For about 20 units. Serves 6

Ingredients:

150g Self-rising flour
1 pinch of salt
100ml water
Zest of 1 whole lime

Method:

Mix everything in the bowl. Sieve the flour in a large bowl, add the salt and the lime. Mix well, then, add the water and work the dough to obtain a lump free stretchy dough.

Cover the dough and leave it to rest for 10 minutes.

Meantime, heat about 300ml of vegetable oil. If you’ve got a chip pan, use it. What we are looking for, is to have enough oil so the dough ball will rise to the surface within seconds after being dropped in the oil. The oil should be really hot.

To test that the oil is hot. Drop in a very small piece of dough. If it stay on the bottom of the pan. Leave it to heat well and do another test.

Once the oil is hot. Cut the dough in small pieces and put them into the oil… 5-10 piece at a time depending on the size of your pan. Fry for 3-5 minutes until the balls are brown all over. PS: You won’t be able to use a knife to cut the dough… you will have to be creative with a spoon or your fingers… It is a very sticky dough.

Using a skimmer (that big cooking spoon with holes like a colander) remove the now browned dough from the oil and put them on tissue/absorbing paper. Repeat until all done.

Can be served warm just rolled in granulated sugar.

I served mine with a lime syrup. The recipe will be in the next post. But you can also pipe jam or hazelnut chocolate in the individual dough ball…

This recipe was created as part of a Mexican menu made for www.MadeByHortense.com. Enjoy!

Hot dishes, Recipes

Herbs and garlic potatoes

September 28, 2015 Hortense 2 Comments

Serves 5

Ingredients:

800g tinned new potatoes
40g fresh parsley
3 garlic cloves
Olive oil
Salt and black pepper

Method:

Ideally, the tinned new potatoes should be eaten as is, just warmed up or deep fried to give it a bit of hardness and colour. I roasted mine.

Drain the potatoes, halve them, put them in an oven dish and add a hand full of chopped parsley and minced garlic. Add a pinch of salt and black pepper. Also add 3 tablespoon of olive oil. Toss to mix and place the dish in the oven for 1 hour at 200°C.

Done. Better not reheat it. Any left overs can be added to a cold salad.

I served mine with a ratatouille. Enjoy.

This recipe was made as part of the foodbank menu for http://www.MadeByHortense.com

Hot dishes, Recipes

Sausages Ratatouille with marrowfat

September 21, 2015 Hortense Leave a comment

Sausage ratatouille w/marrofat — Sausage ratatouille w/marrowfat

Recipe serves 5

Ingredients:

300g tinned ratatouille
330g drained marrowfat
5 hotdog sausages each cut in 4 (chicken wings might be a better option if buying meat)
3 twigs of fresh thyme or pinch of dry thyme
100g onion
1 garlic clove
Vegetable oil
Salt & Pepper (or chilli flakes)

Method:

Dice the onion and garlic. Quarter the sausages. Rinse the marrow fat and set all aside separately.

Heat 3 tablespoons if vegetable oil. Fry the thyme, onion and garlic together for 1 minute then add in the sausages and fry until the latter are golden. Stir often to allow all sides of the sausages to brown. This will also allow the meat to absorb the Garlic and onions flavours.

Once the sausages are brown, add the marrowfat and ratatouille as well as 200ml water and black pepper (or chilli flakes). Cover to simmer for 5-10 minutes just to heat up the marrowfat and ratatouille and allow them to absorb the flavours already there. The sausages can be very salty, you might want to wait until the end before adding salt if needed).

I served this with the roasted potatoes on the next post… Tinned potatoes.

Bon appetit!

Recipe created as part of a foodbank menu for www.MadeByHortense.com.

Recipes, Sweet

Apricot crumble with golden desiccated coconut

September 14, 2015 Hortense 2 Comments

Crumble for 5

Ingredients:

2 tins drained halved apricots
8 teaspoons white sugar
100g desiccated coconut (optional)
225g ready crumble mix
Salt
Butter
Instant custard

Method:

Preheat the oven at 190°C.

As the oven heats up, lay the coconut on a baking tray and roast until golden. This should take 5 to 8 minutes at 190°C. Don’t forget to stir with a spatula every minutes on 1 and half minute or so to even out the golden colour. Once the coconut is roasted, remove the tray from the oven and allow to cool down before transferring into a bowl. Set aside.

Drain the apricots halves set aside.

Rub a generous amount of butter in all the ramekins including base and sides. Set aside.

In a small bowl, mix 8 teaspoons of sugar with 3 teaspoons of the golden coconut and two small pinches of salt. Mix well then spoon in each of the 5 ramekins 2 generous teaspoons (heaps) of the mix.

Once that is done, layer tightly in the ramekins 5 to 7 halved apricots. Sprinkle a pinch of roasted coconut on top of the apricot before covering everything with the crumble mix.

Place the individual crumble ramekins in the middle of the oven for 40 minutes at 190°C.

Keep an eye on it as you won’t want the tops to burn. Ideally, around 30 minutes into the baking, the sugar should start to brown and bubble up then make its way to the top of the crumble.

