Sausage surprise...

I'm sitting in the living room at 1727 and it's still light outside. The light is just starting to turn but it's the first time in a long time the other half has made it home when it's still light. There's so much to look forward to in the next few weeks. We're off to Scotland on Friday for a wedding. The weekend after I am going a girls trip to London then having a week off on Scilly.

Then there's all the plans that are coming up...a phone call this morning about a holiday in Greece, secret planning for a big birthday and best of all glimpses of sun streaming through the blinds that tell me spring is on the way.

Spicy sausage pasta sauce....Serves two

4 spanish style sausages

1 tbsp plain flour

1 pinch dried chilli

1 small onion

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 tin tomatoes

1 pinch sea salt

pepper

olive oil

Carefully run a sharp knife down the side of the sausages splitting the skin. Carefully tease the meat out of the skin and pop it on a plate. Use a fork to mash up the meat and add a pinch of chilli. Roll the meat into little meatballs and rub them with flour. Grab a frying pan and add a splash of olive oil. When it's hot add the meatballs and fry until golden brown. Remove from the pan.

Pop the pan back on the heat...orangey juices and oil will probably have been released from the sausages so only add oil if you need to. Add the chopped onions and cook over a low heat until soften. Add all the other ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes until thickened.

Add the sausages and boil for 2 or three minutes. Then serve with hot pasta. A perfect midweek tea.

Valentine Loaf......

The thought of shopping locally in February is about as attractive as jumping in an ice cold water trough. I have to admit my cupboards are stuffed with supermarket plastic bags. Yesterday I drove down to Mylor Harbour to drop the other half off to a rowing practise. The plan was to sit by the side of the harbour in the sun reading two freshly delivered magazine subscriptions. But the boys had already decided to go to the pub after rowing and watch rugby and as the chilly sea breeze started to embrace my ungloved hands I changed my mind and decided to head home.

On the way back I spotted some handmade white signs with red painted writing for a farm shop I had never noticed before "Kale for Sale," "Fresh eggs and Cornish cheeses". I indicated impulsively and made my way in. The thought of a good farm shop just 5 minutes away from home was too much of an opportunity to miss.

I popped into the massive corrugated iron shed and was met by everything I could have hoped for. Tin buckets of spring yellow daffodils, boxes of bright green broccoli and fat turnips hoping to to be taken home for a pasty supper. The freezers were filled with fat cuts of belly pork, frozen berries from the farm, and homemade breads and scones. There were even bursting bags of peppery rocket and leaves for just a pound and I knew I had found my winter larder.

Now a complete juxtaposition. A valentines treat that isn't remotely local. But now I have my new super shop I can clear out my supermarket bursting shelves and start living locally again.

Valentines loaf.....(Makes 15 squares)



6oz butter
8oz galaxy chocolate
4 tbsp syrup
1 mars bar
1 caramel bar
1 small bag maltesers
1lb digestive biscuits




On a very low heat melt the galaxy, syrup and butter together. You might need to give it a good mix with a spatula to make sure the butter and chocolate melt together.

Crumble the biscuits into rough chunks. Take the chocolate mix off the heat and add the biscuits. Give it a good stir to make sure the biscuits are covered in the chocolate mix. When it's covered add the other chocolate bits. I left the caramel chunks whole and the mars bar in big chunks so it didn't melt away but actually I should have chopped the lumps in half because they didn't melt at all!

Press into a foiled of cling filmed tin. Press down and pop in the fridge. I couldn't wait so it ended up in the freezer!

PS. When I was sixteen I started making cakes for local cafes and this was always the most popular! PPS This isn't on my low fat plan!

A lovely weekend morning...

Yesterday was the most beautiful sunny day....so we drove over to Trebah Gardens. I haven't been there for six years since my journalism course. Every week we had to film a TV story and we would go and sit in the sun at Trebah and do the story "It's winter at Trebah Gardens...or it' Spring at Trebah Gardens." We were on first name terms with the gardener.....


We sat in the sun and drank tea and hot chocolate....

It was perfection....

Sweets for my sweet....

If you grow fruit and vegetables like I do, the kitchen gadget you must love the most has to be a freezer. This week I was burrowing through the frozen bags of bread and herbs and found a plastic bag of frozen blackberries and raspberries from the autumn...result!

They had over frozen a bit and had shrunk to the size of large pea. My other half has dutifully put up with stir fries and low fat pizzas, steamed fish and a definite lack of fish and chips over the last few weeks. So I decided to bake him some muffins for when he got home....

Winter fruit and white chocolate muffins......(makes 12 big ones and 12 mini muffins)




700g self raising flour
400g demerara sugar
1 heaped tbsp baking powder
1 heaped tbsp bicarbonate of soda
150g white chocolate
150g winter fruits (I used raspberries and blackberries)
250ml vegetable oil
3 eggs

Preheat the oven to 200'c. Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.


In a separate bowl beat the eggs and oil.

Add to the dry mix with the fruit and slowly and carefully mix together. Do not beat. As soon as it becomes mixed...stop.

Spray your muffin tins with spray oil or line with muffin cases. Pop a big spoonful of the mix in each case.

Bake in the oven for 20minutes. The white chocolate will go all caramelly and delicious.

Eat warm. The best thing about this muffin mix is you can pop it in the fridge and use it when you want (within a couple of days). So it is perfect to make on a Saturday and bake earlier for a Sunday breakfast...

A load of pollacks....

I've never been very daring at the fish counter. Stop. Before you say "but you come from an island" actually we never ate fish at home. In fact the first time I was forced to eat fish was at a very posh meal I had to go to when I was eighteen. I remember looking down at the starter of avocado and prawn mousse and I thought What. The. Hell. Is. That?

