Announcing Event ~Lets Cook with Green vegetables

After the christmas and New year festivities we have all indulged in rich fatty foods and lots of carbohydrates. The month of January is the perfect time to start eating healthy once again. This event is all about cooking with green vegetables.

To Participate:

1. Prepare any  vegetarian recipe  using green vegetables  (eggs allowed) please link your dish using the linky below by entering your Dish Name and Post URL
2. Please link this event announcement with your entry, this is mandatory.
3.Use of logo is  not mandatory but it helps to spread the word if you can use it.

4. Multiple entries are allowed, archived are only allowed if reposted and updated with this event link.

4. In the event of problem using linky you can email me the entry at simplysensationalfood@gmail.com

Please use this format:

Your Name: Recipe
Name Recipe URL
Image no larger than 300 pixels.
Event Ends 31st Jan 2014

Coconut delight snowballs

Delicious coconut and mint treats perfect for christmas presents.

Ingredients:

White balls

100g coconut flour
5 tablespoons  sweetened  condensed milk
60g mixed tutti frutti fruit (papaya, mango, pineapple and cherries)

For covering balls

30g coconut flour
1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk

Chocolate balls

100g coconut flour
6 mint crisp chocolates crushed
2-3 drops green  food colouring
5 tablespoons condensed milk

For covering balls

100g milk chocolate
50g mint chocolate aero crushed
1 tablespoon coconut flour

Method:

White balls

1.Mix together the coconut flour, condensed milk and tutti frutti and form a dough.
2.Roll walnut sized balls from the mixture  and chill for 10 minutes.
3. After 10 minutes dip the balls individually  in condensed milk and roll them in the coconut flour. Chill the balls for half an hour.

Chocolate Balls

4. Mix together the coconut flour, condensed milk, green food colouring and crushed mint chocolate crisp and form a dough.
5. Roll walnut sized balls from the mixture  and chill for 10 minutes.
6.Melt the milk chocolate in a double boiler, when it has melted stir in the crushed chocolate aero and  stir until it has melted.
7. Dip the individual chilled mint  balls into the melted chocolate and then roll them in coconut flour.
8.Chill for half and hour.

Submitting to:

Lets cook Christmas party food  event by simply.food

Sweet potato Halwa

Aromatic and  rich a royal dessert to tickle your tastebuds

1 large sweet potato

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon ghee(clarified butter)

Pinch saffron (from Alchemic larder)

Pinch nutmeg (from Alchemic larder)

few flaked Almonds

Method:

1. Cut the sweet potato into 4 and place in a microwaveable dish with 2-3 tablespoons on water.Cover and cook in microwave on high for 7-8 minutes until sweet potato is cooked.

2. Remove from microwave and peel the skin off and mash the sweet potato, ensuring there are no lumps.

3. Heat the milk in cup and add a few strands of saffron to it and keep aside to infuse the flavour.

4. In a pan add the ghee(clarified butter) and heat it up.Add the mashed sweet potato, the saffron milk and cook on a low heat for 6-7 minutes.Keep stirring the halwa.

5. Add the sugar and nutmeg and cook for a further 3-4 minutes until all the sugar is has melted the moisture has evaporated. Keep stirring the halwa at all times.Stir in a pinch of nutmeg.

6. Transfer the halwa to small serving bowls and garnish with flaked almonds and a couple of strands of saffron.

The spices used in this recipe were from the Alchemic larder that was sent to me by Harvey Nicholls.

You may like;
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Autumn Fruits Chutney and Ideal Home Show seasonal cook book review and giveaway.

On Thursday 14th November I attended the VIP press event at Ideal Home Show at Christmas at Earls Court -London.The event was to launch the Ideal Home show seasonal cook book. 

This cook book has over 100 recipes covering all the four seasons spring, summer, autumn and winter. Recipes range from simple weekday suppers and leisurely weekend treats, to food for friends and swanky dishes for big occasions.Together with mouthwatering recipes the book has a section on simple how to section on simple preparation techniques,easy cooking methods,what equipment should be used and finishing touches advice.

There are useful sections on how to choose meat and fish and preparation techniques.There is a section on pulses and grains and how to buy, select and store fresh produce. I particularly found useful the section on preparing basic sauces which can be the base of any dish and a section on food plating and finishing touches. 

The selection of recipes are good and would be perfect for an amateur cook or advanced cook as the recipes are simple and easy to follow with beautiful photography that is mouthwatering and inviting.

Although the majority of recipes are non vegetarian there are some vegetarian recipes in the book and a lot of the non vegetarian recipes can be adapted for a vegetarian or vegan diet.

The book is a perfect keepsake book, it would make an ideal christmas present for a foodie and is available from the ideal home show website at a special price of £ 15.00.

The book launch was wonderful and I really enjoyed the drinks and the canapes and meeting all the persons behind the book launch. It was a very enjoyable evening. I would like to thank Ideal Home show shop for inviting me to the wonderful VIP event where I met the celebrity chef Mark Lloyd who signed my copy of the book. 

 I love my signed copy of the Ideal home show seasonal cookbook which is proudly sitting on my recipe shelf in the kitchen.