The other 10 minutes in the oven will allow the sugar at the bottom of the pot to caramelize. Using clear glass ramekin will help you to see thru the changes in the pudding.

The custard used here is a custard that just needed boiling water. It wasn’t too sweet and helped to lessen the sweetness of this pudding…

Serving suggestion - Custard on the side — Serving suggestion – Custard on the side

Serve (hot or cold) as suggested dusted with the remaining golden coconut. Enjoy!

Recipes, Uncategorized, Vegan

Homemade chili croutons

September 7, 2015 Hortense Leave a comment

Ingredients:

5 slices of brown bread – or any left overs bread
Chili flakes
Black pepper
Salt
Olive oil

Method:

Heat the oven at 180°C.

Cut the bread in squares like on the photo. Place on the oven tray and season with chilli, salt, pepper, oil. Mix well and bake for 15 minutes at 180°C. Don’t forget to stir as you bake. This will allow all the sides to dry out and crisp.

Making croutons is one of the best ways to use bread that is about to go off. They will keep for 3-4 weeks in a sealed container.

Another version of the crouton can be used a replacement for cereals. Mix about half a teaspoon of sugar in 1 table spoon water… drizzle the mix over the bread cubes, toss and bake dry for 15-20 minutes at 180°C.

For the cereal version, feel free to add flavouring in the water/sugar mix… a drop of cinnamon or vanilla essence would be great!

Enjoy.

I used my savoury croutons to finish off the soup posted in the previous recipe. And for the cereal version? Just add milk.

PS: original recipe created as part of the foodbank menu on http://www.MadeByHortense.com

Hot dishes, Recipes

Tinned asparagus, spinach and parsley soup

August 31, 2015 Hortense 2 Comments

Soup for 5 people with home-made croutons

Ingredients:

50g fresh parsley
265g drained spinach – 1 small tin
244g drained asparagus – 1 small tin
10g fresh ginger
50g onion
Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 heaps tablespoon dry milk
2 stock cubes

Method:

Dice onion, garlic and ginger. It is preferable to grate the ginger if you can. If you do not have a grater, finely chop it, then bash to bring out it full flavour.

Removed parsley leaves from the stalk, rinse and chop. Set aside. Drain the spinach and asparagus, leave them for 5-10 minutes in the sieve to allow as much liquid from the tin as possible to drain away.

Prepare the stock; place the stock cubes to dissolve in 800ml of boiling water and stir in the dry milk until all the granules have dissolved set aside.

In a deep pan, heat 3 tablespoons oil and fry for two minutes the ginger, onion and garlic.

Add the asparagus, spinach salt and pepper then simmer until the all the water evaporates. This will take about 5 minutes to 7 minutes on medium heat. Do not cover the pan.

Add the stock and bring the contents of the pan to boil until it no longer foams. That will take another 5 minutes.

Taste and adjust the seasoning. Now add the parsley and simmer for just 3 minutes to wilt it. Do not let the parsley lose its colour.

Remove the pan from the heat and using a hand blender, liquidize the content of the pan until smooth before serving as suggested with the croutons.

PS: Recipe created as part of a foodbank menu specially made for www.MadeByHortense.com. Find on there more recipes for inexpensive themed eats and meals for the family. The foodbank menu can be found here http://madebyhortense.com/2015/05/31/next-a-foodbank-menu/

Enjoy!

See the Croutons recipe on the next post.

Recipes, Sweet, Vegan

Tinned tropical fruits sorbet

August 24, 2015 Hortense 4 Comments

I chose to do a tropical sorbet because it is very practical and innovative way to use tinned fruit. I find that tinned fruits often have an after taste. In a sorbet form the after taste disappears.

Ingredients for 500ml sorbet:

1 small tropical fruits tin 410g
1 small carton Guava juice 200ml
1 table spoon sugar granules
Zest of ½ an unwaxed lime

Method:

This sorbet was made the old fashion way; a fork, patience, and elbow grease. This version is for people without ice-cream maker.

Open the tropical fruits tin, drain the fruits and discard the syrup.

Using a hand blender, liquidise the fruits and add the guava juice. Add the sugar and zest. Mix well until the sugar granules melt.

Pour the mix in a plastic container with lid and place it in the middle section of the freezer for 1 hour 30 minutes.

After that, bring out the container and break the ice/sorbet crystals that are starting to form with a fork or a hand blender. I used a fork throughout as I wanted the lime zest specks to still be visible at the end. So, mix well and return the container in the freezer. If you do care about the lime specks, just use the hand blender instead.

Breaking the sorbet crystals with a fork

Repeat the process 2 more times before the sorbet is ready to serve.

If you are not serving it right away, after breaking the ice/sorbet crystals 3 times, return the bowl in the freezer. If you serve the sorbet 5, 10 hours later or the next day, take the bowl out of the freezer 15 minutes before hand. That way, the sorbet won’t be too hard to scoop out.

Enjoy!

PS: this foodbank related recipe was part of current series I am presenting on Croydon Radio. For further information go to http://www.MadeByHortense.com. The Sorbet is in the Mexican menu.

General, Hot dishes, Recipes, Sweet, Vegan

Next, a foodbank menu

June 7, 2015 Hortense Leave a comment

Next, a foodbank menu.

