In the Post Today - Galler Chocolates!!

Today, the postman knocked the door and delivered this amazing box of chocolates from Galler for me to try!

Each stick in a brush. Each inkpot is an aromatic flavor.....

These luxury chocolates are simply the best. I really love the idea of dipping the chocolate 'brush' into the little pots to try a different flavour.

mine was the 'orange and nibs'.

By using their advance gift service, you will never forget that anniversary or special occasion.

Pre-order now to guarantee your gift will be delivered in time for that special day, and ensure that you are not in trouble for forgetting that important date!

Luxury Belgian Chocolate;
Jean Galler and the chocolate development team at Galler chocolates are continually developing new blends of chocolate, experimenting with taste and flavours to concoct chocolate miracles and lead in the evolution of new and exciting ranges of chocolate gifts. The exquisite range of chocolate gifts created by Galler chocolates includes the subtle and enticing Les Florales, the unique and original Les Marines, the sumptuous Les Volcaniques, as well as an extensive range of luxury Belgian chocolate bars.
Each new Galler chocolate gift sensation represents Jean Galler’s ideologies about chocolate.

You can see the full range of fantastic chocolate products and gifts over at

Galler Chocolates

An Award and a Thank You to Kenny!

A big thank you to Kenny from 'Chic Eats' for awarding me with The Kreativ Blogger Award!

Not too sure I deserve it but thank you again Kenny.

The Kreativ Blogger award comes with some rules:

1. You must thank the person who has given you the award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who has nominated you for the award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate 7 other Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on which of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated.

I'm finding it really difficult to come up with 7 things that people might find interesting about me as there aren't any!
So with that in mind, do please try to stay awake reading the following.

Here I go:

1. I worry about worrying, and if I have nothing to worry about, I worry about that too - keeps me from getting too fat I suppose!
   
2. I love animals, especially rabbits and have a bunny called Brian (mad name I know), we also have a cat and two guinea pigs.
   
3. I'm always, always hungry!
4. I do like a drop (or two) of red wine. I can drink white (I mean I wouldn't say no if that was all there was) lol
5. I love watching anything to do with cooking and travel on TV but only seem to get time when I'm ironing!
6. This year I started growing my own herbs - I don't really know why I haven't done it before now. I'm growing tomatoes too, but I seem to have brought too many plants (they were a bargain and I got carried away) but now it's a bit like a wilderness and I have no idea how to get to them to pick them when they're ready!
7. I'm always laughing - best thing to do I say! No point in being fed up all the time. I'm the 'same' every day, I mean I don't get up with a mood on me.

Okay, time to wake up! It’s my turn to pass on the Kreativ Blogger Award to 7 blogger friends (in no particular order):

• Nic from Cherrapeno

• Maggie over at Kitchen Delights

• Sylvie from A Pot of Tea and a Biscuit

• Sean over at Simple, Elegant, Delicious

• Paula over at Its all Gouda

• Beth over at Jam and Clotted Cream

• Katie over at Leeds Grub

Ultimate Cheesy Mash

Jan's ultimate cheesy mash.
There isn't really a recipe for this - just make as little or as much mashed potato as you fancy.
Pre heat your oven to 200C/400F/ or Gas 6
Mash the boiled potatoes with a good splash of whole milk (not semi skimmed) and a good amount of butter - yes most definitely butter and not marg. I always add salt to the cooking water so I only add freshly ground black pepper to season. Add more milk or butter till you get it how you want - you don't want sloppy potato though so go careful with the milk - add a little at a time.
So now you have nicely seasoned mash. I then use a potato ricer for lovely creamy mash.



Now grate as much extra matured cheddar cheese as you want (you want a good handful) and stir it into the mash.
Put the lot into an oven proof dish and sprinkle the top with freshly grated parmesan - again a good handful.
Put the dish into your pre heated oven for about 20 minutes or until the top has gone nice and crispy and golden brown.
Job done.

Chicken Saltimbocca

Chicken saltimbocca is just so, so nice. Imagine the sweetness of the Marsala wine and the slight saltiness of the Parma ham along with chicken fillets that have been cooked just right so the chicken is really tender. In a word - yum.

This lovely sauce seeping into the cheesy mash - not just any cheesy mash potato but Jan's ultimate cheesy mash! Recipe for that will follow tomorrow.

