The Blog is Moving!!!!!

Stress not dear friends, the blog is not closing down, it's just moving to a new address.... same great blog just in a new home and a bit better design (I HOPE!!!) so please chase it and re-follow or join up and help to get the readership cracking!!!! 


http://beas-kitschen.blogspot.com/   


oxoxoxox

Obi Wan wisdom...

Well I know christmas has come and gone quicker then ever this year. Is this growing age or something greater and more cosmic? I can't decide but this year the festive season has come and gone before I could impart any of my very limited knowledge to you. What you did get is a good cake which is quite frankly, I think, a pretty decent little stocking filler. So for the wisdom, it's not much but it is valuable. What I've learned in my few short years of cooking and throwing parties and general arseing about is that you need a repertoire of food that is timeless, flawless and most importantly effortless. Think minimum input for maximum output. You need things that are easy to prepare that look great but don't nessercerily take too much toil. So for my belated gift to you, my next few food blogs are all going to be little party stunner's that you can whip out at any time and are simple saviours. I've love all of them and that's why I pass them on to you, like gorgeous little knowledge gems, like I'm Obi Wan and your my young Padawan (yes, I love Star Wars, deal with it!) This christmas I wanted little nibbles for the table to have with endless cups of tea and I don't think you can really beat truffles. You can flavour them with anything you can think of and they are only limited by how much imagination you have. My repertoire is based around three, one for white, milk and dark chocolate. My personal favourite is dark chocolate and for that I flavour it with ginger, orange and Tia Maria. Its a winning combination and could if you pleased be broken down to just include one of the flavours but I urge you to try them together, a complete winner! So number one in my 10 saviours of parties is Orange, Ginger and Tia Maria truffles. 


Ingredients: (makes around 30-40 depending on how generous you are)

• 220g of dark chocolate, good quality minimum 60% cocoa
• 220ml of single cream
• large thumb sized piece of ginger
• 3tbsp of tia maria, this can be upped to 4tbsp of tia maria if you like it a little stronger, I like it to be subtle- its a taste thing and is up to your preference
• 2tbsp of orange juice 
• cocoa powder

1. peel and grate your ginger, do this on a plate or chopping board so that you can collect all that delicious juicy pulp
2. in a heavy bottomed pan, place your grated ginger pulp, tia maria, orange juice and cream. 
3. slowly and gently warm the cream. never let the cream boil but warm till just before bubbling. the slow warming process really helps to infuse the flavours
4. while the cream is warming, put the chocolate into a bowl and smash it to little bits! - fun!! 
5. when the cream is warmed through, pour it through a sieve over your smushed chocolate and mix the two together
6. once you have swirled the two together you should be left with a dark chocolate gloop. pour the chocolatey mess into a large, shallow dish and put in the fridge to set
7. after around two hours you should be left with a glossy, firm slab of chocolate. all you then need to is scrape out a blob of chocolate, around the size of a grape and roll it between your palms. work quickly before the chocolate starts to melt and then pelt the ball into a plate of cocoa powder and roll it around with a fork or spoon or polly pocket- anything you like, though I would suggest sticking to the fork really....
8. once the truffle is suitably covered set it aside and continue until there is no chocolate left and all that remains is a mound of beautifully dark chocolate pebbles. eat and eat and eat more - perfik!  

other incarnations are fresh mint infused dark chocolate rolled in chopped nuts or white chocolate with a little baileys then covered with a layer of crushed to a fine dust snap, crackle and pops: bizarre sounding I know, but by-gum it works! As I said the possibilities are literally limited by your imagination, so play and find your favourite, but try these, you will not regret and you will have a table full of very happy, quiet guests. bliss. 

                                                    xoxoxox

 

no to pudding, yes to cake?

