Monthly Archives: March 2011

Fennel salad

31 Thursday Mar 2011

Posted by in Salads

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Fennel and garlic salad

Fennel and garlic salad

I keep seeing recipes in the papers about cooked fennel. Ok it’s good but I have to say it’s so much better raw and strangely enough people just don’t seem to eat it that way. It’s so fresh and crunchy with aniseedy flavours. I feel that cooking it takes quite a lot away from it.

You’ll need:

1 fennel
1 – ½ clove of garlic
½ a lemon
2 – 3 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

So it’s quite simple, cut the fennel in half and then slice thinly. Put it in a bowl and add the crushed garlic and half a lemon’s juice. The acid from the lemon juice will start to ‘cook’ the garlic. Mix it all together and then add the olive oil, salt and pepper. Stir it all once more. Then cover with cling film and leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. This will ensure that all the flavours are properly infused.

Serve as a side salad with anything really 🙂 I think that this is one of my favourite things. Though I have to warn you that I love garlic, so if you are a little afraid of it don’t put too much.

Little tip: eating garlic keeps mosquitoes away (ok I hear you say the boys as well, haha).

Mel

Blackberry Upside Down Cake

30 Wednesday Mar 2011

Posted by in Desserts

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With 4 weeks left of my pregnancy, I find myself wanting to eat sweets to calm my nerves. Normally, a chocolate shake would do the trick, but I’ve been lactose intolerant for almost 2 months now and can no longer splurge on ice cream. 

So, I went to the store on a mission to find a sweet treat but saw that blackberries were on sale again. I’ve been dying to use them for something. So, instead of making Pineapple Upside Down Cake, I used blackberries instead. I couldn’t believe how easy and delicious it was!

What you will need:

2 1/2 cups fresh blackberries
1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk

I got 2 bowls out, like I do when making chocolate chip cookies.
In one bowl, I whisked the flour, baking soda and salt.

In the other bowl, with an electric mixer, I beat the butter and 1/2 cup of remaining sugar.
Then I added the egg and vanilla.
Once that was all mixed, I slowly added the flour mixture and buttermilk.

I didn’t have a round 8 X 2 cake pan, instead I used disposable tin bread pans that were 8 X 4 ( I bought them for banana bread) 

These worked better because I didn’t have to grease the pans or even use parchment paper.

I divided the berries up between the three pans. Then I sprinkled the berries with 1 1/2 tsp of sugar.

Then I poured the mixture in all three pans and baked in the oven at 400 degrees for 30-35 min.
It’s important to immediately take the cake out of the pan so the fruit doesn’t get too soggy.

Because I cannot have whip cream or ice cream, I sweetened some greek yogurt with honey and put a dollop on top.

It was a huge treat as a dessert and perfect with my tea in the morning 🙂

Enjoy!
Joy

Cream cheese and clams

29 Tuesday Mar 2011

Posted by in Seafood

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 I wanted to go to Brick Lane this weekend to try and see if I could buy some cheap sugar, spices and other things for when I do Live Below the Line. Unfortunately the market’s only open on a Sunday and I wasn’t able to go. So instead Alexis and I went to Borough market, for those of you who have been you will know that it is nothing like the market at Brick Lane let alone the prices. But I was able to make quite a yummy dish in the end without it costing us too much money. 

We bought a handful of clams, 4 king prawns and some purple mushrooms I usually pick when I’m in France. We had them for lunch on Sunday but I didn’t have any cream or white wine, what I would usually use to cook clams. So I raided the fridge and found some pickled chillies and philadelphia (cream cheese).

I cut up the two chillies, fried them with butter, crushed garlic and the mushrooms. Once the mushrooms were browned I added the king prawns. In a separate pan I put a glass of water and added the clams, a tablespoon of philadephia and some mixed herbs and covered the pan. Once the clams where cooked, this only takes a few minutes, I decided to add the clams (with all the liquid) in with the mushrooms and prawns and in a minute, ta-da it was ready! We boiled some new potatoes but I think some noodles would go better with this dish. This was easy peasy and is a sure pleaser.

www.liveblowtheline.org.uk/our-impact/christian-aid/

Mel

Lemon Meringue tart

27 Sunday Mar 2011

Posted by in Desserts

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Lemon merigue tart

Lemon merigue tart

I’ve been fancying a lemon meringue tart for a couple of weeks now so when I was invited over for a tea party by a friend this afternoon I thought it was the perfect excuse for me to make it. Now I have never made a lemon tart before let alone one with meringue on top but guess what!? It’s really easy to make and it’s so good (plus it looks quite impressive 😉

What you will need:

Shortcrust pastry
5 eggs
200g of sugar
200ml crème fresh
2 lemons

So I went for the lazy option and bought some ready made shortcrust pastry. You need to heat your oven at 180C. In a bowl whisk two eggs, two egg yolks (put the two egg whites in a bowl, this will be for the meringue), 150g of sugar, the zest of two lemons, the juice of two lemons and 200ml of crème fresh.

