Clean and Lean - Turkey Burgers

Turkey can often be seen as a drab and boring meat. It's bad reputation is down to the tendency to over cook it on Christmas day and then be forced to eat leftovers for weeks afterwards. It's a shame really because turkey is lean, cheap and can be very tasty!

I actually bought all of the ingredients for these burgers from Lidl making them exceptionally cheap compared to many meat-based dishes. The turkey wasn't super lean but at half the price of Sainsbury's I didn't mind a couple of extra % of fat!

I was actually really pleased with how these turned out, they were quite refreshing which is an odd word to use to talk about a turkey burger but the lime zing really came through. I'd definitely reccomend giving them a go.

Turkey Burgers - adapted from James Duigan

Ingredients:

• 400g turkey mince
• juice from 2 limes
• 2 lemon grass stalks, bashed
• sea salt
• ground black pepper
• 5 spring onions

1. Chop the spring onions and a small amount of the lemongrass and put into a large bowl. Smash the stalks of the lemongrass with a knife. (The recipe calls for 4 stalks of lemongrass but that sounds like far too much for me as I'm not a great fan).
   
2. Add the turkey mince and squeeze the lime juice over the mix. Combine with your hands and leave to marinade for 30 minutes in the fridge.
   
3. Run your hands under cold water and shape the mixture into patties - I made 4. 
   
4. Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and then cook for about 4-5 minutes on each side. 
5. Serve - the book suggests wrapping the burgers in lettuce and serving with oven roast veg. I opted for sweet potato mash and grilled asparagus - yummy!

Read More

Quick and easy banana muffins

Sometime the inevitable happens and you buy a bunch of bananas and by the end of the week you have one, solitary, freckled banana left. It feels too wasteful to throw it out but it's not enough to make a proper banana loaf. This week I resolved to find a solution for my one banana and eventually decided to make some banana muffins.

They are quick, simple and tasty. Perfect!

Ingredients:

• 85g unsalted butter, softened
• 75 caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 banana, mashed
• 125g self raising flour

1. Beat the butter and sugar together until light a fluffy
2. Add in the egg, don't worry if the mixture curdles, and beat together
3. Mix in the mashed banana and then sift the self raising flour before folding in.
4. Spoon into 6 muffin cases and bake for 25 minutes at 180c until golden.

Read More

Clean and Lean - Super Mince

I'm slowly making my way through the Clean and Lean diet cook book and have been meaning to make this so called "Super" mince for a while. Given that I still had 4 packs of mince in the freezer (thank you Waitrose and your half price event in January...) and wanted to keep the grocery bill down this week, I thought it was a good opportunity to make this.

Please forgive the unflattering photograph, it did look more vibrant than this! Also, for you beady eyed readers - this shouldn't be served with rice, let alone Uncle Ben's Mexican rice! If you're truly keeping clean and lean you should have it on it's own or with brown rice or pasta. It's pretty tasty and a great winter warmer. We took ours to work in a tub and heated it up for dinner before heading out to the theatre, a thrifty dinner as we have our holiday to save for.

Clean and Lean Super Mince, adapted from James Duigan

Ingredients:

• 1 red onion
• 1 red pepper
• 50g peas
• half head of broccoli
• 1 aubergine
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 500g lean mince (ground beef)
• 400g carton of passata
• 2tbsp tomato puree
• 50-100ml water
• 2 cloves of garlic
• sea salt
• ground black pepper

1. Slice all your veg into similarly sized chunks - no need to be too precise
   
2. Heat the olive oil in a large pan and brown the mince. Add the vegetables, passata, tomato puree, garlic and season. Add the water as necessary. (400g passata just wasn't enough to coat all my veg!)
   
3. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 40-45 minutes until all the veg is tender. 

Read More

Chocolate Cake with Salted Buttercream Icing

So, I think it's safe to say this doesn't come close to being classed as clean and lean. But look at it! It's a strong-crumbed chocolate cake, not too sweet, that allows the sweet and salty caramel icing to come through. You really don't want to make a sweet chocolate cake as it would be too much with the icing.

