Raspberry & Milk Chocolate Cheesecake

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Derek McGuff
Raspberry & Milk Chocolate Cheesecake

I don’t often make cakes or sweets, but this easy cheesecake looks like it took hours to make even though it didn’t. It’s gorgeous, give it a try!

Ingredients:

180 g Digestive Biscuits
75 g Melted Butter
100 g Milk Chocolate
300 g Cream Cheese
200 ml Double Cream
75 g Sugar
150 g Raspberries
Icing Sugar
Chocolate Melted, to serve (optional)

Metrics:

Difficulty: Easy
Yield: Serves 4
Keywords: Cheesecake, raspberry, Cakes
Attribution:BBCGoodFood.com

 
Directions:
1. Crumble the digestives in a food processor, add the melted butter and mix well. Place in a 20cm flan ring with a push-up base and pat down with the back of a spoon.
2. Melt the chocolate in a microwave or a glass bowl set over a pan of simmering water.
3. Mix the cream cheese, cream and sugar together until smooth.
4. Add the raspberries and stir in, then add the melted chocolate and quickly swirl through.
5. Spoon into the flan ring and smooth the top with a palette knife, then place in the fridge and chill for 2 hours.
6. Serve dusted with icing sugar and a little melted chocolate if you like.
Raspberry & Milk Chocolate Cheesecake
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Fudgy coconut brownies

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Derek McGuff

I’ve never been one for baking much, nor am I used to creating sweets or puddings, but I discovered this little beauty of a recipe on the BBC Good Food website and decided to give it a try.

Not only was the recipe easy to follow, with a minimum of effort required to assemble the short list of ingredients; the resulting brownies taste great and are a perfect treat to enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee. Alternatively, they might be served with hot custard as a special pudding course.

Dense and gooey, these treats are made with cocoa rather than bars of chocolate

Fudgy coconut brownies

Ingredients

100g cocoa
250g butter
500g golden caster sugar
4 eggs , beaten
100g self-raising flour
100g desiccated coconut
icing sugar , to dust (optional)

Directions

Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.

Line the base of a 21cm square tin with baking parchment.

Put the cocoa, butter and sugar in your largest saucepan and gently melt, stirring so the mixture doesn’t catch. When the cocoa mixture is melted and combined, cool slightly, then stir in the eggs, little by little, followed by the flour and coconut.

Tip into the tin and bake for 45 mins on a middle shelf – check after 30 mins and cover with another piece of baking parchment if the crust is browning too much.

Cool in the tin, then carefully lift out and cut into squares.

 

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Coconut-Curry Chicken Thighs

Posted on March 23, 2013 by Derek McGuff

Coconut Curry Chicken ThighsI found this recipe at janetandgreta.com and I’ve reproduced it here as I found it.

I cooked the dish with a few minor adjustments and it was an immediate hit with the family and one that I’ll definitely cook again!

I used full fat coconut milk instead of light, I substituted some diced new potatoes instead of sweet potato, I used two tablespoons of Madras curry paste instead of the curry powder and I omitted the peas. You can make your own choice of which version to go with, or experiment to suit your own taste.

Let me know how it turns out!

Fragrant and fantastic! This one-pot wonderful, super-savory supper can be made in about 30 minutes. Serve on a bed of brown basmati rice, quinoa or whole wheat couscous. Continue reading →

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The Hairy Dieters – Gorgeous Fish Stew with Garlic Croutons

Posted on March 9, 2013 by Derek McGuff

Here I’ve borrowed another recipe from the Hairy Bikers’ recent book ‘The Hairy Dieters, How to love food and lose weight’.

The Hairy Dieters Gorgeous Fish Stew with Garlic Croutons

My daughter Laura has made this for us a couple of times and it really is a delicious one-pot dinner.

Give it a try, I can guarantee you won’t be disappointed!

Continue reading →

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The Hairy Dieters Spanish-style Chicken Bake

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Derek McGuff

This recipe is from the brilliant new book by the Hairy Bikers – The Hairy Dieters, ‘How to love food and lose weight”.

The Hairy Dieters Spanish style Chicken Bake

This is a brilliant recipe and you’ll notice that there’s no additional fat needed – all the fat comes from the chorizo, and the tomatoes make it lovely and juicy. A low-fat fiesta oƒ a dish. Continue reading →

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Bobotie

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Derek McGuff


Bobotie

Pronounced ba-boor-tea, the national dish of South Africa is a delicious mixture of curried meat and fruit with a creamy golden topping, not dissimilar to moussaka.

 

Ingredients

  • 2 slices white bread
  • 2 onions , chopped
  • 25g butter
  • 2 garlic cloves , crushed
  • 1kg packet lean minced beef
  • 2 tbsp madras curry paste
  • 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
  • 3 cloves
  • 5 allspice berries
  • 2 tbsp peach or mango chutney
  • 3 tbsp sultanas
  • 6 bay leaves

For the topping - 300ml full-cream milk, 2 large eggs

Bobotie

  1. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Pour cold water over the bread and set aside to soak.
  2. Meanwhile, fry the onions in the butter, stirring regularly for 10 mins until they are soft and starting to colour. Add the garlic and beef and stir well, crushing the mince into fine grains until it changes colour. Stir in the curry paste, herbs, spices, chutney, sultanas and 2 of the bay leaves with 1 tsp salt and plenty of ground black pepper.
  3. Cover and simmer for 10 mins. Squeeze the water from the bread, then beat into the meat mixture until well blended. Tip into an oval ovenproof dish (23 x 33cm and about 5-6cm deep). Press the mixture down well and smooth the top. You can make this and chill 1 day ahead.
  4. For the topping, beat the milk and eggs with seasoning, then pour over the meat. Top with the remaining bay leaves and bake for 35-40 mins until the topping is set and starting to turn golden.

