Cheesy Feet

Nigella made hers (& therefore named hers) using Feet cutters.  I used a Crocodile cutter and a Kangaroo one I have.  They are so easy to make and very tasty indeed.  (Monet loves them!)  I will be making batches more in times to come...

*Taken from Nigella Lawson's 'Feast', pg 253, published 2004*

Ingredients

100gm Cheddar cheese, grated

25gm soft butter

50gm plain flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

Method

Preheat the oven to gas mark 6/200C.

Put all of the ingredients into a food processor and blitz until the dough comes together.  Just be patient; it will happen, I promise you.  Form into a fat disc, wrap in clingfilm and let it rest in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Roll out the dough on a floury surface to roughly 3mm in thickness, and cut out your feet with your cutters.  You can keep re-rolling this dough and cutting out feet until it is all used up.

Put them on to a lined baking tray sheet and cook in the oven for 10-12 minutes (depending on size).  The biscuits will continue to crisp up as they cool on a rack, so take them out when they're still a little soft in the middle.

Crunchy Pork Chops

A nice coating to try on your pork chops next time...  I served mine with scalloped potatoes and roasted capsicums...

*Taken from Nigella Lawson's 'Feast', pg 345, published 2004*

Ingredients

2 x 250g pork chops

1 egg

1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

1/4 tsp dried oregano

50g breadcrumbs

1 tbs freshly grated Parmesan

250ml groundnut oil or similar for frying

Method

Trim the thick white fat off the pork chops, cutting carefully around the outside edge.  Lay the chops between two pieces of clingfilm and, using a mallet or a rolling pin, beat them until the meaty part of the chop is half as thick.  You will need to beat around the bone, so turn them over once as you go.

Beat the egg in a shallow wide bowl with the mustard, oregano and salt and pepper.  And, on a large plate or platter, combine the breadcrumbs with the Parmesan.

Press each of the chops into the egg mixture, coating both sides.  Then dip the eggy chops into the breadcrumbs, covering them evenly.  Let them lie on a wire rack to dry slightly while you heat the oil in a large frying pan.  When a small cube of bread sizzles if dripped into the oil, you can get frying.  You need to cook the chops until they're a deep golden colour, about 5-7 minutes a side (depending on how thin you've managed to get them and how cold they were before going into the oil).

Serves 2

Birthday Custard Sponge

This was really nice though I thought the cake seemed a little too 'egg-y' for my liking. Next time I make this recipe I will do away with the Buttercream Filling and use whipped cream instead. I have to say the Chocolate Icing was delicious. I used quality Milk chocolate (instead of dark) and the result reminded me a lot of the icing you get on chocolate jam donuts here in Australia.

*Taken from Nigella Lawson's 'Feast' published 2004*

Ingredients
-for custard sponge-
200g plain flour
3 tbs custard powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 eggs
225g soft butter
200g caster sugar
2-3 tbs milk

-for the Buttercream Filling-
125g icing sugar
4 tsp custard powder
75g soft unsalted butter
1 1/2 tsp boiling water

-for the Chocolate Icing-
60ml water
2 tbs golden syrup
125g caster sugar (or use 50g if using milk choc)
175g dark chocolate
Hundreds and Thousands

Method
-for the cake-
Make sure everything you need is at room temperature before you start. Preheat the oven to 180C and butter and line two 20cm sandwich tins.

Put all the ingredients except the milk, into a food processor. process to a smooth batter, and then add the milk a tablespoon at a time to make a soft dropping consistency. Divide between the two cake tins and bake for 20 minutes. The cakes will have risen and feel spookily puffy; this is because of the cornflour in the custard powder.

Let the tins sit on a cooling rack for 5 minutes and then turn them out on to the rack, peeling away the paper.

-for the Buttercream Filling-
Process the icing sugar and custard powder to get rid of any lumps, and then add the butter, processing again to make the buttercream come together. Feed the boiling water down the funnel with the motor running to make the filling easier to spread. Then sandwich the cooled sponges with the custardy buttercream.

-for the Chocolate Icing-
Combine the water, syrup and sugar in a saucepan, stirring to dissolve over a low heat. Let it come to the boil and then take it off the heat.

Break up the chocolate into small pieces if you are not using chocolate buttons, and then add to the pan, swirling it around to cover in the hot liquid. Leave to melt for a few minutes, and then whisk the icing to make it smooth and shiny. Pout over the buttercream filled cake, letting it drip down the sides, and then sprinkle generously with the hundreds and thousands before the icing sets.

One-Pan Sage-And-Onion Chicken and Sausage

I saw Nigella Lawson make this on her programme recently and thought it looked simple and tasty. It was. Next time I make this though I would add another onion to the pan. It was very simple to make... I served it with a green side salad and roast potatoes.

