Filling in the gaps

It's been a while since I posted anything.....how remiss of me.  So by way of catch up, here's a few things I've made since I last posted and a few things I've made pre-blog which are worthy of note ...............

How about a nice Lamb Casserole with Feta Dumplings

The recipe came from Channel 4's Sunday Brunch.

Simon Rimmer’s rich lamb casserole from Sunday Brunch is easy to make and is topped with crisp golden dumplings and feta cheese

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the filling

• Vegetable oil, for frying
• 450g good-quality lamb mince
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 1 carrot, finely diced
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• Few sprigs rosemary
• 200ml Madeira
• 200ml strong beef or game stock

For the topping

• 225g plain flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 100g unsalted butter, cubed
• 175ml sour cream
• 150g feta cheese

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas mark 6. For the filling, heat some oil in a deep heavy-bottomed saucepan and brown the mince. Remove the mince from the pan and set aside.

2. To the same pan add the onion, carrot and garlic and fry gently to soften but not colour.

3. Add the lamb mince back to the pan, add the cinnamon and tomato purée and cook out for 4-5 minutes.

4. Add the rosemary, Madeira, stock and some seasoning, and bring to the boil. Then allow to simmer for at least 30 minutes.

5. For the topping, in a blender pulse together the flour, baking powder, salt and butter. When it looks like breadcrumbs add the sour cream and do the same again. The dough will be very sticky.

6. Spoon the filling into individual pie dishes, then spoon dollops of the batter on top. Sprinkle over the feta and bake for 25 minutes until crisp and golden.

Then the Hairy Bikers Big Book of Baking was out again to make the 

Pogasca or Bacon Scones

The recipe for these can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/bacon_or_crackling_75198

An unusual and very tasty version of Brownies made with Guinness !  Hence the name Guinness Brownies

these went down very well and if you want to try them, the recipe is here:

http://hiconsumption.com/2012/06/guinness-brownies/?utm_source=scribol.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=scribol.com

Rocky Road

This recipe came from BBC Good Food Magazine August 2012 and was titled Emma Morris's Rocky Road.  It's very rich and chocolatey.  

100g butter
300g dark chocolate, broken up
3 tbsp golden syrup
135g rich tea biscuits, broken into pieces
handful of mini marshamallows
140g chocolate bars of your choice

Put butter, chocolate and syrup into a pan over a low heat.  Melt them together, stirring until smooth.  Cool for about 10 minutes.

Line a 17cm (about 6" ) square tin with foil.

Stir the biscuits, marshmallows and sweets into the chocolate until they are covered.  Spoon the mixture into the tin, level it out a bit.  Put into the fridge until it is hard then remove from the tin and cut into squares or fingers.


When I made this, I used ginger nut biscuits instead of rich tea.  Digestives or shortbread would be nice too.  My marshmallows were the standard sized ones so I snipped them up with scissors.  I used Maltesers, though I reckon Crunchies or Diam bars would be good.

You could add dried fruit to the mixture too.


"Here's one I made earlier"

Baked Raspberry Cheesecake

A recipe from Olive magazine:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3842/baked-raspberry-cheesecake

Chocolate Torte a variation on the Salted Caramel Chocolate Torte found here:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/896660/salted-caramel-chocolate-torte