As i said in my flourless chocolate cake blog, I dont really sign up to the whole christmas pudding deal but since it was left in my hands to dole out this years christmas meal, quite frankly my much cherished grandad would have gone home were there not something that at least winked towards a traditional christmas desert; so something had to be done. So christmas puddings take months and months to make and I simply refuse to buy ready made things for christmas dinner. I know someday this will probably change and I can see why million of people do buy in ready roasties and already prepared veg, I don't judge anyone for it and there are some really great shortcuts out there but I'm lucky enough that I have enough surplus time to prattle about for a few hours and do everything homemade, so for now i will. So with a christmas pudding out the window a christmas cake was slightly more plausible. Its a lot simpler to make, it doesn't require as much time and as I did, I think you can jazz it up a bit more and just look that bit more special. I will properly blog the recipe at some point but it's long and fiddily and I want to have a look at it and make it as simple and straight forward for you to follow, so for now I'm just going to wet your whistle with a little picture. Enjoy! 

have your cake and eat it

For someone who writes a food blog, christmas should be an uber busy time. It's a time for food and I should be doling out recipes left right and center but i think it's a bit pointless writing about how to cook a brussle sprouts. Most people generally know how to cook them (if you don't, my answer is briefly) and I want to be able to write something a little more different. This years been a strange one and I see christmas as my way to say goodbye to it. I guess most people think that that's what New Years Eve is for, but to me that's more about excitement for the coming year and what that holds, over remembering and saying goodbye to the one passed. So with the last few weeks been slightly strange for me and a little low, I didn't want a typical christmas, I wanted what any sane person would want... an ultra sparkly, pink and glitter; chocolate laced, alice in wonderland themed christmas shindig obviously. How had you not guessed sooner? My main grumble and I don't have many when it comes to christmas as I am still a complete woman-child, is christmas pudding; quite frankly I dont get it. I know that to some, most even, that not liking christmas pudding is like not liking christmas itself, its one of the christmas main-stays but after a glutinous lunch I can just never muster up the courage to  attack one with any gusto. So this year, I simply didn't make one. I didn't even entertain the idea. I had something much more exciting I think. I present to you the words- flourless, chocolate and cake. It makes perfect sense if you think about it. You can put all those beautiful  flavours into something saintly and light and avoid all that stodge that renders you slightly unconcious for the next 5 or 6 hours. The original recipe didn't have the almond crust but I have always wanted to try out the idea since I saw it on a cake by the mother of modern cooking- Julia Child. Since the cake is almond based anyway, I think its just helping to enhance the flavours already there and it gives a nice crunch and texture. This cake is, in a way, a bit of a homage to Ms Child but with a  modern twist, I don't think she would mind too much as long as Julia said, you have the "courage of your convictions about you"

                                    

For the cake:

• 150g dark chocolate, chopped
• 150g soft unsalted butter, plus some for greasing
• 6 eggs
• 250g caster sugar
• 4tsp cocoa powder
• 100g ground almonds
• 4 teaspoons icing sugar
• 1 x 23cm springform or other round cake tin 
• 2 tbsp of Tia Maria
• zest of an orange and 2 tbsp of its juice 

For the ganache and decoaration:

• 200g dark chocolate, min 60% cocoa
• 230ml single cream
• 1tbsp Tia Maria
• 150g toasted almonds

