One of the World's most unusual restaurants

When looking at the latest foodie news on the Guardian website I came across this exciting restaurant news.
A British architect has designed a restaurant that's to be built on a frozen lake in Canada. I've heard of Ice Bars but never an Ice restaurant on an actual lake! Can;t wait to hear the reviews!

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/best-served-cold-british-architects-create-gourmet-restaurant-on-frozen-lake-9814489.html

Beetroot, Spinach and Gouda Frittata

After a hard days work, sometimes whipping up a fancy meal doesn't seem so appealing. I decided to use up all my left overs and whip up a nice and healthy frittata. I've used beetroot, spinach and gouda in mine but you can substitute these for other things.

Serves 2
Ingredients
1 ball of pickled beetroot
1/2 an onion
4 baby potatoes (peeled)
handful of mushrooms (any kind)
half a bag of fresh spinach
50-100g Gouda
3 eggs
Milk (splash)

Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees and lightly grease an oven proof dish, 20cm x 10cm.
2. Halve your potatoes and boil them in a pan.
3. Meanwhile, roughly dice your mushrooms, beetroot and onion, saving one mushroom for the topping.
4. Gently fry while your potatoes are boiling.
5. Once boiled, dice your potatoes and chuck them in the pan along with your spinach. Turn the pan to the lowest heat or off as the spinach wont need much heat to cook.

6. Crack your eggs into a bowl, add a splash of milk and whisk until light and frothy

7. Grate the cheese and tip half of it into your egg mixture.
8. Empty your fried veg into the oven proof dish and pour the egg and cheese mix on top. It should come up to the top.
9. For the topping, slice the remaining mushroom and place on top, scatter the remaining cheese over it.

10. Put your dish in the oven to cook for around 20-30 mins. You'll know when it is ready as it will swell up and become firm to the touch.

I served mine with a big dollop of mayonnaise and a much needed cup of tea!

If you're a Scotch whisky fan you may not want to read any further...

The Telegraph has announced that a Japanese whisky, not a Scottish whisky, has been named the best in the world! If you haven't tried Yamazaki yet, then grab yourself a bottle before the 16,000 bottles produced sell out!
Read the article below from The Telegraph - 3rd November

 

Scotland loses out as Japanese whisky named best in the world

For the first time, not a single Scottish whisky has made it into top five of World Whisky Bible

Winning whisky: Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013 

By Leah Hyslop

10:37AM GMT 03 Nov 2014

The Scots are famous for their whisky, but will be licking their wounds this week after a Japanese single malt was named the best in the world.

Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013 was given the title by the 2015 World Whisky Bible, which is compiled by whisky expert Jim Murray.

He praised the whisky as “near indescribable genius”, with a “nose of exquisite boldness” and a finish of “light, teasing spice”, giving it an impressive 97.5 marks out of 100.

This year marks the first time in the book's 12-year history that a Japanese whisky has landed the title.To add insult to injury, not a single Scotch managed to make the final five shortlist.

The winning whisky comes from Japan’s oldest malt whisky distillery Yamazaki, which was established in 1923.

The drink, of which only 16,00 bottles have been made, is aged in Oloroso sherry butts for around 12 to 15 years, giving it what Murray called a “nutty, thick, dry [taste]… as rounded as a snooker ball”.
It beat two American rivals, the bourbon William Larue Weller and Sazerac Rye 18 Year Old, which took second and third place respectively.
Mr Murray said the high quality of Japanese and other international whiskies should be a “wake up call” for the Scottish industry.
He said that the the Yamazaki tipple was "a single malt which no Scotch can at the moment get anywhere near", and that after tasting over 1000 whiskies for the new edition, he was left wondering: “Where were the complex whiskies in the prime of their lives? Where were the blends which offered bewildering layers of depth?”
Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 201 is available in specialist whisky shops and online for around £100.

Pain au Chocolat

After being faced with a lazy Sunday, I decided to challenge myself and make pain au chocolats from scratch!

Having never made puff-pastry before I wasn't quite prepared for the lengthy 3 hour process of folding...chilling...and rolling the dough to form the many layers. The recipe I used was from 'Baking Mad' (http://www.bakingmad.com/pain-au-chocolat-recipe/), however I found this video very useful when making my pastry...

After a total of 6 hours I finally got to taste one of my delicious pain au chocolats! And here they are...

Now they have layers even Mary Berry would be proud of! I have to say my only criticism would be that they were too chocolatey...but there are worse things!

You should definitely try this recipe, it was easy to follow and produced a delicious pain au chocolat! Just be wary of the prep time as there is 4 hours of proving and chilling involved also.

Dinner pics

Seared tuna steak, stif-fried veg and udon noodles.
The perfect mix of healthy and tasty!

Raspberry and Lemon Cake

On a rainy Sunday afternoon, what better than to make this very easy but very tasty Raspberry & Lemon cake. Lemon desserts are my favourite so this recipe from Womans Own looked great, but I had some left over raspberries in the fridge so I decided to throw them into the mix too!

You an view the Womens Own Lemon Cake recipe here (http://www.womansown.co.uk/food/low-calorie-recipes-food/low-calorie-recipes-lemon-drizzle-cake/)
My adapted recipe to make the Raspberry and Lemon cake is below.

For the cake:
100g softened butter
175g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
175g golden caster sugar
2 large eggs
6 tbsp milk
finely grated rind of 1 large lemon and juice of half
1 punnet of raspberries
For the icing
juice of 1 large lemon (you need 3 tablespoons)
100g golden caster sugar


Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/fan oven 160C. Butter and line the base of a shallow oblong tin (about 18x28cm/7x11in) with baking parchment.
2. Blend the butter, eggs and milk together.
3. Mix the flour, baking powder, caster sugar and lemon rind in a separate bowl.
4. Fold the wet mixture into the dry mix until it's well mixed.
5. Stir half of the raspberries in breaking them down so the mixture should turn pink.
6. Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon.
7. Spoon the mixture into the tin and smooth the surface with the back of a spoon.
8. Place the remaining raspberries on the top (they will sink whilst cooking but don't worry)
9. Bake for about 40 minutes, until golden and firm to the touch.
10. Meanwhile, make the icing: beat together the lemon juice and sugar, pour the mixture evenly over the cake while it is still hot, then leave to cool.

Let me know how your Rasberry & Lemon cake is, post some pics too!

Halloween's just around the corner

Check out my Halloween video  for The Recipe Pantry's pumpkin ideas...