Chilli Cheese Scones

Since finding my holy grail of scone recipes in Grandma's cookbook last year I have been playing around with the dough and flavours. My Cookery Kids have very successfully made scones with this recipe and Grandma even professed my scones to be far superior than any you can buy from the local bakeries.

It's been an age since I've made savory scones, but recently I was on a course and for elevenses they served chilli cheese scones. They were so delicious I wanted to have a go at making them at home. Whenever I bake scones it always brings up the age old argument between Hubby & I as to how you pronounce it. I sc-on-e, Hubby says sc-own-e. Of course I think I'm right!

Now, the trick with scones is to not roll them out too thin. The thicker the dough, the more they will rise. I can highly recommend eating these warm from the oven with a generous slather of butter. Yum, yum.

Chilli Cheese Scones
Makes 9 medium scones

225g plain flour
40g butter
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
handful of mature cheese, grated
2 generous pinches of chilli powder
milk
1 egg, beaten
If you wish you can replace the bicarb and cream of tartar with 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder.

1) Sieve the flour, bicarb and cream of tartar into a basin. Rub in the butter, add the chilli and cheese. Gradually stir in milk 1 tbsp at a time until you have a smooth dough.

2) Turn out onto a floured surface and roll until about 2cm thick. Cut into rounds and place on a baking sheet covered with baking parchment. Brush the top of each scone with beaten egg. Bake at 200oc until golden and firm. Cool on a wire rack.

Basic Hard Cheese & Charity Jailbreak

Hubby's latest edible project, basic hard cheese, has been a month in the making. He found out how to make it on the Creative Living forum. I never realised cheese making involved such a basic process. It was very interesting to see the milk curdle then the emergence of thick curds that could be sliced like jelly and the whey in which the curds floated. I did try to get a picture of this process, but it just didn't work out. I challenge anyone to make curds & whey look photogenic! To help him mould the perfect round of cheese Hubby made a fancy looking cheese press.

Yesterday was tasting day, and I have to say it looks, smells and tastes like basic cheese. It has a slight eau d'sweaty socks...mmmm. He has some Penicillium Roqueforti, so the next challenge is to make blue cheese.

I promise the next post will not be about cheese making!

My brother is currently in France somewhere. He's taking part in a "Jailbreak" for charity where the aim is to get the furthest away and back from the starting point in 60 hours. No money is allowed. It's a case of blagging/begging/hitching as far as possible. So far they have blagged various train journeys within the UK, a night in a 4* hotel, food from KFC & McDonalds and a trip on the Eurostar. As far as I know his team are the only ones who have managed to leave the country. I think he's mad! The map below is tracking their progress.


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Curry Monday - Paneer

A few months back I tasted paneer in a curry for the first time and enjoyed it. Paneer is a non-melting, unaged cheese that is made by curdling hot milk with an acid (usually lemon juice). It has a mild flavour and like tofu has the ability to take on other flavours. For all you fellow science geeks out there, this is also the same process in which you make milk plastic

I used the curry base from Cashew Chicken, but replaced the chicken with paneer and chicken stock with water. It worked really well. Next time I will use Hubby's cheese press so it won't end up as thin, which in turn should mean it won't break up as easily during cooking. Interestingly different different parts of India have thier own paneer methods.

This Thursday I've been given the job of teaching some of the Junior kids all about Indian food. With only 2 hours and a microwave to hand I'm thinking of taking my range of spices in so the kids can smell them and we may make something like chutney or riata.

Paneer
Makes around 150g

1 litre of whole milk
2 tbsp lemon juice

1) Heat milk in a large saucepan until it is boiling. Add lemon juice and keep stirring. Eventually the milk will begin to curdle leaving you with curds (the solid) and whey (the liquid).

2) Sieve contents of saucepan through a fine sieve or muslin.

3) Turn out curds onto clean chopping board. Sandwich with another clean heavy chopping board and leave to set for 1 hour.

Courgette & Feta Fritters

It's SATs week at the moment so everything is very much up in the air and to throw another spanner in the works, Hubby has started a new job. When I get home from work I've been want something quick and easy to make without it being toooooo unhealthy. Hubby pointed out a recipe for courgette & feta fritters in Delicious a few days ago, so I took advantage of Hubby taking an interest in a veggie meal (which is rare!) and made my own version of the fritters tonight.

I'm not a huge fan of courgette as I find them boring and have slimy school dinner memories of them, but these fritters were really delicious and had a hint of onion bhaji to them. They must have been good as Hubby has requested them again soon!

Courgette & Feta Fritters
Makes 6 fritters

2 medium sized courgettes
1/4 tsp fine salt
4 spring onions, finely sliced
120g feta, cut into 1cm cubes
1 tbsp dried mint
2 eggs
40g plain flour
20g polenta
1 tbsp lemon juice
ground black pepper

1) Grate courgette into a bowl and stir in salt, this helps draw water out of the courgette. Put courgette into a sieve and allow to drain for 20 min. Squeeze courgettes to rid of excess water and drain on some kitchen paper.

2) In a bowl mix all of the ingredients, including the courgettes until thoroughly mixed.

3) Heat 1 tbsp of sunflower oil in a non-stick saute pan on a medium heat. Blob a tbsp of the fritter mix into the pan and flattern slightly. Cook 2-3 min each side until golden. Drain on a piece of kitchen paper.

