Saturday, 19 March 2011

Soy, Honey, and Garlic Noodles

I love making this when I know I'm going to have an evening in by myself and I want to make something easy, but something slightly nicer than just a bowl of pasta. 




I love the Chinese-style combination of soy, honey, garlic, and sweet chilli sauce


Here's an approximate recipe that serves one (it changes slightly every time!). 
2 Tablespoons honey
4 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon sweet chilli sauce
1 clove garlic (crushed)
1 chicken breast
Chinese noodles
Half a carrot, sliced 
Half a small onion, chopped
Small handful of cashews
Baby spinach leaves


Method:
  1. Mix the honey, soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce, and garlic.
  2. Dice the chicken and mix it with the sauce.
  3. Ideally, leave to marinade for at least an hour.
  4. Put a small amount of oil into a frying pan and put it on medium heat.
  5. Add the chicken, carrot, onion, and cashews to the frying pan. 
  6. Cook until the chicken is cooked through.
  7. Add the noodles and gently stir until heated through.
  8. Serve on a bed of baby spinach.
Yummmm! :) Enjoy! This recipe could be stretched to serve 2 or 3 - just add more noodles and vegetables! 

Tuesday, 25 January 2011

Bake it in a Cake: Oreos

Inspired by my love for Bake It in a Cake, last night I created some cupcakes with Oreos inside! 

I love Oreos. When I was a kid, I thought they were yummy, but kind of boring as it was standard 'kid food'. However, since moving to the UK and not having Oreos so readily available, I find myself craving them once in a while! 

These cupcakes were so fun to make. They're just a normal vanilla cupcake batter, but of course with an Oreo hidden inside! They're topped with buttercream frosting and crushed Oreos. 

Here are the recipes I used:

Cupcake batter (from iVillage)
125g / 4 1/2 oz softened butter
125g / 4 1/2 oz caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
125g / 4 1/2 oz self-raising flour
2 tbsp milk

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas mark 5. Either butter the tin or place the paper cases in the holes. In a mixing bowl beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. You can use an electric whisk or a wooden spoon.
Add the beaten egg, a little at a time, whisking to incorporate, then beat in the vanilla.
Sift in half of the flour and fold into the mixture. Add the milk and the rest of the flour and fold until well combined.
Spoon into the tin and bake for 12 minutes or until risen and golden on top. Allow to cool for ten minutes on a rack before removing from the tin.

Frosting (modified from Waitrose.com)
85g softened butter
200g icing sugar
a couple drops of vanilla flavouring
splash of milk, until right consistency

Cream butter and sugar together, adding the milk as needed. 

Assembly
  1. Mix up the cupcake batter.
  2. Place the cupcake papers in the cupcake tin.
  3. Fill the papers about a third of the way full with batter.
  4. Place an oreo on top of the batter in each paper, squishing it down into it a bit.
  5. Cover with another spoonful of batter (don't fill the papers more than 3/4 full, or they will overflow!).
  6. Bake the cupcakes as usual.
  7. Wait for the cupcakes to cool completely. They may fall a little bit, but don't worry about that. 
  8. Mix up your buttercream icing.
  9. Use a piping bag (or fill up a plastic sandwich bag and cut a hole in one corner - that's what I do!) to pipe luscious swirls of icing onto each cupcake.
  10. Crush up a few of the leftover Oreos, and sprinkle them onto the top of the cupcakes. 

Makes 12 medium size cupcakes. 

Enjoy! 

Monday, 24 January 2011

Food Blogs I Like

I'm thinking of resurrecting this blog (and the joyfulfood twitter), but to get things started, here are a few of my favourite food blogs:

Bake It in a Cake: http://bakeitinacake.com/
Oh my gosh, this blog fills me with such joy! It's a wonderful mixture of delicious-sounding food, and the hilarious and creative ideas of what can indeed be baked inside of a cake!

At first I was drawn to this blog because the author has the same name as me, and of course (?) that is a cause for interest. Her food ideas are fun, the photographs are beautiful, and she has a endearingly quirky writing style.

I only recently discovered this one, but I'm impressed with it so far. I think what I like the most is not even the food and recipes themselves, but the beautiful and thoughtful writing that goes with it.

Enjoy! Hopefully I'll be here with more simple, fun, and 'joyful' food ideas soon :)
Joy