jennakinstxs

I have a need for solitude, I'll never be safe in crowded rooms, I like the sound of silence coming on, I come around when everyone has gone. I have a need for cool, verdant spaces beneath the trees, secret empty places, nobody knows so no one will intrude, I have a need for solitude. By Mary Chapin Carpenter

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'Smoke Alarm' Caramel Chocolates

‘Smoke Alarm’ Caramel Chocolates

The discovery of GOLD ganache led to the plan to make chocolates based on this filling. It has the reminiscence of Caramac bars which I love.

What we did

I used milk chocolate as I thought this would go best with a comforting caramel ganache filling. I haven’t used milk in a long while and wanted to play with my power flowers. I split 500g tempered chocolate in two bowls and used half…

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Rhubarb Chocolates Test Series

Rhubarb Chocolates Test Series

Batch 1 – What we did

My colleague shared an abundance of rhubarb from her garden, so I thought a Rhubarb & Custard chocolate would be a great idea. I got some fancy new chocolate moulds and this would be their initiation.

I decided to use Ruby chocolate for the shell as the fruitiness support the rhubarb. Then I made a rhubarb pate de fruit (loosely based on William Curley’s recipe) for…

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George's Grainy Sour - La Brea Bakery Breads

George’s Grainy Sour – La Brea Bakery Breads

We are running a bit behind with updating the blog. So this is actually our second recent adventure into Nancy Silverton’s Breads From the La Brea Bakery. Two weeks ago we made some beautiful foccace and ciabatta bread and this time we wanted something more hearty with seeds, so we chose a two day bread called George’s Grainy Sour.

What we did

We used our sourdough, which is now a proud 5…

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Chaopraya Thai Cookery School

Chaopraya Thai Cookery School

Santa brought us a voucher for one of Chaophraya‘s classes and we were excited for the opportunity to learn more about Thai cookery. The experience was amazing on so many levels and the advice was valuable, particularly if you’re like us and can get a bit lost when trying to choose between the many varieties of ingredients available in your local Asian supermarket (yep, another shout out to…

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Buttermilk pancakes with maple-ginger butter and blackberries in bourbon syrup - Telegraph Food

Buttermilk pancakes with maple-ginger butter and blackberries in bourbon syrup – Telegraph Food

Happy belated Pancake Day! Some of you may have seen on Instagram that we celebrated in style with these glorious stacks earlier in the week.

What we did

We came across this recipe from Telegraph Food a few days before and decided to go for it. After all, we have been very good lately and thought we deserved a treat to kick off a few days we had taken off from work.

Although we have…

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Sweet Potato, Feta & Avocado Quinoa Salad - Mob Kitchen

Sweet Potato, Feta & Avocado Quinoa Salad – Mob Kitchen

We had one spare sweet potato and had been eyeing up this recipe for a while, so decided now was a good time to make it. The textures took some getting used to, but the flavours won in the end.

What we did

I followed the recipe, except for using only one instead of two (humungous) sweet potatoes. This was the first time I have made quinoa and it was a bit like magic! Watching the little balls…

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Steak and Chips - the Ottolenghi SIMPLE way

Steak and Chips – the Ottolenghi SIMPLE way

We made steak! And it was awesome! A proper Friday night treat at the end of our holiday week. Considering this was our second time ever cooking steak, we thought it could have easily been served to us in a decent restaurant! We were very impressed with ourselves.

What we did

We chose two recipes from the SIMPLE book – Harissa Beef Sirloin with Pepper & Lemon Sauce and a side of Sweet…

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Mexican Style Stuffed Sweet Potatoes - Mob Kitchen

Mexican Style Stuffed Sweet Potatoes – Mob Kitchen

We wanted to put our gloriously gigantic sweet potatoes to good use, so this recipe from the Mob Kitchen cookbook sounded like a winner. Sadly, this one turned out more sickly than sweet.

What We Did

This time following the recipe highlighted an unfortunate flaw in this cookbook. Recently we have been cooking from Ottolenghi SIMPLE, which provides a high level of detail in its instructions…

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Cinnamon and Poppyseed Rolls

Cinnamon and Poppyseed Rolls

I was craving home baked dessert and ever since the Classic German Baking book, I am eager to make some traditional poppy seed cakes. However, I still need to organise a good grinder for the poppy seeds. Until such time, and because I had discovered the below tin in a Polish supermarket, I wanted to try and make some form of poppy seed pastry.