1. preheat your oven to 180°C and line your cake tin with greaseproof paper on the bottom and butter on the sides.
2. melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water. I don't like doing it in a microwave as i think it can catch and burn to easily and spoil the cocoa quality, but if your comfier doing it that way then do, just pay a little more attention to it and keep checking and stirring! leave the mix to cool a little.
3. beat the eggs and sugar together until they are pale, doubled in size and beautifully moussey. this is best done in either a free stranding mixer or with an electric whisk. it could be done with a hand whisk but this would take dedication and muscle that I just don't have.
4. GENTLY, GENTLY, GENTLY, fold the ground almonds, cocoa powder, tia maria and orange zest and juice into your egg and sugar mixture followed finally by your cooled, melted chocolate and butter.
5. pour the mix into your prepared cake tin and bake! It can take anywhere between 30-45 minutes completely depending on your oven. start checking at 30 minutes by gently prodding the top of the cake it should be firm on top but still almost yielding underneath with a slight squash and wobble
6. remove the cake from the oven once cooked and leave to cool for around 10 minutes on a wire rack.
7. once the cake has lost its initial heat, after around 1o minutes; drape a clean tea towel over the top and let it cool in the tin. the tea towel helps to stop the cake going crusty on the top and helps it to retain lovely moisture in the center, giving it a centre that is a unique cross between a firm mousse and a soft fudge- strange but completely satisfying. The top of the cake, due to its lack of flour will sink slightly and give a cracked surface with desert like fault-lines. Don't worry about this, I think it adds to its character anyway.
8. while your cake is cooling you can make your ganache.  simply melt together the tia maria, chocolate and single cream in a bowl suspended over some boiling water stirring slowly but regularly.
9. once the cream and chocolate have combined, leave the mixture to cool so it firms slighlty. Your looking for texture like smooth peanut butter. 
10. remove the cake from its tin and move it onto a cake turntable if you have one or if not a plate covered in clingfilm. I would suggest putting clingfilm over your turntable also, it just helps when your ready to move the cake to its cakeplate or whatever your serving it from as it gives you something to grip onto without having to touch the cake and risking damage to it
11. give your cake a generous dusting of icing sugar till gloriously wintry white 
12. with a pallet knife spread the outer edge with a thick layer of your chocolate ganache mortar.
13. finally and my tip is to use a teaspoon as your hands get too chocolatey and spoil the pale glory of your almonds, take spoonfulls of almonds and press them onto the side of the cake using the chocolate ganache as your glue. all you then need do is move the cake to its final resting place, slice and munch, munch, munch. this cake is ridiculously addictive, amazing for parties and a simple and beautiful treat. compulsive baking! 

sometimes when there are no words, pies will do....

xoxox

fake illness hair!

As you know, for what seems like an absolute age, I've been trying to sort out this whole henna/peroxide debacle. Well if you don't the short story is that I dyed my hair with henna but then didn't think about the fact that hair grows... The henna isn't strong enough to cover my roots and your not technically supposed to put a regular home hair dye with peroxide on your noggin as it can A-turn your hair pond green or B-sort of, a bit, make your hair fall off. So for a while I've been rocking some very strange two tone striped hair....not my best look! The thing is, I actually couldn't put up with the ridiculous hair much longer, I was making Katie Waissle's roots look subtle, so I dyed it! First of all I would never recomend to anyone to go against the safety instructions on hairdye as you can have ridiculously awful allergic reactions but I did it... and I have never been so terrified in my whole life! I decided a strand test was the way to go as at least if my hair did start to fall out, it would be underneath and no one would see it. A good plan I know. Well from putting it on to washing it off I became a compete and utter bag of nerves and completely convinced that my arms were starting to go numb, that my neck was swelling and that my vision was ever so slightly impaired. I am complete hypercondriac and nothing was in the slightest way wrong with me at all but it was honestly the scariest 30 minutes of my life. Luckily and I think its because I had left my hair for so long that the henna was pretty weak, it was a great success and I am now sporting some glorious un-rooty locks. So hurrah for me really but if you are in a similar henna based situation please do a strand test as so few ladies can pull off bald or pondy... 

xoxox

happier times!!

This week my little Charlie turned 2. Well not "my" little Charlie as I am happily childless and a bit scared of kids as a rule.... but my best friends son. Charlie is one of the few exceptions to my scary child rule and is a joy to be around, I'm going to say 98% of the time...there's just the other 2% where we wonder if we should just sell him and have done with it. Possibly one of my favourite things about him is that the boy likes cake and is a good tester with a definite sense of what he likes, much room for failure, hard to impress. So slightly scary was the task when Charlotte (his mumma and my partner in crime) asked me to bake his birthday cake. Now I know its a child's birthday cake so usually it consists of the old Victoria Sponge malarkey, which is great BUT that 'aint cutting the mustard so i had to whip a little something special out of my icing bag. So I dug out my trusty Peggy Porschen "Chic Cake" book, this is the place where I got my faux wedding cake from and it made a happy return. I wanted to show you all something a bit different, so instead of the Victoria Sponge, we have ladies and gentlemen, a Chocolate Orange Marble Cake. His party isn't till tomorrow so I'm going to try and get you some pictures of everyone having a munch but if it tastes as good as it looks (for my second iced cake anyway...) Im going to be a happy bunny and hopefully so is my little bubs! 

