Oh, fudge!

I'm always more than a little surprised when I try out a new recipe and find that it actually works. I'm 'blessed' with such a lot of clumsiness and impatience that it's a miracle that some of my cooking attempts make it out of the kitchen and into people's mouths.

But there is always an exception to the rule and I'm really chuffed that my fudge-making efforts last week passed muster. It felt really nice to be able to give some delicious sugary treats to family and friends at the weekend.

Whoever said food is meant to be shared definitely knew what they were talking about!

Fudge Recipe: Makes A LOT!

410g (1 tin) evaporated milk
170g butter (I used salted, but unsalted will work just as well)
1/4 pint of milk (I used semi-skimmed)
1kg white granulated sugar

1. Melt the butter in a very large saucepan.
2. Add the sugar, milk and evaporated milk.
3. Turn the heat up high and whilst stirring continuously, boil the mixture rapidly until it becomes thick and syrup-ey. This can take up to 30 minutes (or longer if you have a crawling baby to keep an eye on!).
4. Drop half a teaspoon of the syrup into a glass of cold water. If the syrup holds it's shape and looks and feels like chewy toffee, it is ready to be removed from the heat.
5. Once removed from the heat, continue to stir vigourously while the mixture cools for 2-3 minutes.
6. Scrape the mixture into a large greased and lined cake or casserole dish.
7. Leave to cool for 2-3 hours, then cut into chunks, squares or cubes.

Enjoy!

Sugar Rush

Since we have relatives arriving tomorrow, I've had a bit of a manic week preparing for this weekend. Baking every day, lots of extra cleaning...it's been a bit tiring to say the least. In my over-ambition, I had even planned to take my cat Ginger to the vets for a de-flea and grooming session, until Hubby pointed out that this just might be a bit O.T.T. (In my defence, he is long-haired and very fond of muddy puddles...the cat that is, not Hubby!)

Still, the last cake is now in the oven and the place is looking ready for guests...which means tomorrow we can finally break out all the sugary treats hidden away in my cake tins!

Including these...an old favourite of mine that have come in really handy since I'm on a no chocolate diet for Lent. I need my sugar fix from time to time and these are just the ticket!

Banana Flapjack Recipe

80g brown sugar
100g butter
275g rolled oats
4 tbsp golden syrup
1 banana, very ripe

1. Over a low heat, melt the butter in a large saucepan.
2. Add the sugar and the golden syrup and stir well.
3. Mix in the oats and stir thoroughly.
4. Mash the banana and add, stirring well until the banana covers all of the mixture.
5. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 220c for about 10 minutes or until the mixture starts to turn golden brown.

Of Babies and Baking

Babies and baking don't mix well. And it seems that my baby in particular and baking really don't mix well.

Hubby and I are blessed with what is gently referred to as a 'high-need' baby. She is inquisitive, easily upset, very vocal and unwilling to sit or lie still for longer than a few minutes. She wants to do, see, hear and touch everything. Especially anything that I am doing, watching, listening to or holding. So when she's not being carried in her baby sling, she is dangling from my right hip as I attempt to do all kinds of household jobs one-handed. It makes for many a comical moment!

So it goes without saying that I don't get as much time to bake as I'd like. At the moment I'm lucky if I manage a baking session twice a week. So it is extra, extra nice when a half-hour opportunity presents itself and I'm able to try my hand at something new.

I love to bake bread, but with all the kneading, rising and kneading again, it's really not baby-friendly. So today I tried out a no yeast, almost no kneading recipe that really worked out well...it's amazing how much satisfaction can be gained from virtually zero effort!

This is one recipe I'll definitely be teaching my little girl when she's big enough to stand on a chair and hold a wooden spoon...

Martha's No Yeast Bread Recipe:

600g plain flour
15 fl oz water
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tbsp bicarbonate of soda

1. Mix dry ingredients together first in a large mixing bowl and then add the water.
2. Mix well until a dough is formed.
3. When ready, transfer the dough to a well-floured surface and knead for 2 -3 minutes, or until the dough is pliant and non-sticky. Add more flour if needed.
4. Shape into a round, measuring about 1 1/2 inches deep.
5. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200C/400F for about 40 minutes.

English Senorita!

I have a real passion for cooking. I'm no Martha Stewart or Delia Smith, but what I lack in skill, I try to make up for with enthusiasm. I am loath to be a slave to cook books and other people's way of doing things, so where I can, I make up my own recipes from scratch.

As a result, dinner time in our house is often an eccentric experience, but fun and usually tasty all the same.

Last night was fajita night. I don't make my own tortillas (yet!) but I have come up with a little recipe for fajita marinade which turned out really well!




