Making Crepes

I have been a pretty big fatty tonight. I stopped on the way home and got (gasp) a ready meal. I wouldn't normally do that, but the chicken tikka masala (it wasn't even a refined ready meal) jumped out and caught my eye. It literally screamed at me to eat it.

Straight after i ate that curry i had a craving. A craving for pancakes. Over here in the UK they're called pancakes, in Europe they're crepes. They're nothing like the thick, fluffy cake-like things eaten in the US for breakfast. Typically we eat these here on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday (the beginning of lent) when the household was supposed to purge itself of rich foods like dairy before the fasting of lent begins. But it's not Shrove Tuesday, it's liz's craving day, so i made them anyway.

It takes about a second to make the batter if you do it the quick way (which this is) and you get the enjoyment of eating the freshly cooked pancake as you make the next one. It's a never ending treat for the tongue. Until the batter's used up of course.

Ingredients (makes about 10 pancakes depending on the size of pan):

7 heaped tablespoons of flour

2 medium (free range) eggs

about half a pint of milk

Toppings: Chocolate spread, strawberry jam, golden syrup (my favourite), maple syrup, lemon and brown sugar, cherry pie filling....whatever takes your fancy

1. Put the flour, eggs and half the milk into a bowl and whisk with a balloon whisk. Add more milk and continue whisking until the batter is the consistency of runny gloss paint.

2. Leave the batter to stand for approximately 20mins. This allows the gluten in the batter to do it's thing.

3. Meanwhile, heat a large frying pan and skim the top with an oily piece of kitchen paper. You do NOT want a pool of oil in the pan, just an extremely light coat. Use that cooking spray stuff if you don't want to use an oily piece of kitchen paper. Just a couple of spritzes.

4. Now make sure the pan is nice and hot, you'll get a soggy pancake otherwise. Pour a dollop in the centre of the pan with an inch or so to spare at the sides, lift up the pan and roll it around so the batter spreads right out to the edges. This will make the pancake nice and thin and it'll cook right through in no time.

5. Using a spatula or fish slice, check the bottom of the pancake after a minute, if it comes away freely and is slightly golden, it's read for a flippin. Either get your mad pan tossing skillz out, or just be sensible and flip it using the fish slice. No one needs a greasy pancake splat on the ceiling.

6. Cook for a further minute on the other side, turn out onto a plate and spread with your choice of topping. Roll it up and enjoy. YUUUUMMMMMMMY.

Chocolate birds nests for Easter

So, here's my second shot at a birds nest, only this time it's all gone chocolatey. Mmmmmmm.
Chocolate birds nests are such an easy treat to make, so easy i probably don't need to blog about how to do them, but i was pleased with the way i managed to pull some disastrous chocolate melting back from the brink. In this case I'm making them for my nieces instead of Easter eggs. They're a little bit healthier than eating solid chocolate and look cuter too!

First off we have the ingredients. I wanted to keep this on the cheap (cheep) so i bought a 250g bar of value dark chocolate and the same of milk. You can use good quality dark, but to me, they won't taste an huge amount awesomer (word) with finest dark chocolate and you'll be putting other stuff in there too. You'll also need some golden syrup, some margarine or unsalted butter, some cake cases. Of course, you'll need some eggs for the nests too. Mini Eggs, yum!

First thing to do is get your chocolate melted. This is where is all went wrong for me. I tried melting it in the microwave. It all went hard and grainy and didn't melt well at all, so i went back to the traditional way and managed to bring it back from the messy brink.
Put a pan of water to boil and place a large pyrex (or other heatproof glass) over the top of it. Add a good knob of butter and two teaspoons of golden syrup and melt it all over a low heat, taking care to stir it.

Next you need to add cornflakes. I didn't measure this, i just kept adding them until i was satisfied with how well they were coated. I'd guess at about 3 medium cereal bowls full. Keep mixing them in until they're coated. It might take a while. You can also bash some of the larger flakes up to make them a bit easier for little mouths to eat.

Now you need to line a bun tin with plain paper cases. Make it a bit more fun and use colours or foil ones if you like.

Pile the chocolate cornflakes into the cases, leaving a little hollow in the middle. Place three eggs in the centre of each nest. Place them in the fridge to harden up, et voila! Done.

The Final Ham

Here is the final recipe that i promised to bring to you yesterday, but firstly, an apology.

My favourite crafty blogger EVER (honest to peanuts as she would say), LOLLYCHOPS stopped by earlier today and wanted to leave a comment but couldn't. I had to shamefully admit that i turned comments off because i was depressed about my lack of commenting. It's like having someone stop in for a cup of tea and having no milk in the fridge.

Lolly, i'm really sorry. Really and truly. I hope you'll forgive me.

