Nigella Lawson's Chicken and Barley Stew

 This recipe caught my eye at the start of what seems like the longest of all winters. It's very reminiscent of a chicken soup that my grandma used to make a million years ago and tastes very similar with the exception that ours used to be served with huge fluffy ( mostly ) dumplings.

Its beyond easy to make and has that wonderful starchy wintery goodness that makes you long for winter during a warm summer. I'm not a lover of parsnips so I cut mine quite small in order that I didn't have to wrestle with them while otherwise tucking in, otherwise I follow this recipe pretty much to the letter.

Ingredients:

• 300 grams peeled carrots,
• 300 grams sliced and cleaned leeks
• 300 grams peeled parsnips
• 175 grams pearl barley
• 6 chicken thighs chopped into large chunks
• 1 1/2 litres of hot chicken stock
• 4 teaspoons English mustard
• 25 grams flatleaf parsley

Tip all the chopped and peeled vegetables into a heavy based lidded casserole, add the pearl barley and the chicken, mix the stock with the mustard and pour over the mix. Bring to the boil, skim off any pesky froth and then simmer for an hour.

It almost feels as though there isn't enough pearl barley in this recipe and its going to watery and thin but it's perfect, I would say that it needs a good wallop of salt and loads of black pepper but its so flippin tasty ( considering the dearth of ingredients ) and this recipe serves 5/6 easily.

Its lovely, thanks Nigella !

Easy Pancakes

 Its pancake day so - it's pancakes! This is probably the easiest recipe ever for lovely succulent buttery pancakes - makes about 8. 

Ingredients

• 175 grams plain flour
• 1 nice big free range egg
• 325 mls milk
• 30 grams nice butter
• Pinch salt

Melt butter gently in a small pan and leave to one side for a moment, mix flour, egg, salt and milk in a large bowl, whisk like mad until all the lumps have gone.

Add melted butter to the batter and whisk for a few seconds - batter done!

melt a tiny amount of butter in a large crepe pan ( I just used my frying pan - when the pan is nice and hot add half a ladleful to the butter, swirl around until it covers the bottom in a nice thin layer and cook until it wants to break away from the bottom , don't poke it and jiggle it just let it do its stuff , ( maybe a minute ). Turn over - I really can't toss pancakes - and cook on the other side until lightly golden.

Turn out onto a warm plate and serve however you like, we had ours with lemon , sugar, raspberries and a squirt of vegan cream!

Yum.

Gordon Ramsey's Giant Crumpet

 I think I caught this recipe watching a programme ( one of so many cookery programmes ! ), now, who doesn't like a crumpet?? and , if you like a crumpet you'll love a mahoosive one right? Ok, so feeling rather gluttonous I decided to give this a go. 

It was really easy and this is how it went.

Ingredients :

• Ingredients:
• 175g strong white flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• Small pinch of caster sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 teaspoon dried yeast
• 125ml warm milk 
• 150ml warm water 
• Nice quality butter

1. Sift the flour, salt, sugar and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Make a small well in the centre and add the yeast. Gently pour in the warm milk and water, ensure it is not too hot or you'll kill the yeast.
2. Bring the flour from the outside of the bowl into the liquid and mix until you have a batter. It is quite thick  but if too thick you can add up to another 100ml of warm water. Cover and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour - it will have almost doubled in size.
3. Heat a non-stick frying pan  over a medium heat and add a little butter. Stir the batter and then pour into the pan. Turn down the heat and cook for 10-15 minutes
4. Once the batter is dry on top place a little butter around the edges of the crumpet and then flip over and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
5. Thats it, turn out and serve with whatever takes your fancy, honestly, I just like butter - but - I do rather like a smear of marmite on my crumpets too!!

Hmmm, it smelled and looked flippin lovely but, it was stodgy and not great, back to individual crumpets next time I think !

Gluten Free Mini Cheddars

 I'd almost forgotten about this recipe blog that actually started so long ago. I posted so many recipes that in actual fact I still use. 

Food blogs are in themselves quite time consuming and so much has happened in the last 5 years that it has been easy to neglect ( abandon ! ) this and power on with all manner of other pursuits - however - given the rather strained environment in which we now live, it may be an idea to revisit this little blog and give it some love - maybe - I'll see how I get on with a couple of new posts .....

Having experimented with a gluten free diet for the month of January, this recipe just seemed to  pop up on my Instagram and .... given my love for all things cheesy, it was an easy step to hop into the kitchen and make these with gay abandon.

I actually can't remember the page I nicked the recipe from unfortunately ( I can always pop a thank you in late if I find it ) but its dead easy and the whole house smelt of cheese - absolutely nothing wrong with that. 

Ingredients:

• 100g plain gluten free flour 
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 35g cold unsalted butter
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp caster sugar
• 2 tbsp cold water
• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 35g finely grated mature Cheddar cheese
• 1 tsp Xanthum Gum

Add all the dry ingredients to a clean bowl and stir to mix. Chop the butter into small chunks and rub in to the flour mix until it resembles fine breadcrumbs - a la pastry -

Add the grated cheese to the mix then the oil and water , bring the mix together to a nice doughy ball, knead just for a minute wrap in cling film and pop into the fridge for an hour.

Now , I got a little - distracted here and collected my sad ball of dough the next day, it was pretty crumbly and hard to manage but - with a pair of warm hands and a little love , it became quite soft and rollable again - phew!

Roll the dough out to about 4mm thick ( slightly less than a pound coin ) and cut out with teeny cutter. I scratched around and found a little vodka shot glass - perfect -

Pop into a preheated oven for about 8 - 10 minutes at  220'C / 200'C Fan / Gas 6 

Wait until you can't stand it anymore and eat like its your last meal

AMAZING !!