretched it out but it also wouldn’t roll into a circle. It ended up resembling a rather wonky oval however I managed to stretch it out a little and make it look a bit more circular. I also didn’t have a rolling pin which obviously made this a little more difficult. I then floured the baking tin, and popped the dough on before stretching it out a little more whilst on the tin. I squeezed on a little tomato puree and a couple of spoons of tomato passata and added salt and pepper before pushing it around the entire base of the pizza. I took the roasted pepper from the oven, and cut up some pre-cooked bits of chicken which tasted pretty delicious. I then popped on a sprinkling of sweetcorn, some circles of mozzarella and some torn up basil leaves before placing it in the oven on a temperature of 160. I think the recipe said higher but I have a terrible habit of leaving pizza too long and it going a little burnt and I wanted to avoid this as much as possible.

Despite me being delirious that the pizza looked like it might work, it actually smelt incredibly delicious and it cooked rather evenly despite my oven being pretty time-worn and ancient. Although a little thicker on the outside and having a few holes in the bottom due to my panic that it would be too thick and wouldn’t cook well the pizza was honestly delicious. I don’t eat a huge amount of pizza; it’s not my go to choice of takeaway however it tasted so much better than the doughy deep pan pizzas that your regular takeaway has to offer and I will one hundred percent be doing this again soon.

101 Things To Do In 1001 Day: Make Roasted Red Pepper Soup

November 13, 2014Leave a comment

Good afternoon my lovely readers, today’s post as you can see is a 1001 days post so if you’re looking for a book review you’re not going to find it here, but you will find a post about me being a culinary whizz. Well kind of. I was looking at my list of things to do and I worked out that I have to complete around three tasks a month and at the moment I am not keeping up with that and some of the bigger tasks can’t really be done over a weekend or even a month, as they need a lot of planning. So I sat down and looked at all the ones that I could do quite simply and this coming week I am going to be taking on three. I am off to Glasgow at the weekend with Mumma B which ticks off the task go somewhere in Great Britain you’ve never been before, and I am going to the midnight premiere of the new Hunger Games film (fingers crossed) next week with two of my wonderful friends.

Now this one today I actually completed about a month ago but my iPhone was broken and the photos from my old Blackberry were awful so I made it again last night with a different recipe and it tastes amazing; (well I think so anyway) So, I made roasted red pepper soup; it’s actually one of my favourites, right after Heinz tomato. For me you cannot beat that stuff, it reminds me of sick days snuggled up on the sofa, under the sick blanket (as we called it, I am sure it was riddled with disease) watching children’s films such as Barbie Rapunzel. This comes a close, close second and I now have a vat on it sitting on the side as long as neither of my house dwellers has devoured it whilst I’ve been at work.

I love cooking but I never really get round to it my life is either completely in a rush or I’m out of the house, so I’m either eating a toasted sandwich whilst furiously blogging and writing articles for the various sites I write for, or I’m out for dinner with friends, I just never MAKE the time and always think oh I’ll do it later. So after paying the water bill (I hate being an adult) I wandered around Sainsbury’s chatting away to my best friend whilst trying to remember the recipe for red pepper soup. I traipsed home with four red peppers, two carrots, an onion, stock jel thingies (yes that’s what they are) garlic, basil, chopped tomatoes, a new hand blender (last time I attempted to mash the soup as I did not own a blender, I can confirm it doesn’t work,) and a bottle of rose which is vital for cooking my mother tells me. Hair up, apron on and cooking could commence.

First I chopped up all the peppers; I must admit I don’t think I needed them all because they filled the roasting tray, splattered them with a little oil and sprinkled salt (and you should add pepper but I didn’t have any; shock) Pop them in the oven at 180. Then pour a glass of wine, following my mother’s wisdom as always. Peel the carrots, and chop them up with the onion and garlic. Then put a saucepan of water onto boil (two pints) and add the stock. I used a jelly type one rather than a cube but I don’t think it matters too much. Whack in the vegetables and boil for five minutes and then turn down to simmer for around twenty minutes. Pour another glass of wine (yes another.)The peppers should be done (don’t forget about them!) so bring them out the over and leave them to cool. The recipe said scrape off the blackened bits but mine were only a little so I left them on. Chop them up and throw them in the saucepan along with the chopped tomatoes and let it cook for another ten minutes. Blend and you’re done and dusted. The basil is for decorative purposes but I had some dried stuff that I popped in whilst it was cooking.
This soup honestly tasted delicious and it wasn’t because of the third glass of wine I promise. Definitely worth a go, I’ve popped in a link, and I don’t like celery that’s why it didn’t make it into the soup; if you were wondering. 🙂 Here’s the link: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/7685/-roasted-red-pepper-soup