Category: Recipes

First Time Making, Recipes

Old Fashioned Gingerbread

Christmas means plenty of gingerbread – gingerbread men, gingerbread house… I’ve always wanted to make a gingerbread cake, as I like the flavours in there more so than Christmas pudding, and wanted a scrumptious gingerbread-like dessert to wrap up Christmas dinner.

This year, I found the favourite old fashioned gingerbread recipe and decided to adapt it by reducing the sweetness and doubling the spice, and also adding a layer of mascarpone cream icing on top. The result? Delicious! The cream and gingerbread taste worked really well together! Continue reading “Old Fashioned Gingerbread”

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Recipes

(The) Christmas Recipe – Panettone

Christmas is around the corner and I couldn’t avoid to get carried away with a Christmassy baking challenge: this year it’s traditional Italian Panettone. The original recipe for this sweet bread is usually made with sourdough starter or beer yeast and usually has long proving times. Keeping the ingredients as per the original recipe, I decided to use a slightly easier method that only requires dried yeast and overnight chilling so that the proving time is reduced to once only for three hours. The ingredient amounts would have required an 18cm panettone tin, but mine were 15.5cm, so I made two – perfect for a last minute Christmas present! Continue reading “(The) Christmas Recipe – Panettone”

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Recipes

Christmas Recipe: Hazelnut and Beer One Pot Duck and Potatoes

The festive season is all about poultry – turkey mainly, but also duck (if you want an bird that fits more easily in the oven). When we tasted the Cake Boy Hazelnut Ale during our mince pie making masterclass last year, it reminded us of beer braised duck. This time, we wanted to modify the beer and duck combination to make it more of a Christmas recipe, and at the same time, we wanted to make sure that it’s going to be easy to make.

This is more or less a one pot recipe, although you will need to transfer the pot on the hob into the oven. The key flavours are honey and hazelnut, and as we like rosemary a lot, we’ve added quite a lot to this recipe. You can choose to use less. Continue reading “Christmas Recipe: Hazelnut and Beer One Pot Duck and Potatoes”

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Recipes

Polenta Chips Recipe

For the busy time of the year when you will be hosting drinks and dinner parties before everyone leaves for the Christmas holidays, polenta chips is an easy recipe to enjoy with simple dips and other finger foods. Make a pesto dip, a baba ganoush, a veggie mayonnaise, or serve them sprinkled with rosemary and grated pecorino or parmesan cheese, like we did. Polenta is essentially a very nutritious corn flour, so you can rest assured that no one will be left hungry. We baked them in the oven, but for a golden finish fry them in sunflower oil and you’ll have a great result as well. Continue reading “Polenta Chips Recipe”

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Partridges_Ombar chocolate
Product Review, Recipes

Partridges with Ombar Chocolate Sauce

We love Chocolate – this delicious ingredient, source of endorphins and serotonin. Today we are partnering up with Ombar, who have created raw cocoa chocolate bars that preserve all the nutrients of chocolate. Is it really raw? Of course not. The cocoa beans are processed at a slow temperature, but not roasted, and that is why they can be called raw.
I got a 90% raw cocoa bar and decided that instead of putting it in a smoothie or a cake, I wanted to cook something with it. Finding the partridges was just what I needed – now that autumn is coming along with chilly evenings, a strongly flavoured game casserole is just what you want to be cooking on the stove. This recipe serves four.

Continue reading “Partridges with Ombar Chocolate Sauce”

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Recipes

Thanksgiving Recipe – Pork Sirloin with Spanish Pedro Sauce

It’s Thanksgiving week: for us in Europe and rest of the World it’s almost like a fictional holiday that we only get to see in the movies. Every year, the fascination about what our American friends will serve on their table takes over the internet and all our favourite blogs. But there’s no stopping us extending their gratitude to our own dining tables, is there? And what if this year we proposed a recipe that broke the poultry convention? In fact, for this recipe we chose pork sirloin – and if you can get your hands on an authentic Iberico pork sirloin, all the better! Continue reading “Thanksgiving Recipe – Pork Sirloin with Spanish Pedro Sauce”

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Recipes

Sardinian Flan Recipe

I’ve seen a lot of panna cotta insta-posts lately, and this made me really think of the simplicity of Italian desserts back home. Didn’t take long for this to escalate into a real craving! I’m not a fan of panna cotta itself, but instead I’m crazy for creme caramel! In Sardinia, it is very traditional and we call it Flan di Latte (meaning milk flan). Its recipe is very simple, relying on lemon as the main aroma, dancing in perfect fusion with the sweetness of the caramel. Our version, with rosemary, adds an extra aroma that balances out the sweetness of this dessert. Continue reading “Sardinian Flan Recipe”

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Recipe Review, Recipes

Homemade Sourdough Bread recipe

If you are already baking your own bread, like our Simple Loaf recipe, you might feel ready or curious to take your baking to the next level. Sourdough, with its peculiar bitter taste and its all-natural, simple process, is the perfect step to that next level. When I decided to begin my sourdough voyage, I made mine from scratch in ten days, using the process suggested by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and which I will share with you in this recipe. Continue reading “Homemade Sourdough Bread recipe”

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prawn_seafood_curry
First Time Making, Recipe Review

Ken Hom’s Fragrant Prawn Curry Recipe

This week, I had some pre-prepped prawns and mixed seafood left in the fridge, and most of the other ingredients needed in this recipe (such as chopped garlic, chillies, ginger, coriander, madras curry paste, spicy bean paste, soya sauce and Shaoxing rice wine) are all part of my spice cupboard/standard fridge stock, I decided to try this recipe. The recipe is from Ken Hom’s My Kitchen Table: 100 Quick Stir-fry Recipes. You can find the full Fragrant Prawn Curry recipe in Google Books. Continue reading “Ken Hom’s Fragrant Prawn Curry Recipe”

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Pain_au_chocolat_recipe_
Recipes

Pain au Chocolat

It’s chocolate week in the UK this week, and to celebrate we are going for a bit of an elaborate baking recipe here on Blender and Basil. The supreme French pastry, pain au chocolat, also known as chocolatine in the south-west of France, is a wonderful parcel full of chocolatey richness. Certainly, a lot of work is required to achieve an incredibly satisfying result – but take your time and enjoy it as a fun family day and it will be all worth it in the end! With this recipe, taken from The Spruce, we managed to get some fluffy brioche-like pain au chocolat, most of which we stored in the freezer. In that way, we stack them in the oven to warm up as needed, and each time it’s as if they were freshly baked! Continue reading “Pain au Chocolat”

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