xoxox

the kitchen dream

For years it has been my dream to own a Kitchenaid mixer. I know this is slightly sad, okay I know this is very sad and not quite a Bayswater or a Birkin, but I think they are one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen and bloody Lawson has one in every colour it would seem! I just want one!! Witch!!!  I'm sorry Nigella I take that back as I'm a little bit in lady love with you and never really meant it, but still 3!!! Unfair... but with a price tag of £390 this is sort of the reason that I don't quite own one yet, but a lady can dream right? So whilst doing a bit of kitchen equipment perving this morning I found some other treats that I don't think my kitchen will ever be quite complete without...

xoxox

lack of posting...

So there has been a complete and utter breakdown on bloggy communication for a few days.... Unfortunately my Grandma, my little Betty, passed away last week and it has sort of left me with a bit of a void.... Not a lady for cats; she hated them, not a lady for hairdye; she got to the age of 81 without never going near the stuff, this was a  lady for cakes...and biscuits and cookies and flapjack and a million other things. She was a professional cook and I believe she is the reason behind my incessant feeding of people... No one ever went hungry near my little Betty and she moulded my childhood memories to involve me with some biscuit in my hand and crumbs round my mouth. I think this is something I'm trying to recreate with the man friend or any guest that dare cross my threshold, I want new crumby memories! I fear if me and the man ever do have children as they will most definitely grow to resemble that precocious, chocolate craving nit, Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fame, but with the hair of Annie. Such is my need to feed... So my inheritance came as all her cookbooks and cooking bowls. To me, though simple to some, I have inherited jewels and diamonds. Sadly some of the pages in the cookbooks are being eradicated by 20 years of flour and butter and one of the victims is my ultimate childhood best friend, Chocolate Oat Delight. I have searched high and low through the internet and non match up and most include coconut....THIS IS NOT RIGHT!!! So I am pleading with any family members that could have the recipe to come forth and proclaim "I have oats for you!!!" and hopefully their recipe will match up with some of the tiny bits of visible text left in my cookbook. So for now I bid you farewell, I'm off to try and do a bit of remembering and text deciphering. We shall speak soon! 

things i cant get enough of at the mo....

xoxox

veggie dye- round 2!

I'm just about to attempt to dye my hair with the old veggie dye business.... wish me luck!

Then hopefully I'm going to be attempting to retro style it up a bit as it is paining me how I have let the bad weather affect my hair...bad Becka! 2 feet of snow shouldn't mean an unfortunate head! Pictures later!

xoxox

Red Velvet and Chocolate Heartache

For years now, it has been so, that a carrot seems to be the only real vegetable that we put in cakes and i still know people who find it odd! Carrots!! In Cakes?? Oh thats disgusting! - Yeah weird I know as carrot cake is probably my favourite cake out there. I was having a little mooch round a bookshop one ridiculously wet afternoon and needed some kind of soul revival due to the horrific weather and I saw Harry Eastwood's "Red velvet and Chocolate Heartache". Harry is part of the team behind the brilliant "Cook Yourself Thin" series which I was already a fan of. I was instantly brought in by the cover and had to have a good instore inspection and was won over and bought it immediately. I had heard a great deal about the book already that promises to supply bountiful bucketloads of flavour via a delivery van of vegetables. Yes, It has been deemed that it is not simply carrots that we can use in our cakes but a delectable host of veggies. So to the look, firstly for a girly girl like myself the book is heaven. The pictures are a smorgasbord of pink and glitter and flowers and fun and the cakes are beautifully, if not whimsically presented. Each chapter is colour coded and she works her way through a "who's who" of the stars of the book namely Aubergine, Beetroot, Squash, Courgette and Parsnip and each ones virtues. My first run out with the book was when "The Manfriend" was going away to work so I wanted to make him a sweet treat to send him on his way. The one that called out to me, for it's simplicity and quick construction as much as the taste was "Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cupcakes". Described by Harry as "that photograph of your sister or son, who, aged two and a half, is hiding in a corner of the birthday party with chocolate smeared all over their face". For as indulgent as this description is, It is actually completely correct. Its the shock as you bite into it, the surprise of the taste and the insistence that anyone watching you would remove themselves so you can return back to your chocolate universe undisturbed. The surprise punch in this knock-out cake is the vegetable itself. Possibly an obvious choice to substitute the carrot for, for its similar sweetness is a butternut squash. So here is my attempt, which for the evening was re-named the "Goodbye for Now Cupcake"

