'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe

Oh yes, I've got a blog here haven't I...

Anyway, over Christmas I was given an instant-chocolate-brownie-in-a-mug kit which made quite good chocolatey goodness, and unlike my previous mug cake attempts did not result in cakeapocalypse.

Unlike all the other mug cake recipes I've found it doesn't include egg in the ingredients, so today I thought I'd have a go at reverse-engineering the recipe. The ingredients list on the kit was basically sugar, self-raising flour, chocolate chunks, and cocoa powder, with butter and milk added to make it up. So based on that and other recipes online I've guessed equal parts sugar, self-raising flour and chocolate. The rest mostly followed the recipe on the tub, and ended up being more-or-less:

1. Put 15g butter in a mug and microwave for 10-20 seconds until melted
2. Add 15g sugar, 15g self-raising flour, 15g cocoa powder, a few chocolate chunks, and 30ml milk. Mix well.
3. Microwave for 60-90 seconds
4. Let it stand for 5 minutes

The result: a sort of chocolate muffin in the mug. It came out a bit dry with a hint of baking powder aftertaste, which I think is more down to me not getting the mixture right than anything else. I'm using mechanical scales with 25g divisions, so measuring things this small is tricky, and I think I ended up adding too much flour! Next time I'll just measure everything out in teaspoons instead of by mass.

On the plus side, cakeapocalypse did not occur!

Since I'm sitting in front of the laptop and have Semagic open, here's another post!

Another recipe that I promised elemnar that I'd write up, again based on something on the back of a packet from Tesco's (their food isn't as nice as Sainsbury's, but they do have some good recipes):

Smoked Salmon Tagliatelle

Serves 1. Cooking time about 10 minutes.

2 or 3 balls of tagliatelle
Half a pack of smoked salmon trimmings (Sainsbury's Basics)
A couple of dollops of cream cheese (Philadelphia works well)
Splash of milk

Cook the tagliatelle for about 5 minutes. Drain, then return to the pan. Add the cream cheese, milk, and smoked salmon, and mix through heating until the cream cheese melts. Simples!

It goes quite well with a rocket salad. Tesco's recommended adding some chives as well, but I use dill as that's what's in my herb cupboard.

Another slightly delayed set of photos!

( Proof that I do actually cook for myself :) )

Om nom nom nom...

I see talismancer has finally run out of board-game-listing posts. Now, I could go on about that... but instead I'll post a recipe idea!

Take one Tuna Napolitana sauce sachet, and follow the destructions on it. However, instead of using a tin of tuna, add a tin of salmon. I used pink salmon when I made this up the other day (and because I'm lazy, I bought a tin of skinless & boneless). Simples!

Ideally you want some veg or something with it - I find it goes quite well with some rocket salad.

I get four servings out of this, which means one to eat now, one to go in the fridge for tomorrow (give it a couple of minutes in the microwave on high to reheat), and two to go in the freezer for whenever (I give it around 10 minutes on defrost stirring part-way through, then a couple on full blast to reheat it).

And now for something completely different!

I had a try at making lasagne the other day based off a recipe on a packet of the stuff (Sainsbury's egg lasagne), and it came out quite well. So well in fact that I'm making another batch right now.

I'll start off with posting the original recipe, as Sainsbury's now print a different more complicated one. The really nice thing about this recipe is it doesn't need any fancy sauces. The only bit I had to go and buy specially was the ricotta - the rest is all stuff I tend to have anyway.


( The original recipe )


I made a few changes to mine. To begin with I halved all the ingredients as that way the lasagne fits a nice little deep ceramic dish I've got. I added a dash of Worcester sauce to the meat, and used garlic powder rather than cloves because that's what's in my cupboard. Finally I didn't bother greasing the dish, though being glazed ceramic the lasagne came out of it easily enough.

The result is two servings of lasagne - one for now, and one to go in the fridge to be eaten in the next day or two. Plus enough ingredients left over to make another batch a few days later!

Mmmm.... sugary goodness...

Palmiers

1 pack puff pastry
few spoons of caster sugar

Sprinkle a largeish board with some of the sugar. Roll out the pastry on the board (or cheat and use ready-rolled pastry). If you've got a 500g pack, then it may be easier to make the palmiers in two batches. Sprinkle the pastry with some more sugar, then fold the long sides into the middle. Add yet more sugar, and fold it in half again lengthways. Wrap in clingfilm, and stick in the fridge for half an hour.

Heat the oven to 200°C (gas mark 7, fan 180°C). Slice the pastry roll up into 1cm-wide strips, and place them edge side down on a baking tray (lined with baking paper), allowing space for them to expand sideways (about an inch each side). I managed to fit 12 or so on a tray. Put the tray in the oven for 8-10 minutes, then turn them over as they're starting to become golden-brown and give the other side 6-8 minutes.

With a fan oven, you'll probably want to give them 8 minutes one side and 6 the other, and watch them like a hawk as they will burn when your back is turned. With a non-fan or gas oven, they're less likely to burn and are more likely to need 10 minutes a side. They should look golden brown when done. If they taste chewy, then they could do with a bit longer; likewise, if they are what in our house are known as a "Nik special" and consist mainly of carbon, then you've probably cooked them for too long.

Don't do what I did either, which was to push the baking tray right to the back of a gas oven, then wonder what was causing the smell of fireworks and the smoke. Baking paper is not fireproof, and I managed a charred hole in the paper (as well as a blackened palmier or two which got eaten by Nik).

Enjoy!