JAMIE OLIVER'S BUN AND BUTTER PUDDING

This is another of Jamie Oliver's Easter hot cross bun recipes and without any doubt his best to date.

I love Easter puddings where you make use of hot cross buns. This pudding is simply another variation of bread and butter pudding but with a Jamie twist. There are a couple of plus points about this recipe, both brandy and grated orange zest are added to the custard!

My ultimate bread and butter pudding is one with an eggy sauce layer in the bottom and so I removed the pudding from the oven after 30 minutes, checked that there wasn't too much sauce and then I put the pudding under a very hot grill to tinge the buns a slight golden brown. If you don't want the sauce layer then cook for about 45 minutes.

Slightly adapted recipe.

Serves: 6 people

600ml semi-skimmed milk, 600ml double cream, 1 vanilla pod, 4 medium eggs, 100g caster sugar, 6 hot cross buns, 3 tablespoons brandy, zest of 1 orange, icing sugar.

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas 3.
2. In a pan put the milk and cream and bring just to a boil.
3. Cut the vanilla pod in half and scrape out the seeds, add to the saucepan.
4. Whisk the sugar and eggs together until light, now whisk in the milk and cream, remove the vanilla pod.
5. Halve the buns and spread with butter. Dip the buns in the mixture and place in an ovenproof dish. Pour over the cognac and the grated zest of the orange.
6. Pour the custard into a sieve held over the buns and now leave them to soak for approximately 15 minutes.
7. Put the dish into a roasting tin and half fill with hot water. Bake for approximately 40 - 45 minutes. When it is cooked the top will be slightly tinged and if you part some of the buns with a knife there should be a thick custard underneath. Check the pudding after 30 minutes cooking to ensure it doesn't overcook.
8. Dust with icing sugar.

Delicious!

EASY CHICKEN CURRY

In the mood for curry but short of time - then maybe this curry is for you. The curry isn't too hot but you can easily adjust the amount of chilli and ginger.

The pickled ginger in white wine vinegar used in the recipe was comparable to fresh and is a great store cupboard standby. Once opened it can then be stored in the fridge for future use.

Whilst in the photograph I didn't show all of the creamy sauce, there is more than enough for two people. I served my curry with plain boiled rice and naans.

Serves: 2 people

2 chicken breasts (bone in), 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 chopped onion, 1 crushed clove of garlic, a few julienned strips of lazy ginger, 1 medium sized red chilli (deseeded and finely chopped), 8 green cardamom pods, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1 tablespoon ground turmeric, 200ml chicken stock, 100ml natural yogurt, 75ml double cream, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, chopped coriander leaves.

1. Lightly brown the chicken in 1 tablespoon of oil. Remove the chicken from the pan.
2. Cook the onion, garlic, lazy ginger and chilli in the rest of the oil.
3. Take the black seeds from the cardamon pods and crush them with a pestle and mortar. Add the cardamom to the cooked onion, add the cumin and turmeric then fry over a medium heat.
4. Return the chicken to the pan and pour in the stock, bring to the boil. Cover with a lid and simmer gently until the chicken is cooked, which is about 30 minutes or so.
5. When the chicken is cooked through, turn the heat down, stir in the yogurt and cream. Gently warm through over a gentle heat, stir in the lemon juice and coriander.
6. Serve with boiled rice and naan bread.

PURPLE SPROUTING BROCCOLI, LEEK & ALMOND TART

This recipe comes from the BBC Good Food Magazine March 2010 and is by the talented food writer Celia Brooks Brown.

Purple sprouting broccoli has a very short season and so we need to make the most of it whilst it is around. I bought mine from an independent greengrocer, but if you are lucky enough to live in a market town, it should be more plentiful on the market stalls and not so costly. For this recipe you will only need a few spears of purple sprouting broccoli.

The tart was delicious and is on my 'make again' list for next year.

Serves: 6

You will need: 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 2 finely sliced leeks, 500g pack puff pastry, 1 tbs polenta or semolina, 6 trimmed spears purple sprouting broccoli, 150ml creme fraiche, 50g finely grated Parmesan, 2 egg yolks, 25g flaked almonds.

1. First heat the oven to 220°C/200°C Fan/Gas 7.
2. Heat up a frying pan over a medium heat and then add the oil. Now cook the leeks, with a lid on, stir occasionally until just tender which should take about 5 minutes. Put on one side.
3. Lightly flour a surface and roll out the pastry to a 26cm circle, drawing round a dinner plate or similar as a template.
4. Cover a baking tray with parchment paper and sprinkle with either the semolina or polenta, place the pastry circle on top. Score a circle about 2cm from the outside edge.
5. Now spread the leeks evenly inside the scored circle, bake for 10 minutes until the edges have puffed up. Remove from the oven and turn the heat down to 200°C/180°C Fan/Gas 6.
6. Bring a pan of water to the boil. Blanch the broccoli in the boiling water for 1 minute, drain and cool under running water. Drain thoroughly and arrange on top of the leeks.
7. Mix together the creme fraiche, Parmesan, egg yolks, salt and pepper, now pour over the veg.
8. Bake the tart for 15 minutes and then sprinkle over the flaked almonds, return the tart to the oven for a further 5-10 minutes, until golden.
9. Can be served either warm or cold.

