Pecan Toffee Cake

This has got to be the best thing I've ever baked, really simple to make too. Lots of satisfied customers in the office and pub (I really should charge for this stuff!).

Anyway, on to the recipe, one again shamelessly plucked from the BBC Good Food website.

Ingredients

• 300g Pecans (this seems to be the standard size supermarket pack but I'd suggest that you only need 200g - 250g really)
• 140g stoned dates (you'll probably have to do the stoning yourself)
• 200g butter, at room temperature (plus a little extra for greasing)
• 200g light muscovado sugar
• 1 tsp allspice (or mixed spice)
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 140g self raising flour
• Pinch of salt

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4
   
2. Put the dates into a small pan with enough water to cover and boil for 5 minutes
3. Put 100g of the pecans into a food processor and blitz till fine then tip into a bowl
4. Drain the dates and blitz in the food processor until smooth and leave to cool
   
5. Butter and line the base of a 23cm cake tin
6. Beat the butter, sugar and spice together until smooth
7. Tip in the smooth dates, ground pecans, eggs and salt and beat briefly till smooth
8. Fold in the flour with a metal spoon and then spoon into the cake tin and level the top
9. Sprinkle the rest of the pecans over the top (don't press them in)
10. Bake for 40 minutes or till your trusty skewer comes out clean

If you've had a bad day or are just not feeling on top of the world, consume a slice and the world will be set right again, if only for a moment.

Bakewell Tart & Sun-Blanched Tomato Bread

Not together of course, this was just the output of my efforts in the kitchen on Saturday.

The tomato bread looks decidedly lacking in tomato in this shot but believe me, it is there. It also tastes really good and is surprisingly easy to make. I followed this recipe for Gluten-Free Tomato Bread but since I didn't have any gluten-free flour I just used normal flour and used up the rest of the sun-blanched tomatoes that I had in the fridge.

As for the Bakewell Tart, it was relatively easy too although time-consuming in a stop-start fashion whilst waiting for dough to chill, chill some more and then blind bake.

I followed this recipe from from the BBC Good Food website. The tart itself got some rave reviews in the office but there are a couple of improvements to be made for the next one I think. Firstly, the base got a little too thin in places. This was my first attempt at blind baking but I think that I prefer the pastry I made to go with the pumpkin pie. During the baking process, a lot of liquid seeped out (I'm still not sure what it was exactly) which can't have helped either although I'm unsure how that happened given the blind baking and the egg wash the inside was given before the jam went in.

As for the other improvements, its only minor but the flaked almonds needed to go on sooner so that they stuck to the mixture some more, when eating this one, most of them fall off when you don't hold the piece level :)

Oriental Prawn Noodles

It feels like ages since I properly cooked mid-week, not quite sure what I've been eating in that time, leftovers from the week-ends and nothing at all spring to mind.

I actually had a hankering for this dish last Thursday after coming back from Bracknell but ended up succumbing to a Lamb Kofte from Izgara instead (which in hindsight was a much a better choice at the time). So with the Germany vs England game on tonight (2-1, great result!) I wanted to make something really quick and simple. This was the result.

Ingredients

• Large handful of raw king prawns (think it was around 220g)
• 1 pack of noodles (I tried out some Thai rice nooddles but the Amoy Straight-to-Wok noodles are perfect for this)
• 1 bell pepper (red is best for colour, I used orange tonight as it was all that was on offer)
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3 spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped on the angle
• Handful of coriander, roughly chopped
• 1 lime, halved
  
• 1 tsp of chili flakes
• Splash of soy sauce
• Splash of rice wine vinegar

Method

1. Boil some water and put the noodles in for 6/7 minutes (skip this step if using the Amoy stuff)
2. Heat a large wok with some groundnut oil, add the chili flakes
3. Add the spring onions, pepper and garlic giving the whole mix a stir after each one
4. Drain the noodles and add
   
5. Add the prawns along with the soy sauce and rice wine vinegar
6. Give the whole thing a stir until the prawns are cooked
7. Squeeze in the lime and serve, adding the coriander to garnish
   
8. Watch the football, along with a nice chilled glass of Innes & Gunn Original

I did actually mean to add ginger to this which would have lifted it nicely but forgot that item when in the store earlier. The noodles, which were experimental, were OK but perhaps better reserved for more broth-style dishes.

England V Pacific Islanders

England vs Pacific Islanders

Went to Twickenham yesterday to see Martin Johnson's first game in charge of the England team. The weather was atrocious but the game was enjoyable and both myself and my brother had a good time (ably assisted by beer and Chinese food). I've put the pictures (that weren't too blurry) online.

I was most pleased with this one as I somehow managed to capture the exact moment that Mears (I think, it may have been Kennedy's try?) scored, a split second before everyone in front of me leapt up!

Pumpkin Pie 2

It's Halloween so I decided to have another go at the pumpkin pie (OK, so it was suggested to me that I have another go on this particular day).

Its pretty much the same recipe as last time except:

• There is actually less pumpkin this time which has gotten rid of the slightly chemical smell about the previous one
• There is some lemon zest (I forgot this last time)
  
• There is more cinnamon
  
• There is some ground ginger

No pictures this time but it tastes so much better than the last one (despite this one being slightly over-cooked on top but don't tell anyone!).