A Jazzi Recipage

"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well." Well said Virginia Woolf! This is how I live my life and here are some recipes so you can too!

[ajazzirecipage]

  Jazzi’s Mohito Cake Recipe

  Here it is people!

The Cake of the Summer! Jazzi's all famous Mojito Cake that won first prize at Jamie Oliver's Recipease.

I was a bit unsure of putting it up here as its almost a secret recipe... but I have decided to share it with you all! It is quite a long process to make this cake. There is a lot too it. But the end results are always amazing ( If I don't say so myself) My gorgeous friend Jessica is the Baker at Jamie Oliver's and has been making them as you see above :) They look perfect!

Sponge

· 175g/6oz self-raising flour

· 1 rounded tsp baking powder · 3 large eggs

·  175g/6oz very soft butter

·  175g/6oz golden caster sugar

·  Zest of 2 limes

Syrup

·  Juice of 2 limes

·  35ml Rum

·  100ml water

·  100g/ 3 ½ oz Light Brown Sugar

·  1 tbsp Caster Sugar

  Icing

· 100g/ 3½oz Mascarpone Icing

·  200g/7oz Full Fat soft cream Cheese

·  85g/3oz Icing Sugar, sifter

·  Zest and Juice of 2 limes

·  4 Mint leaves/ finely chopped

·   3 Trebor Mints, crushed to a powder

  Garnish

·  Lime thinly sliced and twirled

·  Fresh mint sprigs

·  1 Trebor mint crushed and sieved

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3.

Line a 2lb loaf tin or 20cm cake tin. Cream the butter and the sugar together until pale, and then beat in the eggs. Sift over the flour and baking powder and fold in using a large metal spoon. Add the lime zest and fold that in too. Pour mixture into tin and then place in the oven for 30-35 minutes. Leave to cool for 5 minutes then tip onto cooling rack.

Whilst the cake is cooling add the sugar to the water in a pan and bring to the boil. Add the juice of two limes and the rum and boil gently stirring continuously for 5 minutes. Turn off and leave to cool for 10 minutes

When the syrup and cake are cool use a skewer to prick lots of little wholes in the sponge and then pour over the syrup.

Whilst the cake is cooling completely mix all of your icing ingredients in a bowl and put in the fridge to set a little.

Spread the Icing generously to the top of the cake. Finish off with a garnish of lime zest fresh lime twirls and sprigs of fresh mint. Dust with crushed Trebor mints.

  Tada!

[ajazzirecipage]

The weekly shop...

This week Oli and Ihave decided to see how a 'weekly shop' goes as opposed to the usual 'Ifancy this tonight lets go to the shop and get it'. Shopping in that way really adds up as we have been going to the smaller shops where the prices are sky high as opposed to the big ones. we planned the meals for the week (which is really hard for me as I cook what I feel like cooking normally) and managed to spend only £50. Which is good when that is breakfast lunch and dinner. Trying to mix healthy and homely alike, Il be blogging during the week and showing the recipes that iv created in this weekly shop on what i think is a pretty good budget! So stay tuned folks :)

[ajazzirecipage]

Prawn and Chorizo Risotto.

So last night was the night that I changed my boyfriends view on Risotto. Now he likes it! Resuuult! And I hope you will all like this one too. I used Jamie Oliver’s Basic Risotto Recipe and then added my own bits and pieces.

So here are the basic ingredients:

       Ingredients

1.1 litres stock, chicken, fish or vegetable as appropriate

1 small knob of butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

400 g risotto rice

2 wineglasses dry white vermouth or dry white wine

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

1 knob of butter

90 g Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

  And here is what I added:

