Month: Nov 2012

Yelly Eats

Scones!

Yelly

I’ve been wanting to bake scones since I saw this Gary Rhodes show on TV.  He made making scones look so easy.  Mind you, I’ve always believed these experienced chefs always make everything look so easy to make!

So I started looking up scone recipes.  I started with opening Paul Hollywood’s book.  The recipe was quite interesting because it used bread flour instead of regular flour.  I was a bit worried that it wouldn’t taste like the scones that I’d loved so much from The Delaunay counter.   So I decided to look through Mary Berry’s  Baking Bible.  I looked at Mary’s recipe and thought this was going to taste more traditionally scone-y.

Mary’s Baking Bible is lovely because the instructions are straightforward and not formidable at all.  It tells you what to do and if you do it, then it’ll come out wonderful.  The recipe said it would make 20 small scones and it made 21.  I probably made a couple of scones too thin, which made it possible to make an extra scone.

When the scones came out the came out soooooo lovely and golden brown!

I couldn’t not have scones, clotted cream and jam.  I’d been having quite the sickly week as there is a bug making its rounds at work, so I thought I deserved a tiny bit of a treat.  Because I was feeling a bit blecchy, I was worried about how the scones would turn out.  It was definitely a comforting treat.  The next time I do Mary’s scones, I’ll put a bit of fruit in it!  Should make for lovely fruity scones!

 

Yelly Eats

Fajita night!

Yelly

I am a wannabe domestic goddess (you wouldn’t think so if you saw what my front room looked like!  Martha Stewart I definitely am not!) and I have illusions of joining the Great British Bake Off.  I say illusions because I am in no way, shape or form ready to bake at that level just yet!  I say “just yet” because it is the great dream…and I am slowly self-training my way into readiness.

I love to cook and I adore my tiny kitchen.  But there are days when I really don’t want to spend to much time in it.  Tuesdays, more often than not, are days when I don’t really want to cook.  It’s my I’m-so-tired-I-could-cry day for some reason.  So on a Tuesday night, I will usually find myself sitting on the train hoping there are leftovers in the fridge, or me buying a ready meal from the supermarket to pop in the oven when I get home or there is the phoning-takeaway-of-choice  route.

Tonight however, is different.  Tonight is fajita night!  While I cheated yet again tonight (I bought a fajita spice packet from the supermarket!), here’s a fajita spice mix recipe that I know works really well:

Ingredients:

Spice Mix
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1-2 teaspoons chili powder (or go without, this really depends on how hot you want it to be!)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika (sweet variety, or if you can find the smoked variety, that will work too)
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon crushed chicken bouillon cube
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon cumin

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
650g chicken thighs, diced (I use chicken thighs because they don’t dry out as much as chicken breasts)
1 medium sized white onion, sliced thinly
1 red, 1 green and 1 yellow bell pepper, julienned (pepper colours can be changed, of course, depending on what’s available)

Directions

  1. Mix together all the spice mix ingredients.  In a metal or glass bowl (only because the spice mix will stain plastic bowls), mix chicken, vegetable oil and the spice mix together until the chicken is well coated.
  2. Making sure the pan (I used a non-stick pan) is very hot, brown the chicken and cook for about 10 minutes.  Add the onions and the bell pepper and cook for a further 5 minutes.
  3. Serve in warm soft tortillas with sour cream, salsa and guacamole.

And there you go!  A meal that’s quick, easy and surprisingly healthy (especially if you go easy on the condiments!).

Yelly Eats

Pan de sal at last!

Yelly

I’ve been looking for a pan de sal recipe that I can work with and I have think I may have found it.

Pan de sal is a Filipino bread roll that is sold at very nearly every corner bakery shop in the Philippines.  I’ve missed it so much that I’ve told myself it’s necessary for me to learn how to make it.  This is the third adaptation of a recipe that I’ve seen online.  As usual, I read and reread the recipe to make sure I could follow the steps without reading through the recipe over and over (even if I had the iPad open on the recipe anyway!).  I always worry when I’m making bread because I’m never sure it’s going to turn out right.  But there was something right about how the dough looked while it was being kneaded in the Kenwood.  I kneaded the dough by hand and the dough felt right then too.  When I oiled the dough to prepare it for proofing, it looked right.  Ha!  Listen to me waxing philosophical about bread dough!

After following the baking instructions and making the bread rolls, I must admit, I was a bit worried again.  It might’ve have looked right as proofing dough but I always worry that I’m too heavy handed with anything I bake!  With a lot of whispered prayers I popped the trays into to oven and waited (impatiently) for 15 minutes until the timer pinged to tell me the rolls were ready.  They looked gorgeous and they tasted even better.  They finally tasted like the pan de sal I remember from the Philippines!

And, yes, I am very, very please!