I made this to take along to a Clandestine Cake Club meet-up. It's the first one I've been to but it was great fun and I got the chance to meet some lovely people and eat some great cake. I had originally planned to take this along to a Cheap & Cheerful event (cakes under £5) but got my dates mixed up and missed it! Fortunately another nearby group was hosting a Valentines themed day and allowed me to come along. Hence why I have some very hastily made chocolate heart decorations going on!

Before you get going on this recipe bear in mind that you're going to need to make a caramel and therefore dedicate a fair whack of time to this cake, it's a labour of love but well worth it. Just try not to think of all the butter in it as you're serving yourself a slice...

Salted Caramel Icing

Ingredients:

• 100g granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 120ml double cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 230g unsalted butter, softened
• 230g salted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon sea salt, crushed (I used Maldon salt)
• 600g icing sugar

1. Put the sugar and water into a saucepan. Place over a medium heat and stir until the sugar has all dissolved. As soon as it's dissolved stop stirring!
   
2. Bring to medium-high heat and watch it boil. Don't walk away, instead keep a keen eye and wait for it to turn a deep amber colour. 
3. As soon as it hits the right colour remove it from the heat and begin to pour in the double cream. Add it gradually, stirring all the time and then add the vanilla. Leave to cool for at least 20 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, I used my kitchenaid with a beater paddle, begin to beat the butter and icing sugar together until you have a light and fluffy buttercream. 
   
5. Once cool at the caramel slowly and add the salt. Beat for a further 2 minutes or so until all combined. 

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

• 350g granulated sugar
• 170g unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 240g plain flour
• 60g cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 350ml milk, at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Beat the sugar and butter together for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy
2. In a separate bowl sieve the flour, salt, cocoa powder and baking powder together
3. Once light and fluffy add the eggs to the butter mix, one at a time, ensuring it is mixed thoroughly between each one
4. Add half of the flour mix, then half of the milk, add the remaining flour and then the remaining milk. Beat slowly until well combined. 
   
5. Finally add the vanilla, split the mix between three 8" pans. 
6. Cook at 160c for around 30 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean when pushed into the middle of the cake.
7. Once cooked, leave to cool before levelling the cakes off.

Once the cakes are cold it's time to assemble the cake! This can be done to your preference but I preferred to do a thin crumb coat before popping it in the fridge and covering it in another layer of butter cream. 

Read More

Clean and Lean - Pancakes

In an effort to overhaul my diet before heading off to Australia in a month I've decided to revisit the clean and lean diet. It seems more relevant than ever, given that there has been a lot of talk recently about how it's really sugar that is the food villain, not fat. I completed a successful week last week but knew with pancake day approaching that it was going to be hard to stick to -  I love pancakes, especially the fluffy American ones I have blogged about before.

Fortunately, this is a recipe for pancakes in the Clean & Lean Diet book. I have to admit though, I was dubious! Eggs, oats, cottage cheese and cinnamon doesn't sound anything like my normal pancake recipe. However, I'm please to report these were quite tasty and certainly kept me filled up until lunch. 

Serves 1 (if you're greedy like me!)

Ingredients:

• 50g oats
• 100g cottage cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• blueberries (to top)
• natural yoghurt (to top)

1. Place the oats, cottage cheese, eggs and cinnamon in a food processor. Whizz up until a batter smooth(ish) batter is formed. 
   
2. Heat a pancake pan, or other small frying pan) up over a medium heat. Pour in the batter and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side.
3. Serve immediately with natural yoghurt, honey and blueberries.

Read More

Christmas in Brno

There are few things I truly love about London. However, the close proximity to major airports served by budget airlines is one of them. I can hop on an EasyBus (the cheap and terrifying bus transfer) and onto a Ryanair or Wizz Air flight and get away for the weekend for under £50 return and I like to try and get a couple in each year.

This year we did our major holidays in Egypt and India and our weekend breaks in Katowice, Poland and Brno, Czech Republic. Over the years though I've been to Venice, Bremen, Frankfurt, Milan, Oslo,  Dublin, Warsaw, Wroclaw and probably a couple of others that I can no longer remember.

