Hot cross buns are enriched buns studded with dried fruit and marked with a cross to represent the crucifixion of Christ. They are usually made and consumed at the end of Lent. I don’t restrain myself to Easter alone to enjoy these gorgeous buns. My recipe is an all inclusive recipe in that I know that a lot of people in particular children are not fond of the sultanas that are traditional in the buns. However, I do not completely stray from tradition instead I split the dough and to one half I add the tradtitonal sultanas and to the other half I add chocolate chips. The recipe produces twelve buns, giving you six of each. I must warn, that you will want, no need lots of good butter to go with.
It can be hard to be inspired first thing in the morning about food. If like me you need several cups of caffeine whilst pondering what it is you would like for breakfast then you may be interested in this post. Below I have listed a few of my favourite breakfast dishes that might aid you in making a decision.
Guacamole Eggs
This dish is without doubt my favourite breakfast. It originally started out as Çılbır or Turkish eggs. Which is a dish of poached eggs served on garlicky yoghurt with a chilli butter sauce, I know it sounds crazy, but truly is divine. My version came about as I really wanted Turkish eggs for breakfast and had avocados that really needed using up so I mixed them through the yoghurt and it made the creamiest mild guacamole. I then substituted the aleppo pepper in the butter sauce and made a spicy chorizo sauce. I think perhaps I should have called these Irish eggs not because any of the key ingredients are Irish, but because it has the same colours of our flag the green of the guacamole, the brilliant white of the poached egg and the orange tinted chorizo butter sauce. All you need with these eggs is some good toasted bread to scoop them up. I hope you try and enjoy.
Ham & Cheese Jambons
For those not in the know ham and cheese jambons are a puff pastry parcels filled with, you guessed it, ham and cheese. They can be found everywhere in Ireland every petrol station and deli counter and for just reason nothing makes a better portable snack. Another, benefits of these are that the mixture makes 12 what I do is cook 6 to eat still warm from the oven and freeze the remaining 6 to be cooked straight from the freezer at a later date.
Granola Muffins
I used to really only ever make breakfast muffins at the weekend, now with this simple recipe I make them any day of the week. As with all muffins they are best eaten on the day they are made, I find the particularly handy during the week I can take a couple to my desk and eat through the day as I work. The time can vary a little in the cooking depending on the granola used.
Another favourite of mines is a dish that originated in lockdown one, not even really a recipe. I was out of bread and since I was making as little trips to the shops as possible, I had to come up with an alternative, I certainly first thing in the morning wasn’t going to start making a loaf of bread. I had some frozen potato waffles and though they are something to be honest I had eaten in years. I had a box for when my nephews and nieces are visiting, some of them are very fussy eaters. I simply toasted them in the toaster, it took 3 times for them to come out bronzed and slightly crisp. Whilst the waffles were toasting, I poached some eggs and make the quickest zingy chilli sauce by combining the juice of ½ lime, 1 tablespoon of runny honey and chilli flakes, fresh chilli chop finely is an excellent choice here too. Just stir together over heat until it begins to foam up, switch off the heat and let it stand to cool slightly whilst you waiting on the eggs and waffles. I simply topped the crispy toasted waffles with the soft poached or fried eggs and then drizzle with the chilli sauce.
What are your favourite breakfast dishes? Leave me a comment down below ad let me know.
I am delighted and excited to share with you my recipe for lamb ribs. I am evangelical about this recipe. My first encounter with lamb ribs was at a young age. A local supermarket sold them and as a rare treat, we would get them occasionally. These ribs were kept in a hot cupboard all day and whilst big on flavour were nothing more than fat and bone, which is really a lot of what a lamb rib is about. These ribs were never very impressive in comparison, in appearance anyways to other ribs with there sticky glazes and sauces, but what they lack in appearance they sure made up for in taste. These ribs are nostalgic for me and evoke memories of childhood. Chewing on the bones until every last ounce of meat and flavour was gone. I had completely forgotten about them for such a long time until recently seeing them in an utterly alluring episode of Simply Nigella. I tried immediately Nigella’s. Recipe and I did love it, but I had to reinvoke the flavours of my youth, and thus this recipe was born. I also as an adult realizing how expensive lamb can be, am even more entranced by this cut as it is not only one of the tastiest ways of eating lamb but also one of the most inexpensive was too. I use a shallow roasting pan with a wire rack so that the ribs, which are a fatty cut, as they cook render their fat and let it drip below. I use all my favourite herbs and spices to use with lamb when cooking these; cumin garlic rosemary and of course mint. They take a long time to cook but are a very simplistic recipe. It’s merely a matter of combining the spices with just enough oil to make it into a wet rub to smoosh and coat the ribs in. When they have had their time in the oven the fat will have shrank and crisped, and the meat so tender that it comes away from the bone with ease.
I think the most important factors for valentines recipes is that they are quick, easy and light on the washing up, not that the washing up should be a factor on Valentine’s Day. It can be taken care of tomorrow.
First recipe up is what I call my date steak. One Steak can feed two generously. A lush juicy steak is given a quick fry then rest in the salad dressing, where it oozes some of it meaty flavor into the dressing whilst also taking on some of the flavors of the dressing. The steak gets sliced finely and then strewn over a messy tangle of salad. Delicious and only moments of work. Steak is always a real treat and even though this recipe takes very little time to make you would never know it. It is a quick feast.
Spaghetti Carbonara
Again, another quick and easy meal and of course you can have your lady and the tramp moment with this dish. It takes longer to eat than it does to make. By the time your pasta has cooked everything else will be ready to go.
