Roasted Pumpkin & Honey Vodka.

The second of my ‘five-a-day’ vodkas was pumpkin and honey – by far a long shot and it took significantly more brain power to formulate a cocktail with! Although the brain power was all worth while given that it went down a treat.

In a similar fashion to the strawberry and basil vodka, I attempted to make a heavily flavoured concentrate. In this instance I think the amount of water contained within the butternut squash I used helped. Initially, I generously sprinkled brown sugar over thick slices of butternut squash, along with several dollops of honey, before roasting for about an hour. Once softened, I removed the flesh from the skin and placed it in a pan over a low heat with the liquid which had collected during roasting. The next step was very much a guessing game, I added more sugar (to taste) and took the hand blender to it while still reducing the water content on the heat. The aim was to let it reduce enough so as not to dilute the vodka but not too much that it would become tricky to pour into the bottles…

As with the strawberry and basil vodka, the vodka was added to the concentrate and the concoction left to infuse for a week or so before sieving out the pulp and chilling. Then the cocktail creation took place!

2 measures of pumpkin & honey vodka
1 handful of ice
Top up with ginger beer
A dash of Angostura bitters

Waldorf Risotto.

Salads can work wonders for your waist line but they can’t quite take the place of a good cheesy risotto. Adding the crunch of walnuts, the sweetness of apple and the gooeyness of cheese to a risotto was a stroke of genius. Although I wasn’t under the illusion that the additions would lift the humble risotto to healthy heights, it certainly added welcome textures and interesting tastes. So much so, that the left-overs (set aside for the following day’s lunch) didn’t have a chance to go cold…

While risotto does have a reputation for being tricky to perfect, Jamie’s basic risotto recipe is a corker and worth the hour of chopping, string and tasting. I will definitely be reaching for the arborio rice more frequently in the weeks to come!

Recipe taken from Jamie Oliver.

Key Ingredients
Onion
Garlic
Celery
White wine
Parmesan cheese
Gorgonzola cheese
Soft goat’s cheese
Crunchy eating apples [tossed in lemon juice]
Walnuts

The Fat Olive, WN1 2AD.

The Fat Olive is a little further afield than usual, but well worth the adventure for some cracking company. I have to say the main draw (after the company) was the ‘favourites’ menu, which offers three courses for 15quid. It took a bit of finding and I’m glad I wasn’t wandering the dark streets in my search, but it was a little treasure.

The food was significantly better than I was anticipating (given the price tag) and us being the only ones in the restaurant for the first hour…It certainly did the job in filling our stomachs while having a good old fashioned chin-wag and the three cheese starter is definitely something to re-create in the kitchen!

When in Wigan, eat pie…

Three cheese and sautéed onion bake

Braised beef pie with chunky chips

Lime and passion fruit pannacotta

One Filthy Burger, M4 1HP.

Saturday gone was a corker of a day, bets placed on the Grand National followed by one juicy burger. Fortunately, the burger was significantly better than my betting technique, with my horses coming in 10th and falling at the 22nd fence!

In line with the growing trend of pop-up restaurants a cracking burger joint has recently appeared in Manchester Northern Quarter behind an un-marked wooden door at the top of three flights of stairs. In fact, if it wasn’t for the queue of people and the door man it would be quite discrete… I begrudgingly enjoyed every bite of my food, although you can’t escape the pretentiousness of the place – paying £2.20 for a jar of Dr Pepper does not float my boat. However, the thought of mixing cocktails in large jars, lidding them, shaking them, unscrewing and then serving as is has to be commended – highly resourceful – saves on washing up, cheap and easy. I’ve made a mental note of that one.

Animal burger with trailer trash fries.

Four quid down.

Red Onion, Pear and Stilton Pie.

The northerner inside me cannot turn down a good pie and given how simple this recipe was there was no stopping me dashing out to pick up the essentials.

Caramelising the onions was the most complex step, after which the whole thing came together in a mater of minutes and didn’t take long to bake either – I did add a sprinkling of pine nuts for a bit of extra crunch, which I don’t regret for a moment! My only regret, in fact, was not stuffing the pies with more filling, but I’m sure I’ll have no problem rectifying that next time. Not very pretty but delicious.

1. Caramelise two red onions.

2. Roll out puff pastry and divide into four.

3. On one half add the caramelised onions, pear and stilton.

4. Fold over and seal pies before giving a quick brush with butter.

5. Bake at 180°C [20mins] sprinkling on some pine nuts a few mins before removing from the oven.

Recipe taken from All Recipes.

Chocolate Avocado Delight.

I confess, for as long as I can remember I’ve never been a fan of the avocado, I’m ashamed to say I can’t even think of a time when I tried one, yet I’ve always avoided them. Until, that is, the lovely Miss K made a salad (riddled with avocado) to go with one of our joint-effort teas…so, given that I’m 23 and therefore expected to handle new foods with a little more composure and a little less persuasion compared to the days of childhood, I bit the bullet and gave it a chew. Not bad. What was all the fuss about?!