What we did

I did’t want to think much and…

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The Palace Kitchen Breakfast - Take Seven

The Palace Kitchen Breakfast – Take Seven

It was a hell of a week work wise – so the shopping fell short and we ran short of a few ingredient Saturday morning. But we made do with what we had and had a bigger lunch later on.

What we did

In comparison to our usual Palace Kitchen Breakfastwe had only four ingredients: kale, mushrooms, hash browns (only 2) and one lonely poached egg. It was still yummy as ever and a good start to our…

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Vegan Aromatic Cauliflower Dhansak - Mob Kitchen

Vegan Aromatic Cauliflower Dhansak – Mob Kitchen

This one pot wonder was a welcome warming meal on a cold and wet evening. Spiced cauliflower is a thing of beauty and we had high expectations of the this recipe.

What we did

We pretty much followed the recipe apart from adding more petit pois – they are a favourite in the Palace Kitchen and we went with a full portion size per serving. It all came together nicely in the pot and smelled…

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The Ultimate Halloumi, Butternut Squash & Tahini Salad - Mob Kitchen

The Ultimate Halloumi, Butternut Squash & Tahini Salad – Mob Kitchen

Spring weather in Scotland is so unpredictable that you don’t know what kind of food you’ll be in the mood for from one day to the next. This warm, comforting salad sounded perfect for in-between season.

What we did

We followed the recipe to the letter and are especially proud of our awesome halloumi griddling! Look at these griddle marks! It smelled like a dessert. We were chuffed to…

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Bulgur Wheat with Mushrooms & Feta - Ottolenghi SIMPLE

Bulgur Wheat with Mushrooms & Feta – Ottolenghi SIMPLE

We were excited for this one: we love mushrooms and we loved the last bulgur wheat dish from Simple. It seemed like a no brainer! Unfortunately, this didn’t turn out to be our favourite.

What we did

We tried to be good and follow the recipe, out of trust and respect for Yotam. Unfortunately we had only picked up white button mushrooms, and I was a bit sceptical when it came to their…

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The Palace Kitchen Granola - Take 2

The Palace Kitchen Granola – Take 2

We had to make a new batch of Granola, so based it loosely on previous recipe but added our own seeds and nuts to it.

What we did

We got most of the organic ingredients from Locavore, including some really nice Scottish oats. We used pumpkin and linseeds, as well as chopped almonds, cashews and hazelnuts. Instead of the golden syrup, we upgrade to a really nice maple syrup with coconut…

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Take 2: Couscous, Cherry Tomato and Herb Salad - Ottolenghi SIMPLE

Take 2: Couscous, Cherry Tomato and Herb Salad – Ottolenghi SIMPLE

We wanted to make the above again. Only done it a few weeks ago – you can find it here. We did the few tweaks we set out to do.

What we did

We poached the tomatoes and used better ones than before. The ones we usually have for The Palace Kitchen Breakfast.

We added a can of chickpeas to the couscous and a little more than 30g of sultanas – a ‘handful’.

In addition, we ripped up the herbs…

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Palace Kitchen Spice Mix - Ras El Hanout

Palace Kitchen Spice Mix – Ras El Hanout

We made our own spice mix today! Out of necessity not really planned. We ran out of Ras El Hanout for one of our lunch dishes. Instead of going shopping, we checked what goes in it and what we have in our spice racks. The result: we had everything so we went and made it ourselves!!!

What we did

We perused a few recipes and took what we thought was best, so made a mix of different…

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The Palace Kitchen Breakfast for Dinner - Take Six

The Palace Kitchen Breakfast for Dinner – Take Six

We couldn’t go without our Palace Kitchen Breakfast, but we had a cheeky Cheese toastie this morning… So instead we had our breakfast for dinner – with cocktails!!!!

this morning… So instead we had our breakfast for dinner – with cocktails!!!!

Our Verdict

It was as scrumptious as ever!!!! The eggs were perfect and so yolky and soft and we are getting addicted to cavolo nero!

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