Chicken Fajita Recipe: Serves 2-3

200g chicken, diced
2 bell peppers, cut into strips
1 onion, finely chopped

Marinade Ingredients:
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tspbs paprika
1 tspb cumin
1/2 tspb cayenne pepper
1 tspb clear set honey
1 tspb brown sugar
2 tsbps olive oil
juice of 1 lemon

1. In a large frying pan, heat the chicken, onion and peppers in a little olive oil.
2. When chicken is nearly cooked, add the marinade ingredients and stir until all the chicken and peppers are evenly coated.
3. Add a little hot water to keep the chicken moist and then cover and leave to cook on a low heat for about 15 minutes.
4. Once the chicken is thoroughly cooked, it is ready to be served!

Best served with corn or flour tortillas, spicy salsa and soured cream.

A Loaf for Lent!

This is a great recipe for Lent as it is fairly plain as well as inexpensive to make. It's also a perfect alternative to the average fat-laden breakfast muffin.

It has no chocolate, no icing, no butter and no cream...I admit I'm not making it sound terribly nice. But trust me, it is!

Bran Loaf Recipe:

Serve with butter, low-fat spread or jam. Or just eat it plain.

75g Kelloggs All-Bran cereal
165g self raising flour
175g dried mixed fruit
120g light brown soft sugar
300ml milk
A few teaspoons of nutmeg and cinnamon.

1. Place the cereal, mixed fruit, sugar and milk in a large mixing bowl and leave for about 90 minutes.
2. Once the mixture has gone really soggy, pre-heat the oven to 150oC and grease a 1 lb loaf tin with plenty of butter (I find it best NOT to line the tin with greaseproof paper as it can stick very hard to the loaf.)
3. Next, sieve the flour into the mixture and mix thoroughly.
4. Add the nutmeg & cinnamon and mix.
5. Spoon the mixture into the tin and bake in the oven for about 90 minutes.

And you're done!

Sweets For My Sweetie

It's nearly St. Valentine's Day! A day for red roses, big pink heart balloons, cuddly toys and over-sized cards.

And in this house, it is definitely a day for chocolate. (Especially as Lent is coming up so soon...this is the last chance for 6 weeks!)

So in the spirit of all things sweet and romantic, here is a recipe given to me by my lovely little sister.

Happy Valentine's Day!


Rocky Road Recipe

1.4 kg milk chocolate
8 chocolate bars (any kind will do!), roughly chopped
180g Maltesers
100g dried apricots, chopped
100g raisins
100g marshmallows
100g cornflakes
100g chocolate sprinkles

1. Melt the milk chocolate and the chocolate bars (but not the Maltesers) in a large bowl over hot water.
2. Weigh all the dry ingredients, except the chocolate sprinkles.
3. When the chocolate is melted, stir in the dry ingredients until they are fully coated.
4. Line a lasagne-style dish with cling film and then pour in mixture.
5. Smooth over with a tablespoon and put chocolate sprinkles on top.
6. When the mixture has completely cooled, place in the refrigerator and leave overnight. Do not place the mixture in the fridge whilst still warm.

Don't Try This At Home!

Each evening, while we're having our daily catch up, I ask Hubby a question.

"What do you want for dinner tomorrow"?

Invariably he will say he wants a curry, or a chilli, or perhaps something with potato.

But occasionally, just once in a while, he'll throw me a curve ball and ask for something a bit...ahem...unusual.

Yesterday was one of those days. For his dinner, he said, he would like a tuna risotto...with onion... and garlic... and Worcester sauce.

Hmmm...

Hesitations put aside, what Hubby wants Hubby gets when it comes to his dinner. So I set about trying to make an edible meal from this random assortment of requested ingredients. And this was the result.

So here is my recipe for a very bizarre risotto. And d'you know what? It didn't taste half bad!

'Hubby's Crazy Risotto' : Serves 2

1 large onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
200g risotto/ arborio rice
1 can of tuna, well drained
1/2 can of sweetcorn, well drained
A few splashes of worcester sauce (add as much or as little as you like).
1/2 tspb paprika
black pepper to taste
cheese, to grate (any kind you like!)

1. Heat a little olive oil in a large pan.
2. Saute onion and garlic on a low heat until soft.
3. Add the rice and fry for a further minute until all the rice is coated in the oil.
4. Add a few ladel-fuls of boiling water (using a stock cube is optional...I prefer to do without the salt) and stir thoroughly.
5. Add the tuna, sweetcorn and paprika and worcester sauce and stir thoroughly, simmering gently on a low heat.
6. Continue to add more water as required until the rice is thoroughly cooked.
7. Once served, grate the cheese on top.

And you're done! Now you can enjoy (or not enjoy) your crazy concoction!