Cold dishes, Recipes, Sweet, Vegan

Pumpkin seed and oats cake

February 19, 2015 Hortense Leave a comment

Ingredients for 7 – 8 portions:

Oat, sugar and tinned fruits are from the parcel

100g pumpkin seeds
100g breakfast oats
100 self raising flour
50g sugar
salt
50g dairy free butter – melted
200ml rice milk
175g mandarin segments
1 teaspoon baking powder

Method:

Heat the oven at 200C.

Drain the mandarin segments and set them aside. Do not throw away the syrup.

Using a blender, blend together at once, the pumpkin seeds, oats, 40g sugar, melted butter, 200ml milk. Once that is done, pour the mix in a bowl and sieve in the self raising flour and the baking powder. Add in a pinch of salt and mix until the batter is completely lumps free.

If you’ve got ramekins, grease them then spoon in each of them 3 to 4 tablespoons of the cake mix.

Place a segment of mandarin in some of the ramekins before putting them in the oven at 200C for 25 minutes. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

In the meantime, prepare the mandarin sauce with a pinch of dried ginger powder. Melt the remaining 10g of sugar in as small milk pan. Let it go slightly golden then add in the mandarin segments with ginger and 3 table spoons of the mandarin syrup. Keep stirring until the liquid has evaporated and the remaining liquid is slightly heavy. This should take about 5 minutes.

The Mandarin sauce

Serve as suggested below and allow the cake to soak in a bit of the sauce. Enjoy.

Recipes, Sweet

Christmassy Victoria

December 22, 2014 Hortense Leave a comment

I was invited for an interview on Croydon Radio and decided to take a dish from the book with me, so I made a Christmassy version of the Victoria cake. You can listen to the interview here It is a 2hrs show with DJ Tom C I am on from 1h20mins.

Please click here to see the full recipe for the sponge cake.

To make is Christmassy, you will need:

1 quarter of a small pomegranate
2 kiwis
1 small pack of crispy M&Ms
3 plastic holy bush leaves
Strawberry jam
12g Dr Oetker Jelly granules

This cake will serve 8 to 10 people with a portion worth 25 to 60p depending on if you are on a low budget or get your ingredients from a foodbank.

Shopping:

If I had most ingredients from a Foodbank, my extras would be as follows:

The sponge mix 25p, I got 3 pomegranates from my local street market for £1 so the quarter I have used only cost me 10p.

From the same market I got 20 Kiwis for £1.00 so, using 2 of them cost me 10p.

I found the holy bush on a Christmas wreath I found in the 99p store lets value the leaves at 10p

Then the M&Ms pack at 70p and the pack contains about 30 pieces. I used 3p worth for my cake.

All the extra used total up to less than £1.00.

If I was on a low budget my shopping list would be:

Cake mix is 25p from Sainsbury’s, dark chocolate is 79p from Lidl, butter (Stork) cost £1 and a good quality jam costs 99p to £1 either at the 99p or pound shop. I could also use supermarkets’ own brand at less than 50p. I got my pack of eggs from the 99p store. A pack of 10 fresh eggs at 99p and I only needed 2 of them as I needed 4 sponge cakes to stack.

Prep:

Before you start making the cake and chocolate covering, make sure that all the prep is done as all goes very quick once the sponge is baked.

Kiwis: peel rinse and cut them as neatly as you can. Dab them with kitchen tissue and set aside.

Pomegranate: cut and gently remove the jewels without popping them. Gently rinse and place on a kitchen towel to dry.

Holy leaves: cut and remove the inside of the leaves as you will only use the out lines. Rinse and set aside.

Method:

Now that all the prep is done, follow the instructions on here… after you have covered the cake with chocolate, give it 2 to 3 minutes, then, start decorating. You have to wait for the chocolate to set a bit to avoid the decoration sliding off the top of the cake.

First place the Kiwis in the centre and hold them there with a tooth pic.

Now carefully place the leaves and fill them with the grenade jewels, then, the M&Ms. Tap each item gently to make them stick on the chocolate.

Place all in the fridge for 10 minutes. Meanwhile prepare the jelly. The jelly will help to glue every element of the decoration to the cake and also prevent the fruits from looking pale.

To prepare the jelly, place 1 sachet of jelly in a small cup and add 5-7 table spoons of boiling water then stir quickly until all the granules melt.

Immediately get your cake out of the fridge and using you patisserie paint brush gently paint your fruits with the jelly. Just one layer will do. Place the cake back in the fridge and it will be ready to serve in 30 minutes.

The Bank Cook's Christmassy Victoria — The Bank Cook’s Christmassy Victoria

If you can, get the children involved and they will have fun doing it.

Et voila! You are done! Hap-pee Christ-Mass!

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Welcome

Bunoelos – Mexican dough

Herbs and garlic potatoes

Sausages Ratatouille with marrowfat

Apricot crumble with golden desiccated coconut

Homemade chili croutons

Tinned asparagus, spinach and parsley soup

Tinned tropical fruits sorbet

Next, a foodbank menu

Pumpkin seed and oats cake

Christmassy Victoria

I may not have much, but, I am Royalty.