Chicken and Butter bean stew

New semester, new timetable, new culinary adventures.


My local butcher does these amazing deals where you can buy 3 packs of meat for £5, today there were some very large, very juicy looking chicken thighs on offer which I just had to have! At the moment a lot of my food is spanish inspired as smokey paprika is my new favorite flavour, I have it on everything, even popcorn! I think the warmth of the flavour is just what's needed to combat the recent freezing temperatures.


And what better to go with stew than freshly baked, homemade rolls? So of course i just had to make a chicken stew and rolls for dinner.


Stew
3 large chicken thighs
1 onion, chopped roughly
2 large cloves garlic, roughly chopped
some mushrooms, cut into thick slices
half a red pepper, chopped
1 tin tomatoes
1 tin butter beans, drained
1 tin kidney beans, drained
2 generous tsp smokey paprika
1 chicken stock cube
2 tins of boiling water


Start off by frying the thighs in a tbsp oil to seal them and reduce your overall cooking times. Give them a few minutes each side and then transfer to a casserole or slow cooker. Add the beans, tomatoes, stock and paprika to the pot. In the oil left over from the chicken gently fry the onions and garlic for a couple of minutes until the onions just start to colour and then add to the pot. Finally add the mushrooms and peppers and cook on for about an hour in the over at 160C or for 4 hours in a slow cooker on high.


Rolls
Make a batch of the simple white bread recipe and leave to rise for an hour or until doubled in size. After this carefully divide the dough into equal portions and lay on a baking tray. At this point you can top the rolls with herbs, cheese, black pepper or anything else you like. Leave the rolls on the tray for about half an hour until doubled in size. Bake for 8-12 minutes in a hot (200C) oven. For crusty rolls get some steam in the oven either using a water spray or fill a tray with water and place it at the bottom of the oven.

Road bikes and flapjacks

Firstly I have good news. My shiny new road bike that I got as an Xmas present from myself is finally up and running. So, this weekend, I took it out on its maiden voyage. In retrospect this was probably not the best time to use a road bike given the rain and massive winds but I survived and I think I'm in love. 

I have another 3 hour exam tomorrow morning which means I'm going to get hungry during it. I planned on buying some cookies from the shop to take in with me but then when I saw some nuts and dried fruit on offer I knew it must be a sign and that I should make some fruity nutty flapjacks instead. All the ingredients have been bought and during my next procrastination break assembly will begin.

Chilli and exams

It's winter. It's cold, normally dark and not fun. To top it all off it's exam time. 1 down 3 to go. With all the cold and stress I decided it was time for something warming and happy for dinner and settled on chilli con carne topped with cheesy tortilla chips. 
Following the recipe from my book of slow cooker meals make me realise a couple of things. Sometimes the simplest things taste best, and that there is no such thing as too much cheese. 
Recipe will follow once I stop being so stressed and getting migraines. I mean seriously, in what way does have a migraine aura help revision? It doesn't!! I couldn't even read earlier.


In other news I just purchased some rings to use as crumpet rings and they are winging their way to me now so hopefully I'll be able to make some crumpets over the weekend. Mmmm crumpets.

Testing - the results

So this morning was the rate capped 1km. Whilst it wasn't terrible, it wasn't brilliant either. Its so frustrating knowing that I've gone backwards in terms of fitness between last year and this year, although at least my scores have been steadily improving since September.
In the plus side I'm finally back at normal weight after dropping 2kg from a bug back in November. All I have to do now is get my asthma under control and then I'll be back to good scores in no time!


To celebrate completing the rest (and as a form of revision procrastination) I'm making pizza from scratch tonight, dough is currently having its first rise right now!

Instant cake gratification

What happens when you take a massive chocolate and peanut butter craving and combine it with a cupcake maker?
Mini chocolate cupcakes with a peanut butter centre of course. And all in under 5 minutes.