To serve 2 you will need:
2 chicken breast fillets - skinless
2 slices of Parma ham
2 tablespoons of olive oil
50g salted butter
6 small sage leaves
a handful of freshly chopped flat leaf parsley

100ml Marsala wine
salt and pepper to taste

How to do it:
Put the chicken breasts on a chopping board and cover with cling film. Using something flat and 'bashable' bash out until they are flattened. Don't go too mad as you don't want to tear them.
Season with a little salt and pepper. Place 3 sage leaves on each breast and lay a piece of Parma ham on top. Secure with a wooden skewer.

In a large frying pan, heat the oil and half of the butter on a medium heat. Once it's nice and hot, place the chicken in the pan, ham side down. Cook for 2 minutes until browned. Turn and cook for a further 3 minutes until just cooked through.
When that's done, remove and put the chicken onto a plate and cover with foil.

Pour the Marsala wine in the hot frying pan and with the help of a wooden spoon, start to deglaze by scraping up the lovely gooey bits on the bottom. Over a high heat simmer for 2 minutes until slightly reduced.
Now, stir in the remaining butter then season with salt and pepper.
Return the chicken and any juice to the pan, throw in the chopped parsley.

Spoon over the sauce and cook for just one minute.

Remove the pan from the heat and remove the skewer from the chicken and serve immediately.

Rigatoni al Forno

This is my titivated version of a recipe by Nigella Lawson. The alterations I’ve made are basically adding a puree of sun dried tomatoes, more garlic, no water but more wine instead!

I also like a mixture of beef and pork, that's what I used but you can, of course, use all beef if you prefer.

Be sure to buy good quality minced beef and pork with a low fat content or the dish will end up oily and horrid. I also think that sun dried tomatoes add a nice sweetness to this dish. A note on tinned tomatoes – you can buy really cheap ones but if you can try to get really good quality ones as some just seem to be in a very watery water instead of nice thick tomato juice.

Serves 4 slightly greedy people but would easily serve 4 adults and 2 children.

You will need;
One large or two medium sized ovenproof dishes

500g rigatoni

100g Parmesan, freshly grated

For the Meat Sauce;

2 onions

1 carrot

1 stick celery

4 fat cloves of garlic
80g of either smoked streaky bacon or pancetta

1 tablespoon tomato puree
5 or 6 sun dried tomatoes drained from their oil (or re hydrated dried ones)

30g butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

250g minced beef

250g minced pork

1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes – including the juice

160ml red wine

3 bay leaves

For the Béchamel sauce;

100g butter

70g plain flour

560ml milk

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

freshly grated nutmeg

How to do it;

Peel the onions and carrots and chop into big cubes. Do the same with the celery. Peel the garlic cloves and put everything including the bacon into a food processor and finely chop.

Don’t bother washing the processor up just yet – hold up on that as you’ll need it again in a minute!

Heat the butter and oil in a large pan and fry this mixture along with the tomato puree over a low heat and cook for about 10 minutes or until soft.

Now add the beef and pork and stir it about a bit until it browns evenly.

While this is cooking nicely add the sun dried tomatoes to the food processor and give them a good whizz up so you end up with a tomato paste. Add this paste to the meat. Give everything a good stir.

Add the tomatoes, red wine and bay leaves. Stir well and bring to the boil.

Now turn down the heat and cover with a bit of kitchen foil or a lid but only partially cover. Let this mixture cook for about on a low heat for about 1 and half hours stirring now and then.

It shouldn’t go dry unless you have the heat too high. If it does you will need to add a teeny bit more wine or water if you must.

.
For the Sauce;
Melt the butter in a saucepan then add the flour and stir and cook together.
Take off the heat briefly, and whisk in the milk with a hand held balloon whisk. Now put back on the heat stirring all the time.

Once the sauce is bubbling leave it for a few minutes to cook stirring all the while.
Season with salt and pepper and turn down the heat and cook until slightly thickened. You want a fairly running sauce to be able to coat the pasta easily. When that’s done remove from the heat and stir in some freshly grated nutmeg.

Preheat your oven to 200C/400F/ Gas 6
Put a large pan of slightly salted water on to boil ready for your pasta.
When it’s boiling add the pasta. Cook the pasta until it’s almost done (al dente). You don’t want soggy pasta.

Drain the pasta and while still a bit wet, put it back into the saucepan.

Now pour the white sauce over and give it a good mix to coat the pasta.

**I like to remove the bay leaves - can't imagine anyone wanting one of them in their mouth. You counted them in and now count them out!

Add the meat sauce (bay leaves removed) and mix again until the pasta is covered in both.
Don’t fuss about getting it all even colour as I think it looks better with more white sauce in places.