BANOFFEE PIE

I love desserts, and Banoffee Pie has to be one of my favourites. It isn't a dessert I make very often, but when I do, it's heaven.

Mine are individual pies purely because I like to give my cooking rings some work to do every now and again.

The only twist to this classic recipe is to put some ground ginger into the crumb base, not too much, otherwise it will overpower the pies.


To serve: 6 people

You will need: six buttered 9cm or 10cm metal rings.

4 bananas, sliced
1 lemon, juice only
150g digestive biscuits
75g unsalted butter, melted
½ teaspoon ground ginger (optional)
450g jar Toffee Dulce de Leche
284ml carton of whipping cream, lightly whipped
plain chocolate shavings, for decoration

1. Toss the sliced bananas in the lemon juice and put to one side.
2. Put the biscuits in a food processor and whiz to crumbs. Add the melted butter and ginger, if using, and process for a minute or so to combine.
3. Put the metal rings on to a sheet of baking parchment on a tray. Press the biscuit crumbs into each ring. You can now put the tray into the fridge for the crumbs to firm up.
4. Remove the tray from the fridge and put a layer of toffee sauce (how much or how little is up to you) onto the crumb mixture.
5. Top the toffee sauce with the banana slices.
6. Carefully remove the rings.
7. Pipe or spoon on the cream, sprinkle with chocolate shavings and chill.

BLUEBERRY AND APRICOT FLAPJACK PUDDING

For the flapjack lover, flapjacks scattered over a fruit based pudding, instead of the usual crumble mix, is a wonderful thing.

I used a mixture of small rolled oats, and added some jumbo oats for texture, the mix worked perfectly. Fresh apricots and blueberries would have been wonderful, but we are still waiting for summer to come and therefore, a tin of drained canned apricots and frozen blueberries were used.

This pudding isn't really a looker when it's served up and perhaps it would be best to cook it in small individual dishes. To be honest, it looked like a nervous breakdown on a plate when I served it up and to make matters worse, I topped it with a dollop of creme fraiche which my husband said just added to it's misery. It made us laugh though, which can only be a good thing.

Moving on from looks, the pudding is amazing, the apricot and blueberry combo is perfect, and the buttery, crispy oat topping on this occasion, left crumble in the shade.

Serves: 4 people

You will need: 75g butter, 75g golden syrup, 45g oats, 45g jumbo oats, a tin of drained apricots quartered, 100g frozen or fresh blueberries, 1 tablespoon light muscovado sugar.

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C Fan/200°C/Gas 6.
2. Gently melt the butter in a small pan with the syrup and then fold in the oats.
3. Arrange the apricots and blueberries in the base of a small shallow ovenproof dish.
4. Sprinkle the fruit with the sugar and then scatter over the flapjack mixture allowing some of the fruit to show through. Bake for 30 minutes until the top is golden and crusty.
5. Serve warm or cold.

FLAPJACKS


Preheat the oven to Fan 160°C/180°C/Gas 4. Line a 23cm square tin with baking parchment.

1. Gently melt 240g salted butter with 180g demerara sugar and 6 tablespoons golden syrup over a medium heat.
2. Stir in 350g rolled oats.
3. Put the mixture into the tin and press down. Bake for 20 minutes.
4. Leave to cool and cut into squares.

VALENTINE'S DAY AMARETTO TRIFLE

It's a sin not to eat trifle, at least once a year. I haven't made trifle for at least a couple of years, but to compensate I have made an Amaretto, berry, meringue and cream trifle, it was certainly worth the wait. The trifle was made with frozen berries, but I will definitely be making this again with fresh summer berries.



Meringues - just a few to break up. I used two large egg whites and 110g golden caster sugar, the recipe is here on Delia's website.
500g mixed berries - if using frozen, thaw in a sieve over a bowl to remove the excess juice.
4 tablespoons of Amaretto
250g Madeira cake - I made mine but again it is perfectly fine to buy some, don't be tempted to use trifle sponges though because you don't want soggy cake and trifle sponges will go soggy!
500ml fresh custard
300ml whipping cream, softly whipped

1. Place the thawed berries in a bowl and pour over the Amaretto, leave to marinate for 15 minutes.
2. Cut the Madeira cake into cubes and place in a large, deep serving bowl. Top with two-thirds of the fruit, and pour over the custard.
3. Pop into the fridge to firm up for a couple of hours then remove.
4. Spoon a layer of cream on top of the custard, arrange broken pieces of meringue on top of the cream and then place clouds of whipped cream around the meringue pieces.
5. Top with the rest of the berries.
6. Decorate with Valentine hearts.