Makes 12
Ingredients:
100g unsalted peanuts (if you don't have a food processor to grind down the peanuts, simply replace them with ground almonds, they work just as well)
3 medium free-range eggs
200g light muscavado sugar
200g peeled and finely grated butternut squash
                                   (or pumpkin)
100g white rice flour
40g of best quality cocoa powder
                         (I like green and blacks...)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt


For the icing:
60g smooth peanut butter
2 tbsp of golden icing sugar, sieved
2 tbsp cocoa powder
pinch of salt
5tbsp boiling waters 


For the top:
small handful of roughly chopped peanuts or some grated dark chocolate

• preheat your oven to 180°C. Line your muffin tray with 12 paper cases
• blitz the peanuts in a food processor until totally ground into a fine, even powder 
• whisk the eggs and sugar for 5 minutes until a pale coffee colour and beautifully fluffy
• next whisk in the grated pumpkin, followed by the flour,cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and peanuts until everything is completely combined and lusciously covered 
• congratulate yourself on a thoroughly excellent whisking! .....my step not hers, but completely necessary
•  spoon the mixture into the paper cases so that it comes four fifths of the way up the sides then place in the oven for 30 minutes. Just as a note- my cakes took only 22 minutes so i would suggest checking them after the 20 mark by giving them a good prodding with a wooden skewer)
• remove the cakes from the oven and cool for 10 minutes in the tray and then transfer to the fridge and leave to cool completely
• To make the icing, mix the peanut butter, icing sugar,coca powder and salt with the back of a spoon to form a paste. Next slowly and gently incorporate the boiling water with a balloon whisk, one spoonful at a time. You get a smooth and delicious paste. Ice the cupcakes when completely cold and decorate with some roughly chopped nuts or some grated chocolate

To me though, the proof was in the pudding and the happy look on the man's face was enough for me, though getting him to let me photograph him was another story....

I was ridiculously happy with the cookbook which is just a joy to devour. It may be a bit self indulgent for some but I like self indulgent, I mean isn't that what this type of cooking needs to be; spoiling yourself and whoever it is your cooking for?! Where this book is indulgent in verse, it makes up for it in the shrewdness off calories and for a cupcake with chocolate and peanuts and icing all for less then 200 calories- I don't need to say anymore except for buy this book and treat yourself; your waistline will thank you! 

xoxox

sad blog!

Haven't blogged for a few days, but have been hoarding some great blog material such as Chocolate and Peanut butter cupcakes, luckily I had already uploaded those pic's BUT the dog has so kindly decided to bite through my phone/USB cable so I can't upload any more! ANNOYING! But E-bay has saved the day and a new cable is on it's way, though in this weather lord knows when its actually going to get here! That is all! 

omelette....

For brunch today, we had omelette, it was good :) 

xoxox

grandad crumble.....

Yesterday was monumental for 2 reasons. Firstly, apparently we are experiencing the earliest, heaviest snowfall for 17 years! Its crazy, I just thought it had finally stopped and then I looked out the window and its coming down again. The weather also seems to have something to do with my horrifically expanding waistline. It just makes me want to eat mashed potatoes and stew....constantly. I think I have put on approximately 90 stone, give or take a few pounds... but yes, nearly 90 stone. The second thing was that I actually got my grandad to come to my house for dinner! If you can get him to leave his own house and have something to eat you have a success on your hands of epic proportions. So with him coming over for his dinner there was some nostalgia hanging in the air I think, part grandad visit, part heavy snow! So for dessert I cooked up what is surely one of the classic childhood staples- the crumble. When I was a child though sadly it was usually apple crumble which i detest. Just based on the fact that I cant abide cooked apples! Don't like the the texture, that grainy baby pulp- blurgh! Now this crumble on the other hand, with its cheek suckingly sour berries and crunchy almond flaked topping is heaven! 

