Claire's Cake Bake & Other Foodiness

Last night we made the chicken and tarragon pie I had been meaning to do earlier in the week. But before we enjoyed this we used up the left over asparagus.

I say we, but it was Anthony that cooked up a delicious starter. Steamed asparagus spears with quick hollandaise sauce. This sauce is not a traditional way of making hollandaise but is lower fat and much easier and to be honest, tasted just as good

Quick Hollandaise Sauce

• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 tablespoon cornflour
• 1 1/2 rounded tablespoon creme fraiche
• 5ml white wine vinegar
• 1/4 tablespoon lemon juice
• 25g butter

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We have been back home for a week now. A week of work and it feels like our holiday was a very distant memory. I hate that about holidays.

I was going to post some more about our adventures in Scotland but Hubby posted about it a few days ago.

To be honest, I haven’t cooked anything very exciting this week. I rustled up a tasty pasta bake on Wednesday with a tin of tomatoes, an onion, a green chilli & a clove of garlic – then mixing it through with some par-cooked pasta & mozzarella. Baked for 10 minutes and hey-presto. It was lovely & I quite enjoy it when I just throw stuff together that takes no more than 20 minutes.

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As I said last week, we have travelled North for a weeks holiday. Our first stop was an overnight stay at the Q Hotel just North of Glasgow, The Westerwood. Anthony treated us to a Suite and the price included Dinner & Breakfast. The dinner was lovely – unfortunately I didn’t get any photos but I enjoyed some Pollock from Peterhead served on a potato rosti with wilted spinach and a rather lovely creamy but light sauce.

On Saturday we carried on North and up into the Highlands, arriving at our accomodation after a leg stretching walk around Loch an Eilein. We are self catering in a very nice house towards the Northern end of the town. A view of a snowy topped Cairngorm can be found from the kitchen window.

Sunday was our first wedding anniversary and we spent some of it near the top of Cairngorm where we found some snow!

After wandering around and taking photos we grabbed a warming cup of hot chocolate & coffee before heading back down. In the evening we enjoyed a very pleasant meal at The Old Bridge Inn – it even started snowing whilst we sat enjoying our food. Proper big flakes of snow. Bliss. I enjoyed scallops to start – they were served in a light sauce flavoured with lemongrass and honey. For mains, I thoroughly enjoyed braised monkfish served with asparagus and seasonal vegetables. Anthony sampled some bruchetta followed by a venison steak (no photos again sorry!)

Yesterday we drove over to Aberdeen. If I am completely honest it was a miserable day weather wise. We kind of wish we hadn’t bothered with the 2 1/2 hour (each way) journey. You live & learn! On the positive side, we came back via the scenic route & literally came face to face with the most magnificent deer, possibly a stag. It was huge. I had put the camera on the back seat but was too slow in turning round to get it!

Today we ventured out for another walk, in the drizzly rain. After stopping off to get Anthony some more water resistant trousers. We climbed from Glenmore up to the valley in between
Creagan Gorm and Meall a’Bhuachaille. The views were beautiful. Lake Morlich shining in the grey light, snowy topped mountains and pine trees. By the time we reached the top the weather took a turn, the wind got up, the drizzle turned to hail and there was nowhere to shelter so we did a quick about turn and started back down the same route we had walked up.

Through the valley…
Views from near the top…

After getting back to the car we travelled a few miles back down towards Aviemore and stopped at the Ord Barn for a heart warming Parsnip & Honey soup served with homemade bread and a hot cup of coffee. Delicious. If I was to open up a cafe it would be something just like this… hot drinks with lots of homemade soups, sandwiches and cakes. Mmmmm.

I haven’t really got an excuse for my lack of blogging over the last week or so. I just haven’t felt our food worthy of blogging I suppose – it’s been quite normal and we haven’t really tried anything new… but here is a quick update!

Pancake Day
I made some pancakes last Tuesday. Hubby doesn’t like pancakes (except for Little Chef ones apparently, but I think that is more of a rekindled memory as he hasn’t been to a Little Chef for a very long time). Every year I make myself a couple of pancakes with lemon and brown sugar and try to tempt him into trying them to no avail. This year I think I won. Well, I won him over with the filling – ice cream and Dulce de Leche (sickly toffee sauce). I stuck to my lemon and sugar combination but here is Hubbys sickly sweet pancake…

Rhosneigr
On Saturday we took a day trip to the lovely beachside village that is Rhosneigr on Anglesey – it was a beautifully sunny day and it really did not feel like February. The kite surfers were out in force enjoying the good weather…

And we quickly visited the South Stack in Holyhead before heading home…

Sausages and Mash with Jamies O’s Red Onion Gravy
We spent most of yesterday having a good clean and clear out. I had intended on sitting down at some point in the day and deciding on the weeks menu’s but left it far too late. In fact we only just managed to get to a Sainsbury’s about 20 minutes before closing. With the rushing around we ended up with a rather satisfying dinner – chilli & corriander sausages with mash, purple sprouting broccoli and my trusty red onion gravy…

Red onion Gravy (for 2)
1 red onion, finely sliced
1 clove garlic, finely sliced (can be left out)
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
hot water & vegetable stock cube

Fry onions & garlic gently for 5 minutes
Add balsamic vinegar & reduce by half
Crumble in a little stock cube & add hot water – keep simmering & add water as required to consistency you require

Last weekend we went round to my mum & dads for a Jamie Oliver curry, a kind of belated birthday dinner for my brother as he was poorly the first time round. I offered to make pudding and decided something palette cleansing was in order.

I hadn’t made or even eaten syllabub before but had been inspired after seeing the Tequila syllabub on Masterchef the other week (made by an online acquaintance). It was easy to make, though it started the evening before when I had to infuse some sugar, dessert white wine, lemon & lime juice. Served with some of the lovely Three Chimneys Shortbread it was quite pleasant. Though next time I’d put more lemon juice in as the sweetness took some of the flavour away.

Makes 6 servings
75g caster sugar
100ml sweet white wine
1 lemon
1 lime
300ml double cream, whipped

The night before – thinly pare the lemon and lime and squeeze out the juice. Put this in a bowl together with the wine and sugar. Leave to infuse overnight before straining into a bowl.

Fold in the cream and pour the syllabub into martini glasses or small pots.

Serve with homemade shortbread biscuits.

This evening I made Tuna Burgers. You may remember I did make them last year, adapting a Simon Rimmer recipe for Salmon burgers. Anyway when I went to retrieve the recipe it was not on my blog so here goes – a slightly further adapted recipe:

250g – 300g Tuna Steaks
2 slices brown bread, crusts off (& magimixed into bread crumbs)
1/2 egg white
1 shallot or small chunk of red onion
Tablespoon dill
Salt & Pepper

1. Put bread into magimix & made breadcrumbs
2. Add red onion, and dill & blitz
3. Season
4. Add tuna (cut into chunks) & egg white – pulse magimix so small pieces of tuna remain

Turn the mixture out & shape into 2 ‘burgers’ – cover them up and pop them in the fridge for 1/2 hour

Heat some vegetable oil in a frying pan and lightly fry for around 3 or 4 minutes (depending on the thickness) on either side until cooked through in the middle

We served this with some organic mayonnaise flavoured with a little garlic, a squeeze of lemon juice & touch more dill.

We also had some homemade chips courtesy of ‘Cook with Gordon‘ -
2 Desiree potatoes scrubbed (skin left on) cut into eighths & parboiled for 3 minutes. Season, add a touch of olive oil & chilli flakes & pop on a hot baking tray in the oven set to 200°c for around 40 minutes until crisp.