When I tell people this they presume I love to travel, the real truth is though that I love to eat. Eastern Europe offers some fantastic food at a miniscule amount of money compared to home.

In Katowice we had three course meals with a leg of goose, a whole stuffed apple and roast potatoes for £12. We also gorged ourselves on the local dumplings; piergoi.

I rarely blog about my adventures but thought it was about time I did after eating a ridiculous amount of food at the Christmas market in Brno.

It started so innocently with a chimney cake - how could I resist the warm fire with the wafting smell of cake and sugar and caramel? The dough is coiled around a thick cylinder before being rotated over an open fire until golden brown. Once cooked it is pressed into a sugary, nutty bath before being sliced off and the hollow cakes served wrapped in napkins. I ate it slowly, uncoiling it as I went. The cost? 50kr - £1.40 a meagre price compared to what you'd pay at a street food stall in London.

We continued to walk through the market, taking in the smell of the mead wine (£1) and the sights of the locals queuing to stand on a  platform to ring a bell.Then disaster happened, well, for our cholesterol anyway. We walked into the food stalls. People were gathered round tables eating deep fried pancake looking things and big meaty sausages; a whole pig was hoisted up ready to be cooked.

We ordered a potato pancake and a sausage with difficulty and then headed back to one of the tables to share our finds (90kr - £2.50).

The potato pancake (called bramboracky - we found out later) was dripping with grease, fresh from being deep fried. It was stuffed full of garlic and caraway seeds, it was, I'm not ashamed to say, delicious. The grease made it hard to eat large quantities but you felt in the cold that really you needed these calories especially the crunchy edges. The sausage was also delicious and no gristle in sight, it was served with bread and a mustard that wasn't too hot, it was just right.

We then stretched our legs and headed up to the second part of the market about 300m down the road. This one featured more craft stalls selling Christmas decorations, wooden spoons and toys. It also happened to have even more food stalls, just what we needed!

This time we ordered a Langose (30kr - 80p), it looked like a pizza but tasted more like a fried Yorkshire pudding. It's essentially a deep fried flat bread - healthy! We topped it with cheese and ketchup but regretfully no garlic - I hadn't realised it was traditionally served this way!

After all this we did manage to eat a main meal in the evening, again for a reasonable price. All washed down with the local beer which was actually cheaper than the bottled water!

I'd certainly recommend Brno for a weekend break. In between the feasting we visited many of their local landmarks. The most notable of which is an ossuary which is a mass burial site, Brno's was only recently discovered (2001) and has been transformed in a modern way, it's certainly worth a look. Other attractions include the castle (steep walk up!) and cathedral (fantastic views from the top of the towers).

Read More

Chocolate Truffles - Christmas Hamper

This year I've made a few Christmas hampers to give as gifts. It isn't a cost-saving exercise, trust me - high quality ingredients don't come cheap! Instead it was to give something thoughtful and consumable that wouldn't clutter the home.

One of the items I included in the hamper was chocolate truffles. Truffles are surprisingly easy given their rich, decadent taste. Be warned though, these are quite bitter so if you don't appreciate a good dark chocolate these might not be your thing!

Ingredients:

• 300g high-quality dark chocolate - I used Green & Blacks
• 300ml double cream
• 50g unsalted butter

1. Chop the chocolate into small chunks and place in a bowl.
   
2. Heat the cream and butter in a saucepan over a medium heat until it just begins to simmer. Don't boil.
3. Pour the cream over the chocolate and stir until all chocolate is melted into the mix. Place into a fridge overnight.
   
4. Use a small spoon or melon baller to cut through the mix and make even sized truffles.
   
5. Roll into balls using your hands. It's important to keep your hands cold so run them under cold water frequently.
   
6. Roll into your toppings to coat them and place into small candy cases and then refrigerate in an air tight container.
   

I've been told that you can freeze these up for a month and then defrost in the fridge the day before you want them.

Read More