Ingredients- makes 4 deep filled individual pots or 1 large in a pie dish

• 600 grams of berries.  I used a frozen selection of raspberries, blueberries and morello cherries
• 3 tablespoons of caster sugar
• 150g of plain flour
• 1tsp of baking powder
• 110g of unsalted butter, cold and cubed
• 3 tblsp of vanilla sugar
• 3 tblsp of demerara sugar
• 50g or flaked almonds, half chopped, half whole

• preheat your oven to about 190°c 
• allow your fruits, if your using frozen ones to defrost and sieve off the juice that has come off. alot more will come off during the cooking and you want a thick sauce, not a watery mess. Stir in the 3 tablespoons of caster sugar and leave to rest and absorb 
• put the flour and the baking powder into a bowl and then rub in the cold cubed butter with your fingertips. You can't rub it with your palms or it will melt the butter and you wont achieve the sort of oatmeal texture that your looking for

• stir in your demerara and vanilla sugars then the 25g of chopped almonds with a fork so that you keep all the grains seperate and theres no clumping, then add the rest of the almonds and give it another quick forking

• divide the berries between their ramekins if thats what your using, or tumble them into a pie dish
• cover the pies with the crumble topping, making sure it goes right up to the outside edge of the dish so that the filling doesn't bubble up too much and give you a soggy topping
• put your ramekins or pie dish on a baking tray so that any juices that do bubble over don't run all over your oven and then bake for 30-40 minutes or till the topping is golden and scorched in places.
• remove, serve and enjoy! I like mine with vanilla ice cream.

xoxox

when i grow up.....

So when I grow up I actually want to be Joan from Mad Men. To me she just symbolises what I want, killer curves, killer wardrobe, killer Martini! I think if we were ever going to get close to a real life Jessica Rabbit, then Christina Hendrick's may just be the woman. I don't think I've ever had such a serious case of wardrobe envy since I first watched Ms. Monroe in "How to Marry a Millionaire"- I still want those amazing cats eye glasses! Also I believe her to have the most perfect shade of auburn hair ever- fact!! 
A few of my favourite classic Joan looks are

It's got bows, its got a print, its the most beautiful shade of almost prussian blue...amaze! 

the colour, the amazing thick material, heavy visable weave, the amazing neclkline and a brooch! how i love a brooch...

 pussybow blouse + pencil skirt = :) - always! 

Working nauticals and It wouldn't be a Joan outfit without the pen necklace. 

I've done a bit of searching and I've come up with some great pieces that can help you recreate a bit of Mad Men in your life, wether you just want to work a Joan brooch or are going for the whole ensemble! I am, now where's my drink??? 

Classic Pencil dress from http://www.daddyos.com

and it's a complete steal!

belted waist and fabulous neckline. Joan would so approve, and this just proves that red heads can pull off green! get it from http://www.pinupgirlclothing.com/

Vintage style brooch at a fraction of the price

http://www.boohoo.com/

Yes, these are Christian Louboutin but any Joan-a-like deserves the best!

and the outfit wouldn't be complete without the obligatory pen necklace. I found this one at http://www.etsy.com for $20 a tiny price to pay to be a true tribute! 

Right, I'm going now to salivate over Lady Hendricks dress collection a little bit more and then possibly hunt down some cats eye glasses!! 

xoxo

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

So its still snowing away here in Hull. I went out in the car today and a trip that usually takes about 10 minutes took me 50! Its a nightmare! So after a few days of this weather I have decided that I very much like the snow as long as I am inside and not actually anywhere near it.... It looks great through the windows but is just an epic fail when your in it. Someone who clearly doesn't agree with me is baby Winnie as she has turned into my little outdoor adventurer! 

xoxox

oh I heart so much!

These Marilyn Monroe pictures by Eve Arnold are just a bit lovely....this woman was so endearing, she sort of makes my day and breaks my heart at the same time....

xoxo