Here's how: 


(Adapted from Molten mug chocolate cake on good food)


4 tbsp self raising flour
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder ( I only had drinking chocolate so used this instead and added an instant coffee sachet to make it taste more chocolatey)
3 tbsp milk
3 tbsp oil
1 egg
dash vanilla
Peanut butter


Start by mixing the dry ingredients then add the wet ones and mix well, ensuring all the dry ingredients are incorporated. You may find you need to add a little bit more milk to get a nice consistency. If you have a don't have a mini cake maker and want to try it in the oven then i'd guess the oven needs to be at about 180C. Spoon the mixture into the cake pans and top each one with a blob of peanut butter. Cook until risen and the tops have just set, I'd guess about 12 minutes, but I'm not sure as I made them in my cake machine.
Alternatively you could follow the original recipe and put the mix in a mug and microwave it for 2 min 30 ish.


Then just enjoy the chocolatey peanut butter goodness, like a mini reeses cup in cake form!


Just to warn you, such rapid cakes are moreish and will disappear very quickly!

The return to training

Back to uni after xmas and that can only mean one thing: winter training camp. It's currently day 3 of the camp and so far I'm still alive. There was 28km on the water on sunday morning, a 3x10 min r24/26/28 erg session yesterday and a set of 9 x3@r20, 1@r24, 1@r30 minute intervals this morning which hurt.

The good news is that none of the sessions have hurt as much as expected. 

The bad news is that Sunday's water session has caused some skin irritation and a couple of my fingers are now red and swollen and my asthma has flared up due to lack of steroids.

Luckily tomorrow is a rest day which I definitely need before testing on thursday. Slightly worried that I've lost all my strength and so going to do badly but only time will tell.

Aside from rowing it's nice to be back. Debating making some mini cakes tonight, probably chocolate, to keep me entertained during revision. 

Chocolate mini cupcakes

Last night I had a major chocolate craving. I really fancied something like a chocolate cupcake, but obviously you can't just make 1 cupcake, although I didn't intentionally set out to make 50....

 I think the quantity had something to do with my new mini muffin maker...

My new toy, a cupcake maker

...inside the magical machine, it can cook 7 little cakes at once

After much searching, I fell back on my favorite baking blog, howtoeatacupcake.net. From that I decided on Martha Stewart's One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes, partly because I hate washing up more than I need to. I was slightly concerned because the recipe uses buttermilk, which is something I've never used/had before. I improvised with a milk yoghurt mix which seemed to work pretty well.

Because a chocolate cake on its own is never enough I went for 2 types of chocolate buttercream frosting, a white and a plain. Overall the whole thing worked out brilliantly, although I think I had too much sugar and couldn't sleep.

My mum took some to work and everyone thought they had been bought in so I'd say they were a massive success.

For the cakes ( taken from howtoeatacupcake.net):
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup buttermilk (or a mix of half milk, half natural yoghurt)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


Directions
Preheat oven to 180C. Line fairy cake tins with liners and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, sieve together cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla; mix batter until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to check batter is well mixed.
Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about one-third full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

Making the 2 buttercreams

• For the buttercream:
• 150g chocolate
• 110g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 125g icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon semi-skimmed milk (possibly)

Beat the butter and icing sugar until smooth. 

Once the butter sugar mix is smooth melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of water. (here I melted 75g of white chocolate in one bowl and 75g of plain in another) Once the chocolate is melted, leave it to cool so it doesn't melt the butter when it is added to the mix. Once the chocolate is cool beat it into the butter sugar mixture ( I added half of the butter sugar mix to each bowl of chocolate). You may need to add a little milk or more icing sugar to get the right consistency. If your chocolate is too warm then you will think you have a thinner mix than you really do as the butter will melt. 

Baked spicy sausage and tomato risotto

Usually when I make risotto I'm a firm believer in stirring and adding liquid gradually. Baked risotto goes against this and so I'm not really sure about how I feel about this dish yet. 


Today I found some spicy italian sausages in the freezer and decided to make a risotto out of them. After my usual trawl through various recipes I came across 2 that appealed to me, one an oven-baked sausage and tomato risotto and the other a spicy sausage risotto. Since I couldn't choose between them I decided to make them both!