DISCLAIMER - www.marthassecretvineyard.blogspot.com cannot be held liable for any wasted ingredients or emotional distress caused as a result of serving this meal.

Chilli con Carne

Chilli is a big deal in our house. It's rare that a week goes by without Hubby suggesting, nay, insisting we have a chilli. Fortunate then, that I love it too!

As with all my recipes, I have no idea if this would qualify as a genuine chilli, but it tastes nice, is not difficult to make, nor does it take hours, so it's a winner in my book!

Chilli Recipe: Serves 4

250g extra lean minced beef steak
200g kidney beans
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 fresh green chilli, finely chopped
1 tspb red chilli flakes
2 tspb paprika
Pinch of cayenne pepper
2 tsbp sugar
Splash of red wine

1. In a large saucepan or frying pan, place beef, onion and garlic and cook until the meat has browned. (No oil is needed to cook with, as the beef contains more than enough).
2. Add the kidney beans and cook for a further 5 minutes.
3. Add the chopped fresh chilli.
4. Add the chilli flakes, paprika and cayenne pepper, adding more or less to taste
5. Add the sugar and stir thoroughly.
6. Cook for a further 5 minutes
7. Finally, add the red wine and stir thoroughly. Cover and simmer gently for about 15 minutes.

And you're done!

Curry Favour

My husband is obsessed with curry. Totally obsessed. And the hotter, the better. He would be happy to eat it every day I think, provided I serve it with a variety of vegetables.

Since this is one of his favourite meals, I've tried to come up with my own curry recipe, one as tasty as his favourite from the local Indian takeaway. It's taken a good few months of trial and error and reliance on ready-made curry pastes but I think I've finally come up with a recipe of my own that I am happy to serve whenever his curry mood strikes.

And as a result, I've fallen very much in love with my spice rack! It's amazing what you can do with 5 or 6 spices and a few handfuls of red lentils.

I wish I could claim that this curry recipe is the real deal, but truth be told, I know precious little about authentic Indian cuisine. So while I have no idea what category of curry this would fall into, (probably not any!), what I can say is it's hot, it's tastes pretty good and it's cheap to make. And that can never be a bad thing.

I've tried this recipe with a variety of meats, and some vegetarian soya, meat substitues but I think chicken works best.

The quantities of the spices used here are all estimates, nothing exact, and they can all be altered according to taste. This just happens to be a combination we like.

Curry Recipe: Serves 4 adults...or 1 adult plus a very hungry husband!

500 g chicken fillets, or chicken breasts, roughly chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 large handfuls split red lentils, rinsed with cold water
2 fresh chillis (I use 1 red, 1 green), finely chopped
1 tbsp tomato paste/puree
1 tspb white sugar
1 tspb soft brown sugar
1 tbsp turmeric
1 tspb ginger
1 tspb garam marsala
1 tspb cumin
1 tbsp paprika
1/2 tspb cayenne pepper
1 tbsp soured cream

Before starting, fill the kettle and boil.

1. In a large saucepan, lightly saute the onion and garlic in a little olive oil until onions are translucent.
2. Add the chicken and cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring frequently. If the chicken becomes too dry, add a little more olive oil
3. Add the lentils and cook for a further minute.
4. Add the tomato paste and roughly a ladel-ful of hot water and stir thoroughly. The water should cover the lentils completely.
5. Add the chopped chillis and another few ladel-fuls of water.
6. Add all the spices plus the sugar and stir.
7. Reduce heat, cover the pan and leave to simmer until the lentils and the chicken are thoroughly cooked. Add more water as required.
8. Before serving, add the soured cream and mix in thoroughly.

Carrot Cake

Yesterday was baking day. I'm rather too proud of the way this cake turned out as I had adapted and changed the recipe somewhat. I'm still such a novice when it comes to cake making that the little success I have feels like a bigger deal than it is.



Coffee and cake is a classic combination and one I am probably too fond of (Too proud and too fond..not selling my good points here am I?!)

Still...a few pieces of cake can't hurt now and then.

And besides, this cake is a health-food cake...it has carrots in it!


Carrot Cake Recipe:

225g soft brown sugar
225g self-raising flour
225g butter
4 eggs
2-3 medium sized carrots, grated
Juice of 1 lemon OR orange

1. Cream the butter and sugar until smooth.
2. Beat in the eggs and mix well.
3. Add the grated carrots and mix well again.
4. Add the lemon/orange juice.
5. Sift in the flour and mix well.


Bake in a pre-heated oven at 150 degrees C for about 90 minutes in a deep cake tin (I use a cake tin about 4 inches deep). It makes for a very tall, but very delicious cake! Perfect sliced in two halves with vanilla buttercream in the middle.