I focused my mind and swallowed each mouthful one teaspoon at a time until the person sitting opposite me whispered "You hated that didn't you?"

I vowed then I would have to train myself to like prawns so if I ever was in a situation like that again I would get through it (minus the grimace!)

Now I love prawns and avocados and I've added a few other fish dishes into my diet. In fact apart from shellfish I think there are very few I don't like.

Pollacky Pasta Sauce.....(serves 2)

2 tins chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 small onion
2 sticks celery
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp mixed dried herbs
1 handful fresh basil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
200g chopped pollack
100g chopped fresh fish (I used smoked haddock and salmon)

Finely chop the onion, garlic and celery and cook over a low heat. When the have softened add all other ingredients apart from the fish and basil. Leave to boil on the low heat for 20 to 30 minutes stirring occasionally.

Add the fish and stir into the sauce carefully. Leave to simmer for a further 10 minutes until the fish is cooked through. Stir through the basil.

Serve with pasta with some grated Parmesan over the top if you wish.

I made twice as much sauce so I had some extra to freeze and use for pasta another day.

PS. Pollack is great for a sauce like this because it holds its shape so well so you get nice big steamed chunks instead of it falling apart.

Sunday bread

There's something hypnotic about Sundays for me. As soon as I hear the Archers theme tune I'm transported back fifteen years, sitting at the kitchen table at home, mum making roast, me doing homework. It's immensely comforting that every Sunday I'm taken back to Scilly, to my family and to my home. Sunday is such a special day. It's about spending time with your loved ones. I like to focus my favourite foods around Sundays; roasts, pub lunches, heartwarming puddings and most importantly Sunday breakfast. Sunday is a no cereal or toast day. It's a day where you put thought into what you eat. This morning it's all about a slice of warm bread straight from the oven (and one of yesterday's skinny banana muffins!)

Two types of bread: Chocolate and Hazelnut Loaf and Fennel and Sultana Fougasse.....

Now this recipes makes 4 small loves of bread. I planned to halve the recipe, then decided not to, then forgot and split the dough in half, so it made two enormous loaves. Hopefully the pictures won't put you off!

1 kg strong white bread flour
1 dtsp salt
1 dtsp caster sugar
10g dried yeast (I know this is annoying because most sachets are 7g...sorry!)
about 500ml of tepid water

(for flavours)
2oz chocolate
2tbsp chopped toasted hazelnuts
1 dtsp fennel seeds
1 small handful sultanas.

Put the dry ingredients into a bowl


Add half of the tepid water and bring it together with a metal spoon. Keep adding a bit more at a time until it comes together in a ball. (If you need more water as I do sometimes just add a bit more).

Shake some flour on the work surface but not too much you can always add more and you don't want to dry out the dough.

The mistake I made about kneading in the past is that I bashed the dough really hard, treating it like a punch bag. When I went on a bread making course the leader said you should think about dough as something very delicate and you have to treat it with respect and care. So start to kneed it carefully and slowly for 15 minutes. I always watch the time, otherwise I convince myself after 3 minutes that I've definitely done 15!

You should see a big difference in the dough by now. It should be shiny and softer.

Pop it back in your mixing bowl and leave it somewhere for 1 hour. It should double in size.

Then take it out of the bowl and back on your floured surface. Very carefully give it two or three kneads to knock out a bit of air. Now add your flavours. Split the dough into four pieces (not two idiot!). On a work surface chop up the chocolate and sprinkle the nuts over it. Place your dough over the top and work the chocolate and nuts into it. Fold it into a circular shape and pop onto a lined baking tray.

Take another piece of dough and work in the fennel seeds and sultanas. Note: I didn't actually do this, but next time I would crush the fennel seeds a little to bring out more of the flavour. Then foll out the dough so it is much flatter. Make a slit down the middle and then two more either side of the main slit on a diagonal. (This is only to make it pretty make it into a loaf if you wish)

Place it on a baking tray. (The other two bits of dough you can do what you want with....maybe keep them as white bread, or add cumin seeds and dried onion flakes for a savoury bread?) Whatever you chose place them on a lined baking tray and leave somewhere warm for another hour.

Glaze the chocolate loaf with egg and the fougasse with olive oil to give it shine.

Pop the oven to 230'c so it is really hot. Pop the loves in the oven for 10 minutes then turn the oven down to 180'c for another 15 minutes. This will give the bread a really crispy crunch.




Here is the massive fougasse! This is fantastic with a chunk of Cornish yarg or even a thick spread of butter but I just had it on its own!

Here's the chocolate and nut bread. If I was allowed this, I would mash a banana and spread it on top.

Ps this bread freezes really well, so the fougasse I have chopped up into small piece to eat with soup this week.

Muffin top....

Skinny Banana Muffins....(Makes 12)





310g Self raising flour
a pinch of bicarbonate of soda
a pinch of salt
170g demerara sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
50ml sunflower oil
150ml skimmed milk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 mashed bananas

My other half declared earlier "I think the bananas might be about to turn". About to? I think they are doing circles. I would normally make banana and chocolate crumble cake or banana loaf with them but the enormously chubby love handles say I've made them once too often.


So I decided to go for a low fat version. With my rough calculations I think these are about 180 cals each...trouble is, when I took them out of the oven they smelt so amazingly good, I ate two!

Sieve all the dry ingredients into a bowl. Add the vanilla and give it a good mix.

In another bowl mix the egg, milk and oil and mix into a rough batter (this is more of a fold actually with a metal spoon.)

Use spray oil on a muffin tray and put a heaped spoon of the mix in each hole.

Bake for twenty five minutes....then try and stop yourself eating them! (I've had to pop mine in the freezer!)

PS I've lost 11lbs in two weeks, so it's working!