The post-run whopper

I like to run, in the sense where 'like' is used very generously. On returning from said runs I am very hungry, and so this whopper commences. It may be unnecessarily huge, but I've just burned loads of calories, right?
I would insert a picture of me in the process of eating this bonanza, but well. Sweat, red face, bleurgh.
Anyway, on Wednesday, I took some photos of my plate, because that's what food bloggers do, right?

Part 1: green beans. Living on the edge is something only the best of us can master, and green beans cooked in oil and garlic pretty much sums this extremely difficult stunt up.
What is wrong with me?

Part 2: bulgur wheat salad. My favourite salad, ever. Cook some onions, chuck the bulgur wheat in and cook as specified. Add walnuts, coriander, pomegranate, and anything else you feel like. Chicken or mackerel are both great.

 

 

Part 3: salad. A nice big green salad, with cucumber, carrot and lettuce, and lots of balsamic vinegar and oil. So healthy, me.

Part 4: salmon quiche. A recipe for another day, but all I can say is mmm.

So there you have it, the hugest plate you will ever see, and one of the only times you can justify it. Kinda. Obviously, post-marathon would be better, but baby steps...

Bye!

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Onion and taleggio tart

I have decided to put up some summery recipes. I don't care if it's only 9oC outside; it's summer in my head and no one ever said you had to eat summery food just in summer. I think.
So this is a recipe that is perfect for eating with salad, and can be eaten warm or cold, and is delicious! It's also really simple to make, and does take a while but is one of the easiest recipes ever considering the results.


*Ingredients*

• 6 small/medium onions (I used white, but have used red before and they work equally well).
• 50g unsalted butter.
• 200g puff pastry.
• 120g taleggio cheese.
• Thyme (however much you see fit!)
• Flour for rolling out pastry.

*Equipment*

• A big greased rectangular tray/ lightly floured baking sheet (both the size of your pastry).
• A large frying pan.
• A chopping board
• A sharp knife.
• Scales.
• A rolling pin.
• A wooden spoon.
• Goggles (optional).

*Instructions*

1. Peel and chop your onions up into thick segments, or whatever size you prefer.
2. Melt your butter in the frying pan on a low heat, and then add the onions in.
3. The onions will cook for about half an hour, so whilst cooking slice your cheese up and break into smaller pieces, and roll your pastry out to no thicker than a 10p coin. Prick the pastry all over with a fork.
4. Preheat the oven to 220oC/gas 7.
5. When the onions are translucent, golden and slightly sticky tip them onto your pastry and spread out.
6. Make small lines as a border around the edge of the pastry.
7. Put the cheese amongst/over the onions, and break the thyme over.
8. Put the tart in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the pastry is puffing up and the onions beginning to brown.
9. Eat!

So this is honestly the most delicious tart ever, and I hope you all make it too! If you do please Instagram me your pictures (@fuchsiaforest)!

Bye!

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Pistachio shortbread

Hello! Another day, another sweet thing made and eaten by me.

This recipe is for some gorgeous pistachio-crusted shortbread biscuits I made last week. It's originally an Ottolenghi recipe, but I just felt that the biscuits are so good not sharing would be criminal. It's also a bit different to the original.

Image soft, crumbly, buttery shortbread flavoured with cardamom, crusted with pistachio pieces, sprinkled with vanilla sugar before being cooked, and you're about right. They're delicious, but beware before you start that they are quite messy, and are quite a lenghty recipe, due to the leaving in the fridge. But it's worth it, no doubt about it.

*Ingredients*

• 6-10 cardamom pods (depending on how strong you want this flavour to be, I used 8 and it was subtle but still definitely there).
• 200g unsalted and softened butter.
• 265g plain flour (use white rather than wholemeal unless you want weirdly-coloured biscuits).
• 1/2 teaspoon salt.
• 35g icing sugar.
• 60g shelled pistachio nuts (NOT salted!).
• 1 egg, lightly beaten.
• 2 tablespoons vanilla sugar (just put a vanilla pod in a jar of caster sugar a few days before use to make your own).
• Scales.

*Equipment*

• Electric hand mixer/beater.
• Pestle and mortar.
• Bowl.
• Clingfilm.
• Fridge.
• Food processor/ sharp knife and board.
• Flat tray.
• Baking trays lined with baking parchment.

*Instructions*

• Using a pestle and mortar, crush the cardamom pods, before taking the shells off and grinding the seeds to a fine powder.
• Using the electric mixer, mix the butter, flour, salt, ground cardamom and icing sugar until a paste is formed. You don't need to incorporate much air so stop as soon as you get a paste!
• Turn out the dough, dust with flour and roll into a log 3-4cm in diameter, and then wrap in cling film before leaving in the fridge for at least an hour.
• Whilst the dough is chilling, chop or ground the pistachios finely, but leaving a few chunkier pieces. Scatter onto a tray.
• Brush the log with egg and roll in the pistachios (this is messy) and re wrap with clingfilm. Leave to set in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 150oC.
• Remove clingfilm and cut log into slices of 5-10mm thick. Layout on baking parchment, with spaces of approx. 2cm between.
• Sprinkle with vanilla sugar, and put in oven.
• Bake for approx. 20 minutes, and should remain golden. Remove from oven, and allow to cool before storing in a sealed jar.