Honey and Mustard Ham Shank

This recipe was done using a cut known as the ham shank which is a cheap cut of pork. This ham shank cost me £1.99 compared to £4 which the gammon in the last recipe cost me. I guess it's the last cut before the trotter of the pig. It's really tasty but can be a pain to carve. You tend to get chunks rather than slices of ham, but the water you boil this in will give you an amazing stock and if you boil the bone again with the bits of meat left on it, you can make ham shank soup, which is something my grandad always made when i was little. Super tasty, salty and delicious

Ingredients
1 Ham Shank
half an onion
bay leaf
celery stick
1 carrot
3 tablespoons of clear honey
2 tablespoons of grain mustard
brown sugar (optional for really sweet glaze)

method
1. place the ham shank skin side down in a large pot and cover with plain, unsalted water. Bring to the boil and then discard the water. This will remove any initial scum and remove some of the salt. Refill with boiling water from the kettle and place the onion, celery, carrot and bayleaf in the pot with the ham. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 1 and a half hours - 2 hours.

2. preheat the oven to gas 5. mix together the honey and mustard in a small bowl.

3. Strain off the water from the ham into a large bowl if you intend to use it for later. Discard the onion, celery, carrot and bayleaf. remove the ham from the pot and remove the skin leaving a 5mm layer of fat.

4. Score the fat in a crisscross fashion and place in the oven to remder and go crispy for 20 minutes.

5. remove the ham from the oven and brush the glaze all over the ham until the fat and exposed meat is covered. For a really sweet glaze, pack the ham with brown sugar (in my opinion it's just as tasty and healthier without but my brother swears by it) and replace in the oven for 25 minutes, remove, baste and return for another 25 minutes.

6. serve with warm crusty bread and caramelised onion chutney. Yum.

hams and ribs

Ok, here are the recipes i promised to share.

Sticky Ribs

The thing i like about ribs is that they're always good for parties. there's not many people that don't like them (if there are, stick a few salted ones in the oven for fussy people). Also, a little money goes a long way when buying ribs. I managed to buy enough to feed 6 people for £5. I adjusted this recipe from Nigella lawson's recipe for Sticky Ribs. It was awesome, a little bit of kick to it and wonderfully juicy ribs. I'll be making this again.

Ingredients
200ml Sweet Chilli Dipping sauce (thai or chinese)
100ml Dark Soy Sauce
1 clemantine (substitute a tangerine or satsuma if necessary)
thumb sized piece of fresh ginger
about 25 - 30 ribs


1. Take your ribs out of their packaging and lay out flat in your intended baking tray. I bought disposable ones because the thought of cleaning up rib mess with a potential hangover was more than i could bear.

2. Mix the soy and chilli sauces together in a bowl. Grate in the ginger. Cut the clemantine in half width ways and squeeze the juice into the sauce. Cut the clemantine up into chunks and add. Stir well to mix together.

3. Pour the sauce all over the ribs and stick them back in the fridge. ideally overnight, but you can just leave them in there for a few hours and the sauce should get into them pretty well. Remember to move the ribs around in the sauce a few times to make sure they're well coated and absorbing all the goodness.

4. Take your ribs out of the fridge and preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Cover the backing tray with foil and bake the ribs for 30 mins. Take out of the oven and turn the ribs over and return to oven for another 30 mins. The foil and low-ish temp in this step allows the ribs to steam and become really juicy and the meat practically falls off the bone.

5. Remove foil and return to the oven for another 25 minutes at Gas 6/200C to allow the sauce to go really sticky and the ribs become dark and juicy.

Marmelade Glazed ham in Coke

This recipe was cobbled together from two different recipes, Jamie Oliver's recipe for Marmelade Glazed Ham and Nigella Lawson's recipe for Ham in Coca Cola

It was gone like a shot when i put it out on the table with some fresh bread. Boiling the ham in Coke sounds wrong, but it gives it an unbelievable sweet taste around the edges and the marmelade glaze tastes delicious. I would have stuck cloves in the fat to give an even more Christmassy taste, but not everyone likes the taste. Give it a whirl if you know everyone will love it!

Ingredients
750g boneless joint of unsmoked gammon
2 Litres of Coca Cola
half an onion
Good marmelade or orange preserve

1. Place the gammon skin side down in a large pot with an onion and cover with Coca Cola. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer gently for 1 and a half hours. The meat with take on a really dark coating.

2. preheat the oven to 180C/Gas mark 4. After boiling, remove the ham from heat and pop the joint in a roasting tin. Remove the skin leaving a layer of fat about 5mm deep, score the fat in a crisscross fashion and and pop back into the oven for 20 mins to render and go crispy.

3. Remove from the oven and slather marmelade all over the fat. Add cloves at the intersection of each crisscross if wanted. Return to the oven for 25 minutes, remove, baste and repeat for a further 25 mins.

4. Remove from the oven, allow to rest for 25 minutes before serving.

I can't encourage you strongly enough to try the ham in coke thing. It was amazing.

Enjoy your celebrations tonight if you're having them! Tomorrow i'll share my recipe for Honey and Mustard glzed ham on the bone!

Happy New Year!