If you want to get ahead of the cooking then try this Fabulous dessert, strawberries in Prosecco jelly. I make this in champagne saucers and it really just looks like a glass of champagne. It is a gently set jelly, the Prosecco retains the bubbles so the jelly has the most gentle light tingle in your mouth as you eat. To vamp it up even more for your loved one, whip some cream gently, scoop out a passion fruit and fold through the softly whipped cream.Dollop spoonfuls of the cream as you eat your jelly. I laugh at the cheesiness but I call this ‘’Quivering with passion jellies’’ and I think it sums up this day perfectly.
This recipe consists of perfectly pink duck breast nestled
in leaves with a simple fiery orange and ginger dressing spiky and hot that
cuts through the richness of the duck.
For anyone who hasn’t cooked duck breasts before watch the video below to see a step by step guide on how to cook duck breast.
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Exciting news upcoming in the next few weeks. I can’t say too much right now but all will be revealed very soon.
Below are a couple of my other favourite recipes. What are you favourite recipes? Leave a comment below.
This is so good warm creamy goat cheese, salty Parma ham and
voluptuous sweet figs nestled in a beg of green leaves and drizzled with
delicious balsamic vinegar. I have specified spinach leaves for this salad
however, you may use any leaves you like. I always have baby spinach in the
fridge as I think it keeps better than any other packet of leaves.
If you find your figs aren’t as ripe and sweet as you would
like them to be you can pop them under the grill, the heat somehow seems to bring
out the sweetness.
For a meat free version, I would suggest swapping the Parma ham for some salty black olives. This is so easy it can hardly even be called a recipe, it’s so simple but here it is anyways
For more delicious salad recipes why not check out the following:
Moussaka is a Greek dish of usually minced lamb, aubergine,
potatoes and creamy sauce that is baked in layers like a lasagne. I really
think of this as Greek lasagne and it is every bit as good as that sounds.
I almost always use
minced beef here as it is a dish I cook for a crowd and not everyone seems to
be keen on minced lamb. Whichever meat you decide to use know that this will be
delicious. It’s a great make ahead meal once put together you can allow to cool
then store covered in the fridge and give it the final cooking in a hot oven
for a little longer until piping hot within.
The aubergine are usually fried in quite a bit of oil as
they are like sponges and it seems no matter how much oil they get they will
drink this up and require more it is for this reason I use a non-stick pan and
coat in very little oil. You can and sometimes I need to add a little more oil
between batches. Aubergines are almost always salted to draw out moisture and
make them less bitter. I have never found this step necessary. However, I do
salt here only because I want to draw out a little of the moisture in them. It
is about the only thing that can ruin this dish is having too much moisture and
it being a horrible runny mess although, it will taste just fine.
The bechamel sauce needs to be thicker than normal and also
contain egg yolks which make it set like a savoury custard. You shouldn’t
require any seasoning as the parmesan should add enough. I love breaking
through the very thin cheesy crust that forms on the top of this, it brings me
great pleasure like cracking through a crème brulee.
I serve this alongside some roasted baby potatoes which I scatter with crumbled feta and thyme/oregano when they have come out of the oven and a simple green salad.
It’s Monday, they can be tough, so treat yourself to this delicious breakfast and start the week off right. Although, these are pancakes they look very much like a large Yorkshire pudding and like a Yorkshire pudding they need to be eaten straight from the oven as they do begin to deflate the longer they are out of the oven. These delicious aerated pancakes aren’t difficult to make and have a very American diner style breakfast feel about them. It is in this fashion I like to eat them with crispy bacon, poached eggs and maple syrup. But you could have them sprinkled with caster sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice as is traditional or try with berries and a good dusting of icing sugar.
Don’t worry if your pancakes have puffed up in the centre and there is no hollow to fill with whatever goodness you want. When this happens, you will find when you remove them from the oven that the hollow is on the underside so simply flip over.
Kids love these and they make a great afternoon treat as well served with cream or ice cream, some chopped fresh berries and a drizzled with chocolate sauce.
Have you ever awoken to find that you are completely out of bread? If so, don’t worry I’ve got you sorted. These delicious soda bread rolls take 25 minutes from start to ready to eat. Crisis averted, I call these breakfast rolls as I add granola to the mix which imparts flavour and texture with no extra work.
I haven’t gone mad making bread first thing in the morning. In fact, by the time the oven has preheated these rolls are ready to go in and they only take 20 minutes in the oven, just about as much time is required to have a mug or two of tea and come to one’s senses. Do allow them to rest for a few minutes to cool a little on a wire rack before eating. I eat still warm with good butter or with some good marmalade and sometimes actually all the time with both.
You can also make one large loaf with this recipe instead of splitting the dough into 6, form into one large ball and bake for 40 minutes
It is also worth noting that you can use runny yoghurt instead of buttermilk if you don’t have any or can’t get any. Clobbered milk is also another option which is a technique of souring regular milk with lemon juice. 400ml of either of these can be used to replace the buttermilk.
I know it’s summer but it is a cold wet grey day so why not try this warming soul soothing stew with cheesy dumplings. I do call these cheese scones as they are a simplified version of dumpling that are made more like scones and look like scones. As they cook the top browns and gets firm add a delicious texture, whilst the underneath soaks in the beefy juicy of the stew and is out of this world. No matter how large a pot of this I make everyone goes back for seconds or thirds until we are scrapping the bottom of the pot.
You can cook this entirely in the oven, which will leave you free to potter about and get on with other things which I expect on a Saturday morning will be a bonus. Other than the scone topping feel free to swap and change any other ingredients that you like. This is the joy of long slow cooking with stews/casseroles you can add just about anything and the long slow cooking does it’s magic.
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