Pour the lot into your oven proof dish – or dishes as this does make enough for about 4 or 6 people. Sprinkle the top generously with grated Parmesan – you can mix in some grated cheddar too if you fancy.

Cover loosely with foil and cook for about 25 minutes.

Now remove the foil and cook for another 10 minutes until it’s cooked through, piping hot and the top is bubbling, golden and crispy.

Pork in Black Bean Sauce with Green Peppers, Chilli and Ginger

Last night I fancied cooking something Chinese. I hummed and arred for an age about what to make and then it came to me - Pork with green peppers in black bean sauce.

But I wanted a spiciness about it at the same time.Ginger, garlic and chilli all make for a tasty dish I think, so with those thoughts in mind I came up with this. Result - one tasty dish!

You will need:
400g thin cut pork loin steaks - thinly sliced (bash them between some cling film if you need to make yours thinner)

For the marinade:
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon of Shaoxing
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
1 tablespoon cornflour
2 teaspoons of peanut or vegetable oil

What else you need:
a little peanut or vegetable oil for frying
1 large onion - chopped into cubes
2 green bell peppers - de-seeded and cut into bite sized pieces
4 fat cloves of garlic - chopped
fresh ginger, finely chopped - about 1 tablespoon
1 teaspoon of oyster sauce
2 tablespoons of sweet chili sauce
1 dried red chilli - de-seeded and cut into thin strips
2 teaspoons of schezuan pepper - ground with a pestle and mortar
2 tablespoons fermented black beans (soaked in water for 15 minutes and then rinsed and chopped)
1/2 a tablespoon of chilli oil
1/4 cup chicken stock - made from 1 Knorr chicken stock cube (Oxo cubes taste too salty)
1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce

How to do it:
You must rinse your black beans well and then leave them to soak for about 15 minutes. When that's done rinse them again and chop them into small bits. Now put them in a small dish and pour on the chilli oil. Leave them till your ready to use them.

Mix together the marinade ingredients and marinate the pork. Leave to marinate for about half an hour or longer if you can.
When your ready to cook, drain the pork from the marinade. Heat about a tablespoon of oil in a wok or large skillet and saute the pork until almost cooked then remove and set aside.
Wipe the pan with kitchen paper to give it a bit of a clean.

Now heat about half a tablespoon more oil in the same pan - remember the black bean are in chilli oil and so you wont need much.

When it's nice and hot add the onions, peppers, garlic, ginger and the fermented black beans along with the oyster sauce, sweet chili sauce, schezuan pepper and the dried chilli. Keep stirring all the time as you don't want anything to burn.
Saute until fragrant, about 1 minute or so.

Now return the pork back to the pan along with most of the chicken stock and the soy sauce. If you think you need to add the rest of the chicken stock do so - you want a bit of sauce as it's the best bit!
Simmer for a few minutes.

Now, have a taste and if needed add a little more soy sauce or whatever to taste.Serve immediately - I served mine with egg fried rice.

**If you can't get hold of fermented black beans then give Setonaikai in Shrewsbury a ring and they'll be happy to post them too you. I got mine from there and they came in a biggish tub and are preserved in ginger.

Miele Cookery Experience at The BBC Good Food Show

What a fantastic day I had this past Saturday at the BBC Good Food Show!

I was invited by Steph at Miele along with other food bloggers Jules, Anne, Celine, Sylvie, Naomi, Nic and Sunita.

The Forever Better Team at Miele were all such a lovely bunch of people. We were all invited also to join in with the Miele Cookery Experience.
Miele have such a fantastic range of kitchen and electrical products that no other manufacturer can beat on both style and quality.
With us all being so interested in food the Miele Steam Ovens were our favorite product!
Ooooh but they also do an induction wok too and I just wish I had a bigger kitchen as I'd be getting one!

Here's how our day went;
Firstly I was met by Steph from Miele and then I met up with Sylvie and Nic.

We only know of eachother because of our food blogs so it was really good to meet them in person at last! We all felt like we'd known each other for years. They are both such lovely people.

After everyone had arrived we went backstage for coffee and Gino D'Acampo, Dave Myers, Simon King (The Hairy Bikers) and Simon Rimmer just happened to be there too!
Of course, we took a few pictures but everyone chickened out of asking for their autographs!.....Why didn't we just ask?!

Below is Simon King (wearing the bandanna) Gino D'Acampo (standing with his back to us)Simon Rimmer and Dave Myres all having a good chat.