Pea & Goat's Cheese Risotto

I took a break from my marathon baking session to make my dinner. I've only had risotto once before and that was in a restaurant so when the local supermarket decided to get with the times and stock risotto rice I decided I would give it a go.

It made a huge portion and I only managed to eat half of it. I enjoyed it to start but was fed up of it by the end. That could be due to me having a low boredom threshold when it comes to food. I prefer to have lost of different flavours on the plate rather than everything mixed together, I'm an odd one me! However saying that the rest will probably be my lunch tomorrow.

Pea & Goat's Cheese Risotto
Serves 1-2

1 tbsp olive oil
2 shallots, sliced
1 clove of garlic, sliced
200g risotto rice
50ml white wine
300ml hot chicken stock
50g frozen peas
50g goat's cheese
1 tbsp mint
2 tbsp creme fraiche
1 tbsp butter
seasoning

1) Gently fry shallots and garlic in the olive oil in a deep saucepan for 3 min. Add rice and stir for a further 2-3 until the rice is translucent.

2) Pour in the wine and turn up the heat until the wine is absorbed. Gradually add stock 1 ladle at a time, each time waiting for the stock to be absorbed before adding more.

3) Mix in peas, mint, half of the cheese, creme fraiche, butter and season. Leave for 2-3 min. Serve then garnish with the remaining cheese.

Beany Bacon Bake

The lovely aforkfulofspaghetti pointed me in the direction of this Nigel Slater recipe. The only alteration I made was to use a mix of haricot and kidney beans. Hubby enjoyed it so much he ate the portion I had put aside for my lunch tomorrow!

This type of food is very much called for at the moment. With the forecast of snow later on this week I need as much carbs as I can to survive the long playground duty on Friday. We take the kids out in all weathers, it's good to let them run off steam. Great if your nice and cozy in the staffroom drinking tea and slowly making your way through the biscuit tin, not so great if your stuck outside in a force 8 gale with little Rosie complaining Jane has stolen her skipping rope for the 5th time that morning...

Bacon & Mushroom Quiche

Continuing our theme of not-so-healthy dinners, I made a bacon & mushroom quiche for tea tonight. I admit I cheated slightly with the pastry. I can make really short pastry which is great for mince pies, but not so good with quiche so I picked up some ready made pastry in the shops. I've never really "baked blind" before and I forgot that pastry does sometimes shrink, but I managed to fit nearly all of the egg mix in. However I forgot that our oven is on a slight slant and the egg mix tipped out of the back of the pie and into the oven. Oh well!

Bacon and mushroom quiche
serves 4

pre-cooked pastry base
3 rashers of bacon, cut into pieces
5 mushrooms
3 eggs
100ml double cream
100ml milk
handful of grated mature cheddar
seasoning

1) Preheat oven to 160oc. Fry bacon and mushrooms until cooked. Sprinkle pastry base with cheese then bacon & mushroom

2) Whisk eggs, milk and cream together then season. Pour egg mix in base. Cook on a baking tray in the middle of the oven for 30-40 minutes.

Cauliflower Cheese & Bacon Pie

I've been wanting to make a pie for a while, but never really got around to it. I fancied a pie that wasn't your usual beef/chicken pie and came across a cauliflower cheese pie on the GFM website. To make it non-veggie for hubby I altered the recipe slightly and added some bacon. I was really tasty, creamy but light at the same time and we'll be certainly be having it again. I did use my alphabet cutters to put our names on top of the pies, but it hasn't shown up well on the photo. I served it with carrot and roast potatoes.

Cauliflower cheese and bacon pie
Serves 2

1/2 small cauliflower, cut into small florets
2 rashers of smoked back bacon, cut into small strips
3 spring onions, chopped
200ml creme fraiche
100g mature cheddar (I used Quickes cheddar)

seasoning

ready-made puff pastry

egg, lightly beaten

1) Preheat oven to 200oc. Fry bacon and spring onions until bacon is cooked. In a large bowl mix all of the ingredients together (apart from pastry) then spoon into pie dishes.

2) Roll out puff pastry to size of dishes then place on top. Pinch around the edges and use a knife to put 2 slits into each piece of pastry to stop it getting soggy underneath. Brush with a small amount of egg. Cook for 25-30 min.

Cauliflower Cheese Soup

Yesterday was a bit of a failed cookery day. Initially I was meant to make treacle scones, but was over enthusiastic with the black treacle and instead of a dough ended up with a cake-style mix so made some odd looking cup cakes. Then for tea I made saffron rice with chicken and peppers, Hubbie really liked it, but I thought it was tasteless and boring. I've promised hubbie that tonights tea will be tried and tested homemade beef burgers!

Today it's quite cold and surprise, surprise it's raining. This calls for good old soup with huge wedges of bread & butter.

Cauliflower cheese soup

Serves 6

knob of butter

1 onion finely chopped

1 cauliflower

1 potato, cut into chunks

500ml vegetable stock

400ml milk

100g mature cheese

1) Heat butter in large saucepan and cook onoin until softened. Add cauliflower, potato, stock milk and seasoning. Bring to boil and simmer for 30 min until cauliflower & potato is beginning to fall apart.

2) Mash with potato masher (or blitz if you don't like bits) stir in cheese and serve.

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