·      300g of Chorizo (the actual sausage type) not the sliced type, chopped

·      250g precooked large prawns

·      juice of half a lemon

·      half a tsp of chilli powder

·      red pepper, chopped small

·      handful of parsley, chopped

Stage 1 Heat the stock. In a separate pan, heat the olive oil and butter, add the onions, garlic and celery, and fry very slowly for about 15 minutes without colouring. When the vegetables have softened, add the rice and turn up the heat. Stage 2 The rice will now begin to lightly fry, so keep stirring it. After a minute it will look slightly translucent. Add the vermouth or wine and keep stirring — it will smell fantastic. Any harsh alcohol flavours will evaporate and leave the rice with a tasty essence. Stage 3 Once the vermouth or wine has cooked into the rice, add your first ladle of hot stock and a good pinch of salt. Turn down the heat to a simmer so the rice doesn't cook too quickly on the outside. Keep adding ladlefuls of stock, stirring and almost massaging the creamy starch out of the rice, allowing each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next. This will take around 15 minutes. Taste the rice — is it cooked?  At this point I cooked off the chorizo in a dry frying pan. You don’t need to add oil as it releases its own oil. I then added the whole lot with the juicy oil it produced into the risotto. I also added all of the cooked prawns. Carry on adding stock until the rice is soft but with a slight bite. Don't forget to check the seasoning carefully. If you run out of stock before the rice is cooked, add some boiling water. Stage 4 Remove from the heat and add the butter and Parmesan (and chopped parsley). Stir well. Place a lid on the pan and allow to sit for 2 minutes. This is the most important part of making the perfect risotto, as this is when it becomes outrageously creamy and oozy like it should be. Eat it as soon as possible, while the risotto retains its beautiful texture.

  And there we have it. A slightly spicy and flavour packed risotto!

[ajazzirecipage]

My home made healthy coleslaw!

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Pancake Day!

It looks like a cheesy pie but its not! There are pancakes under there! 

  Happy Pancake Day!

I am a savoury girl. So when it comes to Pancake Day I’m always a bit stuck. So today I have decided to make my dinner out of pancakes J

Pancakes stuffed with ham leek mushroom and cheese and then topped with a cheesy white sauce.

This serves 2 people with a side salad or one person who is very hungry!

Preheat your oven to 200°c/180°f, Gas Mark 6

Pancake mix:

30 grams butter melted (plus more for frying)

150 grams plain flour

325 ml milk

1 medium egg

Wisk the milk, egg and flour together then added the slightly cool melted butter (that you have melted in a pan before , I forgot to mention that sorry!)

  To make the thin pancakes get a large non-stick frying pan and put it on a medium heat hob, add enough mixture so that it thinly covers the bottom of the pan. Give it a twist around so it fully covers it. Leave it for about 25 seconds and then flip (you can toss it if you are feeling daring but if not just use a spatula) Cook the other side for a further 20 seconds (or until it starts going brown underneath and then slide onto a baking sheet covered plate. Do this about 4 or 5 times and add a layer of baking sheet between every time so they don’t stick together.

Filling:

  1 large leek

a large handful of mushrooms

2 slices of ham

  Cheesy white sauce:

  Half an onion, chopped

1 bay leaf

500ml milk

50g butter

50g plain flour

5 peppercorns

Nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste

Handful of grated cheddar 

To make the white sauce (also known as béchamel). Put the milk in a saucepan with the onion and bay and bring up to the boil, then turn off.  In a separate pan, melt the butter then add the flour, stirring to mix well. Cook the flour and butter mixture (this is known as a roux) for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat.  Remove the onion and bay from the milk. Pour a little of the warm milk onto the roux and whisk well. Continue to add the milk, bit by bit, whisking as fast as you add to avoid any lumps. Once all the milk is added return the sauce to a medium heat and whisk gently until you have a thick, smooth, white sauce, which has come back to the boil. If you don’t find it is thick enough it should thicken when you add the cheese, so add that handful of grated cheddar and mix well. Add nutmeg salt and pepper to taste. 

For the filling chop the leek however you like, and the mushroom, cook in a little butter on a medium heat so it softens up and add the chopped ham. Mix in a little of the cheesy sauce mixture.

 To fill the pancake place a spoonful of mixture in the middle of the pancake and fold the sides. Roll one side over the folded sides and voila you have a wrap.

Place them into a small, shallow, ovenproof dish and pour the rest of the sauce over the top.

Place in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the top is golden brown and bubbling.

Tada! Enjoy your Pancake Day guys!

[ajazzirecipage]

Cheap noodles made yum!

Chicken ‘super’ noodles. Every student’s staple. I love these even when im not on a budget and these particular ones cost about 28p. However if you want to jazz it up a bit you can make these cheap and sometimes rather bland noodles into something extra yum with anything veg wise you find in your fridge!

Iv added prawns to this too because I had some frozen ones left but you don’t have too.

Simply get your pack of noodles and add a about 200ml more boiling water than they tell you so that it is more of a soup. Add the veg, garlic and chilli and also some fish sauce or soy sauce (Teriyaki sauce also works well) and voila! Cook till the noodles are soft but not soggy. Done!