I have already tried a few recipes from the Ideal Home show seasonal cook. Some of the recipes I cooked are cherry tomato and onion tartlets, carrot and parsnip rosti, the strawberry cupcakes and the chocolate truffles.I also made the apple, tomato and plum chutney from the book and it has become my favorite recipe out of the book.

I made this amazing Autumn Fruits Chutney from the book:

Ingredients:

500 g cooking apples peeled and diced

500g tomatoes diced

250g plums stoned and diced

250g  red onions finely chopped

100g sultanas

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

350 ml white wine vinegar

250 g demerara sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

 1 teaspoon chilli flakes(optional)
1 stick cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground coriander

Method:

1. In a large pan add the chopped tomatoes, apples, onions, plums, sultanas, cinnamon stick and mustard seeds.

2. Cook the mixture on a low/ medium heat for about 30 minutes until all the fruit has softened and turned to pulp. Stir the mixture intermittently to avoid it sticking to the pan.

3.Add the vinegar, sugar, chilli flakes, ground coriander and salt and bring the mixture to a simmer. 

4. Reduce the heat and cook the mixture for a further 10 to 15 minutes until the mixture has thickened and when you draw a spoon through it no access liquid remains.

5. Remove from heat and leave to cool. 

6.Sterilise some glass jars and fill them with the chutney once it reaches room temperature.

NB- I followed the recipe from the cook book but have adapted it by adding chilli flakes, cinnamon and ground coriander.

As a christmas gift for simply.food readers I have a copy of the Ideal Home Show season cook book  to giveaway.

How To Enter

·         Simply complete the Rafflecopter widget below to verify your entries

·         Entries can be via blog comment, Facebook, Twitter etc

·         Please read the rules they form the terms and conditions of this Giveaway

·         Closing date – 19th December 2013 12.00 am 

• You have to be over 18 to enter and competition open to UK residents only.

How Rafflecopter works:

• You will need to complete the mandatory entry first – usually making a blog comment. You can do this by clicking on leave a comment at the bottom of the post and leaving your reply in the comment box. Please note your comment will not show immediately as it needs to be moderated however rest assured it will appear on the site, so carry on with rest of entries.
• Login to Rafflecopter – click to see what the question is. Make a comment answering the question on the blog.
•  Go back to Rafflecopter and click the green button to tell me you have made a comment, this will unlock all the other options. All entries are checked to see that the mandatory question is answered, if its not all bonus entries will become void. 
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a Rafflecopter giveaway

 Submitting to:

Lets cook Christmas party food  event by simply.food

Oreo Cheese Cake

My family love cheesecake and it's always the first dessert I think to make when I am entertaining. Cheesecakes are so easy to make and does not require too much effort. My daughter's favorite is the orea cheesecake I am sharing below but my partner loves fruit topped cheesecakes like this Cherry cheesecake and this lemon cheesecake.

Italian mascarpone with a delicious crunchy base and creamy topping makes this delicious cheesecake irresistable.

Ingredients:

Base

100 g digestive biscuits
50 g butter (melted)
75g oreo biscuits
30g  butter (melted)

Topping

250 g Mascarpone cheese
100 ml Double cream
100 g Icing sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla essence

Garnish

12 chocolate stars
6 oreo biscuits whole
2 oreo biscuits broken into crumbs

Method:

1. Crush the digestive biscuits and add them to 50g melted butter, mix to form a sand like texture.
2. Spoon the mixture into 6 small glasses and flatten out with the back of a spoon to form a thin layer (about 2 cm thick) Chill for 10 minutes
3. Crush the oreo biscuits and add to the 30 g melted butter, mix to form a sand like texture.
4. Spoon the mixture on top of the digestive biscuit layer and smooth with the back of a spoon to form an oreo layer. (about 1 cm thick) Chill for 10 minutes.
4. Whip the double cream until its stiff..
5. Add the mascarpone, vanilla and icing sugar to a large bowl and mix together until combined.Fold in the whipped cream.
6. Fill a piping bag with the mascarpone mixture and pipe a layer on top of the biscuit base.
7. Chill the cheesecakes in the fridge for 2 hours.
8. After two hours sprinkle some crushed oreo and chocolate starts on top of the mascarpone cream layer and serve with a oreo biscuit.

Submitting to:

Lets cook Christmas party food  event by simply.food

 .

Round up of Lets cook Preserves, Jams and Chutneys.

Thankyou to every who participated in this event , here are all the entries.

Round up Flavours of USA and Canada

Thankyou to everyone who took part in this event.Here is around up of all the lovely entries.

Announcing event ~ Lets cook Christmas Party Food

The month of December is upon us and the Festive season  has started. Its time to spend time with family nad friends and have lots of fun and arty. This event is all about Christmas Party food.
Create any festive party food and link it to this event.

To Participate:

1.Prepare any  vegetarian recipe as part of the Ingredient   (eggs allowed) please link your dish using the linky below by entering your Dish Name and Post URL
2.Please link this event announcement with your entry, this is mandatory.
3.Use of logo is  not mandatory but it helps to spread the word if you can use it.

4. Multiple entries are allowed, archived are only allowed if reposted and updated with this event link.

4. In the event of problem using linky you can email me the entry at simplysensationalfood@gmail.com

Please use this format:

Your Name: Recipe
Name Recipe URL
Image no larger than 300 pixels.