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. 

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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. 

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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.

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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).

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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.

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The Cake is NOT a Lie

Recently it was a friend's 21st birthday. She's into her gaming and I'm not so it took a bit of searching online before I found the perfect cake; the portal cake! Apparently this is a famous cake from the game Portal which is promised as a reward but never delivered, hence "the cake is a lie".

What I was aiming for.

Nailed it!

I didn't realise until afterwards that actually it was supposed to be a black forest gateaux and instead made a chocolate cake - luckily this worked to my favour as she doesn't like black forest gateaux!

This is a super easy cake based on a well tried and tested recipe. I'd certainly recommend giving it a go!

For the cake:

• 4 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons of boiling water
• 8oz/225g self raising flour
• 8oz/225g stork or butter
• 8oz/225g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder

For the icing:

• 4oz/100g plain chocolate
• 16oz/450g icing sugar, sifted
• 7oz/200g butter, softened
• 2oz/50g cocoa powder, sifted
• a little water or milk

For the decoration:

• 1 small tub extra thick cream
• 75g/3oz plain chocolate
• 75g/3oz milk chocolate
• 8 strawberry gobstobbers (or 8 cherries - your choice)

1. Preheat oven to 180c. Mix the cocoa powder and hot water together in a small bowl until a paste is formed.
2. Place the remaining cake ingredients into a large bowl or your kitchen aid bowl and mix together until all combined. Add in the cocoa paste and mix until the batter is evenly brown.
3. Grease three cake tins, line with a circle of greaseproof paper and grease again. Split the batter between the tins and cook for 25 minutes.
4. Once a toothpick comes back clean when pushed into the cake and it springs back when touched, remove the cakes from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack.
5. To make the icing melt the chocolate in a microwave on 30 second bursts until melted. Leave to cool for 5 minutes.
6. Sift the icing sugar and cocoa powder in a bowl, cream with the butter using the back of a spoon - watch out as icing sugar will often get everywhere!
7. Once a thick butter icing is made add in the melted chocolate and mix until thoroughly combined. Use a little water or milk to loosen the mix until it is at a consistency that can be easily spread.
8. Spread about a quarter of the icing onto the first bit of cake, place another cake on top, repeat with the icing. Retain 1/4 of the icing spread the remaining down the sides of the cake. This is creating a "crumb coat" that traps any crumbs from showing in your final icing (it doesn't actually matter too much for this cake). Pop your cake in the fridge for 10 minutes.
9. Meanwhile grate your two chocolate bars. Try and keep it as cool as possible so you don't end up with it melted. Also fill your extra thick double cream into an icing bag and pipe 8 dollops onto a piece of greaseproof paper, dab them down with your finger to form circles.
10. Remove your cake from the fridge and apply your final layer of icing, press the chocolate flakes onto the cake and finally use a spatula to evenly space the 8 circles of cream around the cake. Top each circle with a gobstopper.

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Stir up Sunday

This year I'm making gifts for some of our family. This isn't necessarily a cost-saving move, in fact the ingredients for a Christmas cake really mount up - especially with all the alcohol involved! Instead it is more to provide something that can be consumed and won't lie around collecting clutter or being donated to a local charity shop in the new year. I hope they appreciate all the effort that has gone into creating the goodies I've got planned.

So, I thought I'd start with a Christmas cake. There is no more traditional time to make it then Sunday 23rd November; Stir up Sunday. This is the final Sunday before advent and traditionally the day that Christmas puddings would be made and stirred by all the family, making wishes as you went round.

As this is my first year attempting my own Christmas cake I scoured the internet for a simple but tasty recipe and found James Martin's Make & Mature Cake. It appealed to me as it was a simple case of buying a bag of mixed fruit (picked up on offer for £2 for a kg in Waitrose) instead of chopping lots of little pieces, maybe I'll do that next year when I'm a bit more experienced in the world of fruit cakes!

I actually doubled the mix and made 4 7" cakes. They aren't massively tall but think they'll look great in a few weeks time once iced, for now though they are staying naked so I can continue to feed them. I made these in two batches as I only had two tins and there was no way I had a pan large enough for 2kg of fruit at once.

Ingredients (for four cakes):

• 2kg mixed food
• zest and juice of 2 lemons
• zest and juice of 2 oranges
• 300ml sherry + extra for feeding (my alcohol of choice as it's not as potent as whiskey)
• 500g butter, softened
• 400g light brown sugar
• 350g plain flour
• 200g ground almonds
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 100g flaked almonds (didn't double this)
• 8 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Place your fruit, lemon orange, sherry, butter and brown sugar in a large pan. Bring it to the boil and then simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for 30 minutes.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Heat your oven to 150c - this is a low, slow cook. Grease your tins, making a large 'collar' from greaseproof paper, line the base too.
3. Once cooled a little add the remaining ingredients and stir thoroughly until all combined, make a wish too.
   
4. Divide the mix between the tins and place in the oven for 2 hours. I didn't find the time decreased for cooking, I suspect the original recipe required longer than 2 hours.
   
5. Remove from the oven and skewer all over, spoon over a tablespoon of sherry. Leave to cool completely in the tin before removing all paper and wrapping in cling film.
   
6. Repeat for the next two cakes!

I'll keep you updated on the feeding and icing process. Wish me luck!

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