Bye!

(P.S. These pictures were taken with my new camera, you like?!??)


Fuchsiaforest on twitter, instagram, pinterest, tumblr and *bloglovin*.

Lemon cupcakes

My baking posts historically have extremely inventive titles, so here's another one for you...

A couple of weeks ago I made these lemon cupcakes, and thought I would share with you the pictures I took. They are very yummy, and whilst they did go a bit wrong, it was my fault! Also, seeing these pictures I took outside is so strange- the patio I took them on is now covered in a foot of snow! This recipe makes between 12 and 24 cakes, depending on how much you fill each with, and what size cases you use. They are quite unhealthy, but they're healthier than chocolate cupcakes, which is good enough an excuse for me!

*For the cakes*

• 110g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 225g golden caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 150g self-raising flour, sifted
• 125g plain flour, sifted
• 90ml milk
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon single/double cream

*For the icing*

• 200g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 500g icing sugar, sifted

*Equipment*

• 2 12-hole muffin trays with cases
• 2 large mixing bowls
• Electric hand mixer
• Bowl
• Jug
• 2 spoons
• 2 teaspoons
• 1 knife
• Oven

*THE RECIPE* (cakes)

1. Preheat oven to 160oC fan/180oC/gas mark 4, and line tins with cases.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until smooth and pale with your mixer, in a large mixing bowl.
3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing between each addition.
4. Combine the flours in a separate bowl.
5. Combine the milk, lemon juice and cream in a jug.
6. Add 1/3 of the flour to the original mixture and beat well.
7. Add 1/3 of the liquids and beat well.
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 until all incorporated.
9. Add the lemon zest.
10. Spoon mixture into cases. Each one should be 2/3 full.
11. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until golden brown and slightly brown. Basically until they're cooked and won't kill you (which they won't).
12. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before icing.

*THE RECIPE* (icing)

1. Beat together the butter, lemon juice, lemon zest and half the icing sugar in a large mixing bowl.
2. Gradually add the remainder of the icing sugar. Result should be smooth and creamy.
3. Ice cupcakes, I use this piping bag, and I really like it.
4. Ta-dah!

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A day in London #1

Last Sunday I went up to London with my family, and thought I would share a picture or two. I love going up to London, so sharing my day with you may become a bit of a series, if you all like the idea? Anyway, this particular time my brother and dad were going up to watch Arsenal play, so my mum and I were left to roam London. I didn't really want to go shopping, so we had a somewhat cultural day...

We spent most of the day in the V&A Museum, which was really great, but unfortunately no picture territory. I did take some pictures in the cafe, but I'm still a bit short for my camera and the pictures I took weren't great. We looked at the theatre and performance and fashion sections, along with some medieval art work, and then sat down in the cafe. As I said, the pictures unfortunately went badly, but I had a very nice hot chocolate, and very lemony lemon drizzle, whilst my mum had a scone and tea. We were both impressed. We then had a wander around Covent Garden, but here's the good bit.

Leon.

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Because we were a bit late, we got a takeaway from Leon, and ohmygosh it was great. Leon is quite a big chain, but I've never been and it was rather scrumptious indeed.

Mainstream takeaways tend to be quite unhealthy, but as they go this one was pretty nutritious. I got
the haloumi burger, and I would definitely rate it. A spelt roll (always better than white), lots of delicious haloumi, rocket, gherkin and pepper. Obviously, my brother had the unhealthiest option, but I'm not going there. It was one of the best chain burgers I've had, although they had ran out of chips, which is not cool, sorry guys.

Please let me know if you like these kind of posts!

Fuchsiaforest on twitter, instagram, pinterest and tumblr.

red velvet cupcakes

 

hello!

i planned to have a really cool, inventive title for this post, but couldn't think of one. so this 'book' is exactly what it says on the 'cover', and i'm going to be sharing with you these scrummy red velvet cupcakes i made at the weekend...

 

just before i start, i'd like to say that a) i am now better, yay! and b) this is my first foody post so please tell me how to improve!

 

i'm not going to pretend i made this recipe up, as it's way too technical (it has oil, and bicarbonate of soda in it!) for me to work out in my head, so i used a recipe from the hummingbird bakery. you can find the recipe online here, as i followed it exactly.

 

 

 they are delicious, and i would definitely recommend you make them. to present, i just piped the icing on using my piping bag, and then crumbled a spare cupcake over the top for a nice bit of contrast! i also used these spring-y cases in different colours!

 

 

 they're just the perfect not-so-healthy snack, and it's a really great recipe!
hopefully my next food post will be a bit more than sending you to a recipe but i'm better at creating savoury rather than sweet recipes.

bye!

fuchsiaforest on twitter, instagram, pinterest and tumblr.