Attribution: BBCGoodFood.com

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Bobotie
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Mark Sargeant’s Crispy chilli beef with noodles

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Derek McGuff

 

Crispy chilli beef with noodles

Preparation 10 minutes, Skill Level – Easy, Cooking Time 15 minutes, Serves 4

Mark Sargeants Crispy chilli beef with noodles

Mark Sargeant’s My Kind Of Cooking

My Kind Of Cooking from Mark Sargeant is full of simple, stylish recipes to cook at home. With a focus on less expensive cuts of meat and types of fish, it proves that budget cooking needn’t mean a compromise on taste.

Here’s a spicy Asian dish with beef, chilli and ginger served on a bed of noodles,
for only £2 per serving.

Ingredients

  • 300 g10½ oz frying steak, sliced into thin strips
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 5 tbsp cornflour
  • 1 tbspsoy sauce, and a splash for the sauce
  • Vegetable oil, for frying
  • 3 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 2 carrots, cut into thin strips
  • 4 spring onions, sliced
  • 1 inch fresh ginger, cut into matchsticks
  • 1 fresh red chilli, sliced
  • 150 ml5¼ fl ozsweet chilli sauce, approximately

For the noodles:

  • 400 g14 ozegg noodles
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • Bunch of coriander

Method: How to make Crispy chilli beef with noodles

1 Combine the eggs, soy sauce and cornflour. Add beef strips and mix together.

2 Heat the oil in a pan and drop beef strips in, cook for 5-7 minutes until crispy.

3 Remove beef from the pan and set aside.

4 In a separate pan, heat some oil and throw in the garlic. Cook until toasted then add the carrots, spring onion, chilli, ginger and a splash of soy sauce. Stir fry for a minute or two.

5 Add sweet chilli sauce, the crispy beef and cook for a few minutes to warm through.

6 Meanwhile, soak the noodles in boiling water for a few minutes, according to packet instructions. Add them to a hot pan and toss through with the lime juice, soy sauce and coriander.

7 Serve the beef on top of a bed of noodles.

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Mark Sargeants Crispy chilli beef with noodles
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Thai Yellow River Cobbler recipe | MyDish

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Derek McGuff

The most amazing Thai curry – really simple and quick and cheap. Works with other curry pastes including Korma, Tikka Masala and they all work, just be careful adding chilli!

Thai Yellow River Cobbler recipe | MyDish:

Thai Yellow River Cobbler recipe | MyDish

Method Coat one side of each fish fillet with Curry Paste (about 1 tsp per fillet)

Heat oil in frying pan (medium hot)

Place fish in pan coated side down and cook for about 2-3 mins

Turn fish over and add 3tsp of curry paste to pan

Add Coconut milk around fish

Add most of Chilli, Spring Onion and Coriander (keep some back for decoration at serving)

Cook for further 5-6 mins until fish cooked through (test flavour once bubbling and add paste to taste)

Serve immediately on bed of rice

ENJOY…

Tips

Really be careful adding chilli… One de-seeded red chilli seems to work. With seeds it can be a bit hot… Great if you like that sort of thing of course, but I recommend start small and add more if you feel it’s not quite hot enough.

Ingredients

2 Vietnamese River Cobbler Fillets (or other white fish cod/coley/haddock etc) 4 Spring Onion (chopped) 1 Red Chilli (chopped and de-seeded) 200ml Low Fat Coconut Milk 1 handful Fresh Coriander (chopped) 1 jar Thai Yellow Curry Paste 1tbl Olive Oil

Serves: 2

Cooking-Time: 0hrs 10 mins

(Via.) MyDish http://www.mydish.co.uk/recipe/28741/Thai-Yellow-River-Cobbler

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Nigel Slater’s sweetbread, and salmon and cucumber mayonnaise recipes

Posted on June 3, 2012 by Derek McGuff

I think Nigel Slater is something of a food genius. I love to listen to him talk about food and recipes as much as I like the recipes themselves. Thanks for this Nigel, I pass it on and recommend it to my readers without hesitation.

Nigel Slaters sweetbread, and salmon and cucumber mayonnaise recipes

Nigel Slater’s sweetbread, and salmon and cucumber mayonnaise recipes: ”

Nigel Slaters sweetbread, and salmon and cucumber mayonnaise recipes

Pale and fragile, sweetbreads are not for the squeamish, but cooked properly they make a memorable feast

Of all the odds and ends on the butcher’s counter, the bits that think, beat or hear, filter, trot or swish away the flies, those I like best are the sweetbreads. Pale, fragile and frankly a bit on the spooky side to look at, they have a delicate flavour and texture you could almost call creamy.

They are not, as I was led to believe when I was a kid, an animal’s balls. Continue reading →

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Hacked!

Posted on June 3, 2012 by Derek McGuff
Hacked!

Hacker inside (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Who’d believe it? Some dirty rotten hacker infected my site with malicious code and caused me no end of bother with Google, my hosting company JustHost and for what?

My modest little offering of a website was attacked and hacked by some low-life, scummy, trojan loading moron and it’s made me very angry!

In addition; they hijacked one of my email accounts and used it as the reply address for undeliverable spam emails so that not only did I start receiving hundreds of Mailer daemon undelivered message alerts every day, it looked like I’d sent the spam mails in the first place!

I won’t rant on and on, but it’s taken lots of time to get everything back to normal. My passwords have all been changed to a much stronger set, so hopefully there won’t be a recurrence.

My big question is WHY? apart from using my email account as a waste bin for all the undeliverable message alerts that the hackers don’t want to receive themselves, what possible benefit could they gain by screwing me over and causing me such inconvenience? – I guess I’ll never know. Any suggestions? – feel free to get in touch.

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