Put the pastry in a tart tin, poke it a few times with a fork and put it in your heated oven for 10 minutes. Then remove and add in your lemon mix, leave the lemon tart in the oven for 30 minutes.

A few minutes before your tart is cooked take your two egg whites and add two more egg whites, whisk until you can virtually tip the bowl upside down without the eggs falling on your head…then add 50g of sugar and whisk the eggs a bit more. Remove your tart from the oven and cover the surface with the egg whites. Turn the oven down to about 50C and put the tart back in for about 5 – 10 minutes. I would check on the tart after 5 minutes and as soon as parts of the meringue start to golden you know that it’s ready. Remove from the oven and let it cool.

Everyone seemed to enjoy it this afternoon and it definitely satisfied my craving.

Mel

Cinnamon and Prosecco pork

24 Thursday Mar 2011

Posted by in Pork

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This was a new one for me last night. I fancied drinking some Prosecco but was cooking pork loin which I usually use white wine for. But I thought what the heck why not use Prosecco! I brought the leftovers to my lunch club today and it got the thumbs up which is always a good sign for me.

What you will need:
1 pork loin
Bottle of Prosecco
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
Afew spring onions
A nice dollop of golden syrup (or honey)
1 cinnamon stick
1 vegetable stock
2 handfuls of mushrooms
A few twigs of thyme

A side of new potatoes and green salad

I cooked it in my pressure cooker but you can probably cook in a pot roast style in the oven or one the hob. I started by goldening the sliced onions and the pork loin before adding in some crushed garlic and some chopped spring onions. I then added a nice dollop of golden syrup (because I’d run out of honey) over the pork. I then popped the cork and added about a glass of Prosecco and a cinnamon stick. I also used one vegetable stock cube with a glass of boiling water, some chopped mushrooms and thyme from my hanging basket. Then all you need to do is put the lid on and cook it for about 30 minutes. I boiled some new potatoes to go with and had a salad on the side. (if you’re not using a pressure cooker check your pot from time to time to make sure it has enough liquid, if not add as necessary).

I know it’s an unusual sounding dinner and lunch but one that was quite tasty. You can of course like most my meals mix and jazz it up with any other ingredients you might have in your fridge or cupboard.

Why don’t you try it out and let me know how it goes. Bon appetit

Mel

Live Below the Line

24 Thursday Mar 2011

Posted by in Live Below the Line

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I will be taking part in a fundraiser called Live Below the Line for Christian Aid between 2-6 May. It’s going to be a challenge as I’ll have to live on £1 a day for five days. I will be blogging my recipe ideas in the run up to the 2 May and my experience during that week. I welcome any tips you might have on cheap  food! For example I’ve found  a kg of mixed frozen veg for 68p, fantastic!

Why not try and challenge yourself to by joining at https://www.livebelowtheline.com/uk-christianaid

Mel

Welcome to our lunch club!

23 Wednesday Mar 2011

Posted by in Welcome to The Lunch Club

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A lunch club across two continents, linking two friends together through their love of food and good company. We will be sharing recipes and tips on how to make good food whilst saving money and making friends at work. Through MELANDJOYTHELUNCHCLUB you will get snippets of our lives, Joy works for a consultancy agency in Chicago and Mel works for a charity in London. Our lives are very different but food is one of our common links. We COOK and we LOVE IT.

We try and meet twice a year in different places around the world. During our trip to Amsterdam in October we started talking about food (surprise!) and realised that we both have lunch clubs at work and they had so many things in common. We take proper breaks from our desks at lunch, save money as we don’t buy a sandwich every day, only bring food in every other day and become the talk of the kitchen with our yummy lunches. It’s great fun and it can’t be bad if it’s healthy (well, not always) and saves you money!

Mel and Joy