*Taken from Nigella Lawson's 'Feast', published 2004*

Ingredients
1 large onion or 2 small onions
125ml olive oil (she states not to use extra virgin but I did!)
2 tsp English Mustard
1 tbs dried sage
ground pepper
1 lemon
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 kg chicken, jointed into 10 pieces
12 sausages (I used Italian sausages)
2 tbs chopped sage leaves

Method
Peel and cut the onion into eighths, and put into a freezer bag with the oil, mustard, dried sage, a good grinding of pepper, the lemon juice, the squeezed-out husks cut into eighths, and the Worcestershire sauce. Squidge everything around to mix (the mustard needs help to combine) and then add the chicken pieces. Leave to marinate in the fridge overnight or for up to two days.
Preheat the oven to 220C. Allow the chicken to come to room temperature in its marinate.

Arrange the chicken pieces in a roasting tin, skin side up, with the marinade, including all the bits and pieces, and tuck the sausages around them. Sprinkle the fresh sage leaves over the chicken and sausages and then put the tin into the oven to cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn the sausages over halfway through to colour them evenly.

Arrange the chicken and sausages on a large platter.

Serves 6

Cupcakes

This recipe is probably one of the most simplest recipes to make and the result is usually pretty tasty too. Nigella uses a food processor, but because I (currently) don't have one, I use the mix master. I have actually made this recipe by hand too and works just as well, just a bit more muscle power is needed. I simply ice these cakes using a butter icing...

*Taken from Nigella Lawson's "How to be a Domestic Goddess", published 2000*

Ingredients

125g unsalted butter, softened

125g caster sugar (3/4 cup)

2 large eggs

125g self raising flour (1 cup)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2-3 tbs milk

Method

Preheat the oven to 200c.

Put all the ingredients except the milk in the food processor and then blitz till smooth. Pulse while adding milk down the funnel, to make for a soft, dropping consistency. Spoon and scrape the mixture into muffin tin lined with papers, trying to fill each one equally.

Put into oven and bake for 15-20 minutes (only about 10 mins needed for mini cupcakes) or until the cakes are cooked and golden on top.

Cool on wire rack and decorate as wanted.

Makes approx 24 small cupcakes or 12 muffin size cupcakes

Double Potato and Halloumi Bake

This is a very simple dish to make and would be delicious served with anything. To be honest with you, I could of just eaten a whole plate piled high of this. It was very yummy. And besides, I have a thing for roasted garlic...

You can replace the halloumi cheese with feta if you wish and I also added a carrot to the dish.

*Taken from Nigella Lawson's 'Nigella Bites'*

Ingredients

1 large sweet potato

1 large Desiree potato

1 red onion

1 yellow pepper

1 red pepper

1/2 head of garlic

4 tbs olive oil

black pepper

125g halloumi cheese, sliced as thinly as you can

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6

Cut the sweet potato into rough 4cm cubes and the Desiree slightly smaller (2 1/2 cm) as the sweet potato will cook more quickly. Halve the red onion, then cut each into 4 to 6 segments, discarding any tough outer skin. De-seed the peppers and cut into 2 1/2 cm squares, and separate the cloves of garlic. Put everything into a large roasting tin and using your hands, give the vegetables a good coating of olive oil. Season with black pepper, but no salt as the cheese will make it salty. Cook for 45 minutes, by which time the vegetables should be cooked through and here and there tinged with brown. You'll need to turn the oven up to a maximum or light the grill for the endgame: so place the thinly sliced cheese on top of the bake, and put it back in the very hot oven or under the grill until the cheese has melted and turned slightly brown on top, about 5-10 minutes. Serve straight out of the roasting tin.

Serves 2-3

Butter Cut-Out Biscuits

Monet loves to help me bake, so I decided to make up a batch of these buttery cookies. Quick and easy to make and the dough freezes wonderfully. Half of this mixture is now wrapped in clingfilm and freezing away until a rainy day... Monet got a collection of cookie cutters from us for Christmas, so making this was an excuse for Monet to tryout her new cutters. Lots of fun, well it would have been a lot of fun if Monet didn't 'crack it' halfway through and walked away...

*Taken from Nigella Lawson's 'How To Be A Domestic Goddess'*

Ingredients
175g soft unsalted butter
200g caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
400g plain flour plus more if needed
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
300g icing sugar sieved and food colouring

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4.

Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and moving towards moussiness, then beat in the eggs and vanilla. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter eggs and mix gently but surely. If you think the finished mixture is too sticky to be rolled out, (chances are it will be), add more flour, but do so sparingly as too much will make the dough tough.

Halve the dough, form into fat discs, wrap each half in clingfilm and rest in the fridge for at least an hour.

Sprinkle a suitable surface with flour, place a disc of dough on it (not taking out the other half until you are finished with the first) and sprinkle a little more flour on top of that. Roll it out to a thickness of about 1/2 cm. Cut into shapes, dipping the cutter into flour as you go, and place the biscuits a little apart on lined baking trays.

Bake for 8-12 minutes, until they are lightly golden around the edges. Cool on rack.

To make the icing, put a couple of tablespoons of just-not-boiling water into a large bowl, add the sieved sugar and mix together, adding more water as you need to form a thick paste. Colour as desired and decorate biscuits...

(I divided the icing mixture into little zip-closing plastic bags, coloured the icing, closed bags up, snipped a little corner off the bag and used like a piping bag. Very little mess this way.)

Makes 50-60