Week 23 !

This week we made pea and mint risotto with salmon fillets, and for desert A peach summer fruits drizzle cake, this week was very successful and resulted with very full parents.
we started by making the risotto it was fairly easy but we were worried near the begining because it looked very watery, however after a while it thickened into the best risotto Steph has ever tasted (this is her first risotto!)not only did Steph enjoy it but so did everyone else!
After the amazing risotto came the truly fandabidosy desert,it was simple as and tasted great, it even looked BETTER than the picture in the recipe.
A successful week the food critics (parents)loved it.

Bonne Appetite from Zilah and Steph xxx

week 22!

This week we made Curried veggieburgers and chocolate brownies. Both were amazingly yummy! We started with the chocolate brownies, which involved alot of bowls but were reasonably simple and veeerrrryyy yummy yum yums! Even though we forgot one of the egg yolks! while it cooked we started on the vegeburgers. Basically just chopping up vegetables, frying them and mixing with mash potato's and curry powder before bread crumbing and frying again. They fell apart easily but once they were cooked they tasted good.
Overall a very successful week and i thought I'd add the brownie recipe too, because they wee so easy but great! :


Ingredients:

300g golden caster sugar

250g butter

250g chocolate (70 per cent cocoa solids)

3 large eggs plus 1 extra egg yolk

60g flour60g finest quality cocoa powder.

tsp baking powder

You will need a baking tin, about 23cm x 23cm, preferably non-stick, or a small roasting tin.

1. Set the oven at 180°C/Gas 4. Line the bottom of the baking tin with baking parchment.

2. Put the sugar and butter into the bowl of a food mixer and beat for several minutes till white and fluffy. You can do it by hand if you wish, but you need to keep going until the mixture is really soft and creamy.

3. Meanwhile, break the chocolate into pieces, set 50g of it aside and melt the rest in a bowl suspended over, but not touching, a pan of simmering water. As soon as the chocolate has melted remove it from the heat. Chop the remaining 50g into gravel-sized pieces.

4. Break the eggs into a small bowl and beat them lightly with a fork. Sift together the flour, cocoa and baking powder and mix in a pinch of salt.

5. With the food mixer running slowly, introduce the beaten egg a little at a time, speeding up in between additions.

6. Remove the bowl from the mixer to the work surface, then mix in the melted and the chopped chocolate with a large metal spoon.

7. Lastly, fold in the flour and cocoa, gently and firmly, without knocking any of the air out. Scrape the mixture into the prepared cake tin, smooth the top and bake for 30 minutes. The top will have risen slightly and the cake will appear slightly softer in the middle than around the edges.

8. Pierce the centre of the cake with a fork - it should come out sticky, but not with raw mixture attached to it. If it does, then return the brownie to the oven for three more minutes.

It is worth remembering that it will solidify a little on cooling, so if it appears a bit wet, don't worry. 

Recipe from Nigel Slaters festival special in the observer.

Bonne Appetie from Zilah and Steph.

week 21!

This week we made cheese and onion double baked potato's and a strawberry tart.
We did this after school so when we got home the potato's were already being baked. We made the pastry for the tart first and then steph carried on with the tart custard mixture while Zilah scooped out the potato, made the cheese and onion mixture and mixed it all up before re-baking the cases and filling them with the yummy mixture. Steph meanwhile steph made an orange zest egg custard that looked like puke, but tasted amazing and when it got mixed with the cream turned nice looking. We then baked the pasty a ate the potato's with baked beans and sausages. Then we put the tart together, added and glazed the strawberry's and ate it. It was amazing and everyone else loved it too!
Bonne Appetite from Zilah and Steph.

Week 20!

This week we went on Zilah's dads boat for cooking so we had to make something quite simple (its not easy to cook on a boat!). We made a vegetable stir fry and chocolate bananas.So we sailed down the river to this Beach place called 'the rocks' (but we renamed it 'the crocs')and cooked the stir fry in the hob inside the boat. It was very easy, just cutting up the vegetables and putting them in a wok with the noodles, ready made sauce, beans and bean sprouts. As we ate it started raining so we couldn't go to the beach and make a fire to cook the bananas so we made them on the boat to. Just cutting a slit in the banana (still in its skin) and stuffing it with lumps of chocolate before wrapping it in tin foil. They tasted amazing, so gooey and chocolaty and yummy! We had a fun day and even went swimming (for a few seconds before we realised how cold it was!).
Bonne Appetite from Zilah and Steph xxx

Week 19 !!

this week we made potato, cheese and onion mini pies with a chocolate sticky toffee pudding for desert.
we started by making the pastry which went well as we have made it quite a few times now, then we moved onto the cheese potato and onion filling which was also simple but tasted great, it could have been used on its own as a potato salad if we wanted to !!
after the pastry had been rested we tried to roll it out with much difficulty as it was extremely crumbly once we had struggled the pastry into the moulds we filled them up and put them into the oven.
We then moved onto the chocolate sticky toffee pudding which we thought would be delicious, we followed the instructions exactly but it turned out to be disgusting we don't know how ! the toffee sauce was however delicious!

bonne appetite xxx

Week 18!

This week we made Cherry Tomato and Mozzarella focaccia bread with a vegetable soup and a strawberry and chocolate mousse.
We had to make this after school so we had to be quick and got straight on with making the focaccia first, as it had to rise for 1 hour. It went well and as we left it to rise we made the roasted cherry tomatos'
We then made the mousse which went badly from the cream nearly turning to butter when we over whisked it, to dropping 2 out of 4 of the glasses filled with mousse (half the finished mousse gone!)!!!
We finished by making the vegetable soup, which was simply cutting up the veg and chucking it in the magimix pouring in water and boiling.
We then ate the frankly disgusting vegetable soup with the actually quite nice focaccia followed by the blaaaaaaaaaa that was the mousse, it was so gross, we couldn't eat it. it was that bad!
So all in all pretty rubbish!
bonne appetite (actually maybe not the bonne appetite this week!) from Zilah and Steph.

Week 17

This week we made cheese and herb soda bread, and a lemon meringue tart.
Our friend Faye came and helped today.
First we made the soda bread which was quite easy, we then ate one for lunch with a fried egg, but before that steph tried to poach an egg and failed, then she tried to fry an egg and failed again. She then ate the failed fried egg,and zilah cooked two perfect eggs! they tasted delicious.
we then carried onto the lemon meringue tart which was also quite simple except zilah dropped an egg!
We went for a run and when we came back the lemon meringue pie was ready!

It was delicious many happy munchings.

Love from Z&S x x x