Rain, rain go away ...

I'm seriously tired on all the rain we've had in April. It feels like it's rained every. single. day. I know it's good for the gardens and heaven knows we need lots of rain top up our reservoirs so we can get the Thames Water hosepipe ban lifted.


But, I'm tired of looking up at grey skies. I'm tired of not being able to get out into my garden to cut the grass and weed the flower beds. I'm tired of getting wet whenever I do venture outside. I'm tired of not being able to plan outdoor activities.


On top of all that, the windows in my conservatory are leaking, so I'm having to mop up puddles of water on a daily basis. Heavy rainfall has resulted in water getting in between the panels of my car door, so whenever I accelerate away or break at a junction, it sounds like I've got a bucket full of water sloshing around in my car. And to top things off, I woke up this morning to find my BBQ and garden chairs had been blown over during the night and were strewn over my water logged, mud ridden, so-called lawn.


Here's hoping the April "showers" end on Monday and that spring makes a welcome appearance on Tuesday.

Recipes #12 and #13 of NEWrecipes52 ...

I've taken a step away from the oven and moved up to the hob with this week's recipes. Yes, recipes, plural. I've tried two new recipes for the first time this week and I've linked them together but they could easily be created separately. Let me explain ...

Recipe #12 is for home-made green curry paste. A beautifully aromatic paste, with the spicy kick of green chili, making it the perfect starting block for any delicious curry recipe.

Any recipe with ingredients that look this good, must be tasty, right? Green chillies, shallots, freshly grated ginger, garlic, lemongrass, coriander ...


Not to mention ground cumin, crushed black peppercorns and coriander seeds ...


All of which is thrown into a food processor, along with the zest and juice of a lime and a good glug of olive oil ...


And whizzed up to a wonderfully fragrant paste ...


This paste forms the base of my next NEW recipe.

Recipe #13 is for a Thai green chicken curry and uses the home-made paste which is sweetened with rich, creamy coconut milk and a garnish of coriander ...


The green curry paste needs to be fried in a little oil to release all it's wonderful flavours, then the chicken is added and cooked for a few minutes to brown ...


When the chicken begins to colour, the coconut milk and lime zest is added and allowed to simmer and thicken for around 25-30 minutes ...


With a few minutes to go, throw in some chopped coriander, a squeeze of lime juice and check for seasoning. When ready, serve with fluffy white long grain or nutty brown whole grain rice ...


Both recipes were a BIG success and bursting with flavour! I've got enough of the paste left over to make another 2 or 3 batches of curry and the good news is that it'll keep for up to 3 weeks in the fridge or can even be frozen. Bonus!

If you're interested, both the recipes I followed are on the BBC's food website and can be found here.

Enjoy your day ...

Happy Easter!

Recipe #11 of NEWrecipes52 ...

Just in time for Easter and I thought I'd try baking hot cross buns. The recipe I followed came from Rachel Allen's Bake book ...


I already had all the ingredients in my cupboards (love it when that happens!). Yeast and warm milk doing it's stuff ...


Make a well in the dry ingredients ...


Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ...


Then knead!

Now, I was feeling particularly lazy and so I thought I'd let my mixer take the strain. Using a dough hook attachment, I set the mixer of a really slow speed and set it to work for around 5 minutes ...


Once the dough had "come together", it was set aside in a warm location for around 2hrs, until it had doubled in size, just like regular bread ...


After the wait, I knocked the air out of the dough, then kneaded again for a couple of minutes to get a really smooth, shiny dough. I took pieces (approx 40g in weight) and rolled them into bun shapes, using a sharp knife I cut the cross shape on top, then added a little egg wash and made a "cross" of shortcrust pastry and let the buns prove ...


A quick glaze of egg wash and then into a hot oven ...


Actually, a little too hot! My buns cooked a little too quickly and got a little darker than I'd intended ...


But that really didn't matter because whilst they were still warm, I split and buttered them and had one (or two!) with a mid-morning cup of tea ...

Recipe #10 of NEWrecipes52 ...

Back to what I bake best ... cakes! I was given a series of recipe cards from my boss at work, [thank you Paula ♥] and one of them included a rather tasty looking recipe for cappuccino cake. Now I say "tasty looking" but I'm not actually a fan of coffee. In fact, I really don't like the bitter taste of it at all. However, my hubby loves the stuff and so this bake was for him ...

The usual suspects ...


The recipe called for the cocoa powder to be mixed with warm water to make a thick, chocolaty paste ...


Then it was just a case of mixing all the other ingredients into a dark, rich batter and pouring into greased / lined tins ...


25 minutes at 160oC later, and here's how they looked ...


Once the cakes were cool, I whipped up half a pint(!) of double cream and added a shot of instant coffee ...


Half the whipped coffee cream was used to fill the cake ...


The other half was then spread evenly on top ...


A generous dusting of cocoa powder for decoration (+ flavour!) ...


And a big slice served up for dessert ...


Now even though I dislike coffee immensely, this cake was really rather nice! The coffee flavour was subtle and actually really enhanced the yummy chocolate taste, rather than over-powered it. So although I started out baking this for hubby ... I do confess to indulging in a slice [or two] myself!