For 4 people:
A good glug of olive oil
4 italian sausages
1 red onion, chopped
1 white onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
2 celery stalks, sliced
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1/2 yellow pepper, chopped
large handful broccoli florets
300g arborio risotto rice
1 tin tomatos 
800ml ish water
1 chicken stock cube
salt and pepper


200C, 30 mins

White bread

Sometimes you just need a nice big slice of white bread with a soup or stew. Now I'm definitely not one for shunning carbs but I rarely have bread in the house as it generally goes off before I can eat it. 


So I bake my own. Not actually as time consuming or difficult as people think. For me the real breakthrough moment with bread baking was understanding the science behind it. When baking bread everyone knows you need a strong flour but not necessarily why. Strong flour has a higher gluten content and this is what you need for a good bread. It is the gluten that holds the bread together and gives it that lovely consistency. 


The second thing that puts people off is kneading. This is basically where you work the dough to release the gluten which holds all the gas released by the yeast as it feeds off the sugars in the flour. Kneading creates strong gluten networks, if you knead less you get a less even dough. For a standard white sandwich loaf you need the work the dough a lot so you get a nice even distribution of bubbles in the dough.


White bread


500g strong white bread flour
1 1/2 tsp of dried active yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
350ml warm water (should be at a comfortable temperature to put your hand in)


Put the yeast, sugar and water in a small bowl and leave the yeast mixture to activate, 10-15 minutes. The mixture should be frothy on the top when it's ready. Whisk it with a fork to mix it.


Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour the yeast mixture into the well and gradually bring the flour in, mixing well. Once all the flour has been incorporated, tip it onto a lightly floured surface and knead. The dough should be slightly sticky at first, but after kneading it will feel silky to the touch. 


Put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover it with clingfilm. Leave to rise somewhere warm* until doubled in size. When the dough has doubled tip it out onto a surface again, and beat it down lightly. When it is flat fold it into 3, like a letter and pop it into a loaf tin, leaving the seam on top. 


Leave it in the tin covered with clingfilm to rise again until doubled in size. Whilst it is rising preheat the oven to 200C.


Place a tray of water in the bottom of the oven to create steam and then put the loaf in. After 10 minutes turn the heat down to 180C and cook for a further 15-25 minutes until golden and hollow sounding when tapped.






*If like me you are a poor student with a cold house then warm places can be improvised. For example I created a mini warm place by putting the bowl in a sleeping bag and warming the inside of the sleeping bag using a hairdryer before closing the bag to prevent heat escaping. 

Homemade slaw

Tonight I made slaw for the first time ever and have learnt a lot. Firstly carrots are evil. Secondly you always need a much bigger bowl than you think you do.
We're having baked potatoes for dinner and my brother requested slaw to go with it, there was none in the shop so I decided to make some. Sounds simple? Try making giant carrots into thin match sticks without the aid of a food processor or other specialised tool! If you have the option to use something fancy then definitely do it, don't say I didnt warn you about doing it manually.


The end product looked a little bit like this:

But it tasted pretty damn fine!


Slaw - makes a lot

• ¼ red cabbage , thinly sliced
• ¼ white cabbage, thinly sliced
• 1 red pepper , thinly sliced
• 2 medium carrots , cut into thin matchsticks
• 1 red onion, diced

• Dressing
• 4 tbsp low-fat natural yogurt
• 3 tbsp mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp mustard seeds
• 2 tbsp oil
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar

Prepare all the vegetables and place into a large mixing bowl. in a separate small bowl mix all the ingredients for the dressing and beat them together until silky. Pour the dressing over the veg and toss it well, leaving it to "cook" in the vinegar for at least half an hour before serving.

Welcome

So first ever blog post. Suppose I should start with a little bit about my aims for this then. This is be a compendium of all the different recipes I use for cooking and baking mainly for my own reference. Occasionally there may even be some rowing or exercise chat as that is another big part of my life.

 

This is me, with my awesome strawberry hat if anyone cares. Probably not.

Enough for now, back to cooking dinner!