Since that moment, I’ve shyed away no more. Hence, when I stumbled across the following recipe I leapt at the opportunity to combine the avocado with my greatest love, desserts. The result was a huge success; a more tasty, creamy, healthy chocolate angel delight without the need for any added E-numbers!

I’ve made it several times since without a wobble – you can’t help but fall back on those shove-them-all-in concoctions! Not to mention, avocados have “35% more potassium than bananas. They are rich in B vitamins, as well as vitamin E and vitamin K” [Wiki]. Although, I must stress the importance of using unquestionably ripe avocados for an unquestionably good result…

1. Add all ingredients to the blender and blend.

2. Shovel it in.

Recipe taken from Warm Vanilla Sugar.

Ingredients
2 Avocado [ripe]
1cup of Coconut milk [light]
4tbsps Cocoa powder
4tbsps Honey
2tsps Vanilla extract

Fashion Photography & Frozen Yoghurt.

A couple of weeks ago a tried out a new frozen yoghurt bar in Manchester, after visiting Lick in Brighton a year or so ago and thoroughly enjoying it. Frurt, was good and host a number of frozen flavours both soya and yoghurt, although value for money was quite poor (considering my frozen yoghurt swirl was hollow)! Their topping selection was varied, but they could do with getting some dark chocolate buttons in or am I just getting a little pernickety now?…

In building up an apatite for my frozen yoghurt experience I watched Bill Cunningham New York. A cracking film which I would recommend to anyone with half a heart (or more). Bill is a New York fashion photographer and while the film shows how much admiration both his friends and colleagues have for him the real beauty is seeing his attitude to life. He’s a slave to his trade out of choice and loves every second of it. I shall leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the film:

“If you don’t take money they can’t tell you what to do. That’s the key to the whole thing.”

One Colourful Tea Time.

Tonight was most definitely a join effort, I made the stuffed mushrooms [recipe] and the lovely Miss K threw together some beetroot burgers [recipe] and sweet potato chips. The result was jaw-dropping; I’m currently still digesting my enjoyment on the sofa with a glass of red.

Who needs to improvise when you have a cracking recipe?… All that’s left to do now is to think of some vegetables (that I have in) which I can stuff with the left-over filling and breadcrumbs!

1. Dress the mushrooms and bake.

2. Fill with goats-cheese filling.

3. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs.

4. Bake and enjoy.

Ingredients: as per recipe.

Posh Cheese on Toast #2.

Having got the ball rolling, with Posh Cheese on Toast, it would have been rude not to try out the other possibilities…

…and a success it was. No better, no worse. Amazing but different.

Ingredients
1handful of Sun-dried tomatoes & yellow peppers
1handful of Parsley [freshly chopped]
1handful of Pine nuts
1glug of Olive oil

Chocolate Passion [Fruit] Torte.

Heston Blumenthal intrigues me, I definitely wouldn’t say no to indulging in the tasting menu at his restaurant, The Fat Duck. This menu consists of things such as snail porridge, “sound of the sea” (served with an iPod for accompanying sounds), mock turtle soup and many other weird and wonderful creations. He’s a huge fan of dry ice and several other techniques which make his cooking far from doable in the home. However, a recent TV series attempted to bring some of his techniques down to earth. His chocolate gateaux stole my imagination…

From as young as I can remember, chocolate torte has been a treat and one of my favourites – my parents used to hold parties on New Years Day and in the summer, during which each family would bring something for the table, the result was, without fail, a feast to rival no other. One family could always be relied upon to bring a chocolate torte, The Mills’. It got devoured promptly and I had to wait 6 or so months for the next to appear within my reach. But now I’m 23, the kitchen’s all my own and, to my delight, chocolate torte isn’t beyond my skill set.

So, down to business…I swapped in the shortbread base and loved the idea of infusing the cream with passion fruit, but I’m sorry Heston, the popping candy wasn’t a good shout and I’m not splashing out on a paint gun purely to coat my creations in a fine chocolate shell. I will just have to cross my fingers and hope my guests don’t hold it against me. [They didn't].

1. Blitz up the shortbread biscuits and mix in the melted butter, before pressing into a small cake tin and placing in the oven [160°C] until just browning. Allow to  cool.

2. While melting the chocolate in a bain-marie with the salt, warm through the cream with the pulp of the passion fruit in another pan (without allowing it to boil).

3. When the chocolate’s fully melted and the cream has been near simmering for a good few minutes, sieve out the passion fruit pulp, and  combine gently.

4. Stir in the fresh custard before pouring the chocolate mixture over the biscuit base and allowing to chill.

5. Serve up at room temperature. (I sprinkled with edible glitter, although the picture doesn’t really do it justice). It was demolished in 24hours, a new record, even for the chocolate torte of my small-town memories!

Recipe adapted from How to Cook Like Heston.

Ingredients
200g Shortbread biscuits
30g Unsalted butter [melted]
——–
300g Whipping cream
1Pinch Salt
6 Passion fruits [pulped]
100g Custard [fresh]
200g Dark chocolate
50g Milk chocolate