You don’t need to make this soup based. You can just make the noodles yummy by cooking the chilli, garlic and veg off a bit in the saucepan in a tiny bit of oil and then add the noodles and water after as specified so that you have your noodles and the veg together like a mini stir fry.

P.s Tumblr why have you changed the way you work. I dont like it! 

[cojokat]

Sue, you can’t have no baby. You are old as a hill. You ain’t gonna give birth to no child; you gonna give birth to a grandchild. You gonna get in them stirrups, and you gonna push and push, and a full-grown adult gonna pop out with a briefcase and a job talking on a cellphone. What you need to do is start praying that you give birth to a child that likes to eat sand, cause that’s all that’s coming out of them old, wrinkly boobs.

- Coach Washington dissing Coach Sue (via cojokat)

[ajazzirecipage]

Fish Pie

Not much to say about this one other than it is an easy to eat comforting dish. We happened to have some smoked haddock in the freezer that Katie (my housemate) had bought from a drive around fishmongers, and also some large cooked prawns.

Put your oven on to about 200°/gas 4/400°f

Recipe:

Filling

Half a head of broccoli Half a head of cauliflower 2 large fillets of smoked haddock 250g of large cooked prawns

Cut all of the above into bite sized pieces and spread evenly into an ovenproof dish.

Mash topping

1kg of floury potatoes (I used Maris Piper)

1 sweet potato

1 tbsp of crème fraiche

pinch of salt and pepper

Boil and Mash the above up all together until smooth and leave to cool. Meanwhile get started on the creamy saauce

Sauce

400ml milk (semi skimmed or full fat)

100ml of vegetable stock

1 white onion, chopped

75g plain flour

2 bay leaves 10 black peppercorns

1tsp of Dijon mustard

Bunch of fresh parsley. Separate the stalks from the leaves

Pinch of salt and pepper Put the milk, chopped onion, peppercorns, bay leaves and the stalks of the parsley into a pan on a low heat to infuse. Turn off just before it gets to boiling point and leave for 5 mins to cool down. Drain and sieve the milk into a separate pan with the veg stock. Put it on a low heat, add the butter and stir it in.  Slowly sieve the flour in and whisk and whisk so that it doesn’t get lumpy. You could do the whole ‘make a roux first’ thing but I find this works just as well for this. When it thickens up add the chopped parsley leaves, mustard, salt and pepper and then pour onto the fish and veg.

Layer on the mash and add 75g of grated mature Cheddar (or enough to cover the top of the mash) and pop in the oven for 30-35 mins. Turn the oven down to around 100 for about 10 mins so that pie rests to avoid sloppyness!

Take out of the oven serve up and enjoy. If you want a side of veggies you go for it but the idea is that the veg is already in it so that you can just put it in a bowl, grab a spoon and tuck in!

Cheers then!

Jazzi

[ajazzirecipage]

Grazing

I’m sure many of you have heard of, or have come across these wonderful little boxes before.  I absolutely love them. They are a great way of getting healthy(ish) and super yummy snacks delivered through your letterbox. I get one once a week and to me its like getting a present, as I never know what I’m going to get until I open it up.

They have 100’s of snacks you can choose from ranging from nuts, olives, flapjacks and even some chocolatey treats. You can choose out of the list which ones you like, don’t like and LOVE so they know what to send, what to avoid sending and how often to send the same things.

This week my box contained the following :

Green Olives with Basil and Garlic Dark Rocky Road Bonnie Wee Oatbakes Chilli and Lime Pistachios

My favourite ones were the Olives and Rocky Road.

The olives are so juicy and full of flavour. I ate the whole pack in about 3 minutes flat and that was quite slow for me. When it comes to olives I am an absolute fiend.

The Dark Rocky Road is a real treat. I am not a huge fan of over sweet things so this was perfect for me as the chocolate button bits are dark chocolate and the berries were dried cranberries that are nice and tart. Add some pecan nuts to that equation and I was pretty much in 7th heaven. And they didn’t last long at all.

I’m really looking forward to Friday when I get to try some more little nibbles.

If you would like to try a free box then go to this site

www.graze.com

and put in this code

3DJ2XMB

  But you if you only want the one then you must let them know it’s a one off box else they will send them weekly. They are £3.49 but absolutely worth it for the variety that you get.

  Cheers then!

Jazzi

[imthequeenoftheunivers]

[ajazzirecipage]

Would loooove this!