Serious conversation between Simon and Gino!

Then we were all taken to watch Simon Rimmer cook. All the lovely shiny kitchen appliances were by Miele.

Then we had time to walk around the show - me and Sylvie had a fine time sampling many different wines!
We kept saying 'I shouldn't think it amounts to a glass yet, so we'll be fine'!.....
Then we went onto taste 'Toffee Vodka' and again 'I shouldn't think it amounts to a glass yet'.....
and so on to the next drinks stand we went!

Here are a handful of pictures of the different food stands:
I didn't take too many pictures as we were too busy drinking and having a good time!

Pickles and chutneys

Many different cured sausages and Chorizo sausage.

Cheese too!

Do I spy more wine in the background? - Missed that on the day!

Below, there was lots of gardening stuff there too and I want this!

Then after all that drinking - we went on to 'The Miele Cookery Experience' to cook in front of an audience with Sophie Michell.

First we were shown the absolutely fantastic range of Miele kitchen appliances.
Including a cooking zone with an induction wok, and a retracting salamander grill.
Miele steam ovens are just amazing - we all wanted one!

Then onto the stage and cook!
Here is Sophie who was heading the demonstration and we all had our own work space and followed what Sophie did.

We cooked Thai lemon sole, that was stuffed with crab meat and steamed in a Miele oven and served with green mango salad.

Below: Here I am concentrating!

Me, Sylvie and Jules with Nic (just behind) all paying attention to Sophie!

My finished dish!

Then, we all had a seat at the table to sample the food we'd cooked. But in true food blogger style, no one ate until we'd all taken at least 10 photo's of it first!

A huge thank you once again to Miele and especially Steph for organising such a wonderful day.
The Miele Cookery Experience was fantastic!

Lamb Kofta Kebabs - Easy and Delicious

Jan's 'make it up as you go along' recipe for Kofta Kebabs worked!

Not the best plated up pictures in the world but you get the idea.

There I was in work on Monday filling up the meat fridges when I spied kebabs and so felt the need to be making them!

Once again I read the back of the packet to see what they'd put in and went home with a mission to make them.

Must say, I was really pleased with the result and will make these again.

To make 6 you will need:

1 slice of bread to make breadcrumbs

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

500g minced lamb

1 egg yolk

2 teaspoons of garam masala

1/2 a teaspoon of cumin **as garam masala already contains cumin I only used this much

1 and a half tablespoons of Belazu Rose Harissa

a squeeze of lemon juice

freshly chopped flat leaved parsley

a little salt and pepper

6 wooden skewers about 8 inches in length

**If you are going to cook these on a BBQ soak the skewers in water for an hour before hand. I'm not too sure if they would fall apart though on a BBQ - I did have to be careful turning mine.

How to do it:

You will need a food processor/whizzy thing. Tear the slice of bread in half - leave the crust on it wont matter. Whizz for a few seconds till you have breadcrumbs - remove and set aside.

Now quarter the onion and throw that in along with the garlic cloves and whizz that up till the onion is chopped nice and small.

Now put in the minced lamb but only whizz for a few seconds as you don't want it too whizzed up or it will go all horrid and paste like - we don't want paste like yuk!

In a large mixing bowl put in the onion and garlic the egg yolk, rose harissa paste, garam masala and cumin. Give it a good mix and then add the minced lamb along with 5 tablespoons of the breadcrumbs and a squeeze of lemon juice.

You need to mix it together to even out the spices and combine it all. Just be careful not to get carried away mixing or as I said before, the lamb will go like paste.

When your almost done, season with a little salt and pepper and add the parsley to the mixture.

I found that 5 tablespoons of breadcrumbs was fine but if you think your mixtures is too sloppy - if you've paid attention it shouldn't be! but if it is then you can add a little more of the breadcrumbs.

Divide the mixture into 6 and using your hands mould it around each wooden skewer keeping them all the same size and shape.

You can take a little of the mixture and fry it - give it a taste then you'll know what you want more of. I usually do this but couldn't actually be bothered so took a chance and they were perfect.

Now get them cooking.

I cooked them on my amazing electric griddly thing - perfect! But you can of course use a grill pan. Turn them a couple of times so they cook evenly. When they are nicely done and cooked through serve straight away.

I served them with pitta bread that I'd put on the griddle before the kebabs. Along with a lemon wedge, shredded white cabbage, onion, tomato, cucumber and a couple of pickled chilli peppers (shop brought in a jar). The dipping sauce was this hot pepper sauce - again shop brought.