[ajazzirecipage]

Poached egg breakfast with a twist! A few christmas's ago my mum kindly bought me this clever little egg poacher that makes poaching eggs easy peasy! So this is a recipe for if you want something more exciting than poached egg on toast. I came up with this recipe when I had a load of half bits of peppers and some tomatoes lying around. So the recipe and method is as follows. I would recommend the egg poachers as they are extremely easy and pretty much perfect every time. But if your talented at poaching then do it that way. I used half a yellow pepper and a handful of tomatoes and cut them in half, and chuck them in a lightly oiled pan to fry off a bit. Whilst these are doing i poached 2 eggs in my magic poacher and put the toast on(granary) when it was all done you layer it toast, pepper and tomato, egg and then a slice or 2 of salami :) add salt and pepper to taste.. Its really scrummy and something different to start your day :) apologies for sending a breakfast idea at lunch. The customers at work would insist on coming in and stopping me from sending it sooner! Also I apologise for bad grammar and things. Im doing this on my phone! Maybe I need to invest in an ipad! Cheers then!

[ajazzirecipage]

PIZZA

Ok! So! Here is my first EVER recipe blog :)

Today I made pizza's. 3 different ones in fact. 2 of them were a success and 1 needed a liiittle tweaking.

The recipe for the dough is yeast free and the measurements are a little odd but it is so easy and there is no waiting for it to rise!

  Put your oven on to about 200°/Gas Mark 4/400°f

Yeast Free Pizza Dough (4 Pizzas Medium size):

770g 27oz Plain flour (Sometimes i like to do a 70/30 mix or white flour to wholemeal flour to add extra texture and flavour) 6 tsp Baking Powder 3 tsp Salt 470ml Milk 180ml Olive Oil

There is pretty much no way of getting this wrong. Mix together the dry ingredients then bung in the wet and mix. Voila! Give it a quick knead on a floured surface and split into 4. I tend to use greased baking trays and pizza trays to first bake the dough itself for about 10 mins so it firms up before putting on the toppings.

Base ingredients:

Tomato Passata -spoon on and spread around evenly all over the surface Mozzarella- 1 ball for every pizza, rip it don’t slice it!

I always add the above ingredients first they are pretty much the starting base to the pizza. Save just a tiny bit of mozzarella to add on top so it all melts together.

The pizzas shown above are the following: 1. Fig, Goats Cheese and Parma ham. 2. Italian meats, Olives and Basil. 3. Spanish Chorizo, Pepper and Chilli.

The Fig one was lacking in something. It has good flavors but is missing some umph. I think next time I may add some caramelized onions to sweeten it up. But the ingredients I did use were:

Figs and Goats Cheese 1 and a half figs 100g Soft Goats Cheese 2 Slices of Parma Ham Pinch of Salt and Pepper

The other 2 were pretty spot on. I wont go into measurements etc as people should feel free to fully load it or be sparse but the general ingredients were as followed.

Italian Meats pizza:

Sprinkling of grated Cheddar Salami Napoli Salami Milano Fresh Basil Green olives Pinch of Salt and Pepper.

Spanish Chorizo Pizza:

Sprinkling of Cheddar Slices of Chorizo Half a yellow pepper sliced

Green Chilli finely sliced Half a small red onion finely sliced

The beauty of a pizza is that you can choose whatever you like to put on them. They are great for using things up in the cupboards and fridge if you’re daring (things that are in date though… pizzas do not resurrect out of date food!)  ;) Wack them in the oven for about 10 minutes until they are golden brown. The trick to keeping the toppings on when you cut it is to let it stand outside of the oven for a few minutes so that the cheese firms a little and you don’t have it sliding off before it reaches your gob ;) Its pretty devastating when you go to take a bite and all the topping slides off. Nightmare.

And that’s about it. As I said this is my first ever recipe blog. I know it’s a little all over the place but please give me helpful feedback and keep checking for new recipes that I will post as often as I can.

Thank you!

Jazzi x

[ajazzirecipage]

Welcome

Hello everyone!

Welcome to my recipe/ general food blog where I will be posting tried and tested recipes, ideas, and outcomes of new recipes and general food musings.

Food means a lot to me and my favourite thing is to see people enjoying the food I create. It’s not massively fancy and my presentation is lacking at the moment but hey! I’m still learning! So please join me in my food journey! Feel free to suggest things and give feedback.

Cheers then!

Jazzi