Recipes Cooking

A splendid and hearty morning sandwich to take with you on those busy mornings working, fishing, hunting, or just any time when you and  your children are on-the-run - Its great warm, although wonderful at room temperature too...

Serving: (1)
Prep: 5 Mins. |
Cook: 5 to 7 Mins.

Posted by Sandra

INGREDIENTS

2 strips of quality bacon, cut in half crosswise, and browned
1 organic whole egg, fried (with yolk broken)
2 lettuce leaves
2 slices of tomato
1 slice of cheddar cheese
Mayonnaise, for spreading on toast
2 slices whole wheat bread, toasted
Fine-grained Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

METHOD

In a small non-stick skillet over medium heat, brown the bacon, and drain on a paper towel lined plate, reserving a bit of drippings. Reduce the heat to low, and gently fry the egg with the broken yolk.

Meanwhile, place the bread in the toaster. When toast is done, spread one side of each with mayonnaise, and layer the bacon, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and egg on top of one slice of toast. Sprinkle fried egg with sea salt and ground pepper, to taste. Add the other slice of toast. – Enjoy!

Maple Chicken HT MC Canadian 60mins Serves 4

Ingredients
4 Chicken Breasts on the bone
Plain Flour for coating
Salt and Black Pepper
50g/2oz Butter
1 tbsp Olive Oil
120ml/4flo.z. Maple Syrup
1 teasp dried Parsley
1 teasp dried Thyme
1 teasp dried Sage
1 teasp dried Savory
1 Medium Onion, thinly sliced
120ml/4fl.oz. Chicken StockInstructions1.
Preheat oven to 180C, 350F, Gas Mark 4.

Season the flour with salt and pepper and in a bowl or plastic bag, mix well then use to coat the chicken pieces well, shaking the excess flour off.

2. Heat the butter and oil in a flameproof casserole until hot then add the chicken and brown on both sides.

3. Remove the chicken from the heat then pour the maple syrup over the top and sprinkle with the dried herbs.

4. Arrange the onion slices over the chicken then pour the chicken stock over the top. Bake for 40 minutes, basting two or three times during the cooking. Serve hot.

I made this Maple Chicken recipe tonight as part of the challenge for Cooks Journal. It was quite pleasant but nothing very special, not sure that I would make it again, I think there are probably other ways of using maple syrup that are more tasty - thinking pancakes mmmmm

Passing on the legacy of Anglo-Indian cuisine
, Bangalore

People like Koramangala-based Bridget White-Kumar prove that you do not have to be an academician or historian to bring the past alive. Instead of simply retiring, she has become a food ambassador.
The recently released Julie and Julia enthralled cinema lovers and foodies equally. The film, in part, shows the determination of an otherwise laidback Julia Child’s (played by Meryl Streep) endeavours to become a Cordon Bleu cook, her resolve to teach American women the art of French cuisine and the difficulties in getting her first recipe book published.
Author of six cookbooks and a blog on Anglo Indian cuisine, Bridget White-Kumar is Karnataka’s very own food ambassador. For Bridget White-Kumar this story could be termed familiar territory. Author of six cookbooks and a blog on Anglo Indian cuisine, she is Karnataka’s very own food ambassador. And, like Julia, the road to getting published was a rocky one for Bridget.

A former bank employee, Bridget’s professional life took a 180 degree turn when, after opting for voluntary retirement, she began to document Anglo Indian cuisine. Always interested in food, it was only when her daughter left for higher education to a foreign country that Bridget realised the value of the knowledge she held.
“I wrote out some recipes for my daughter,” recalls Bridget. “This became so popular with her friends that we dubbed it the black book. As she kept calling me to clear doubts, I realised that many of these recipes would probably die out if they were not recorded.” It provided the impetus for Bridget’s first book – The Best of Anglo Indian Cuisine – a Legacy, which came out in 2004.

With publisher after publisher rejecting her manuscript, by the time a publishing house finally agreed to the book, Bridget was weary of the entire procedure. So she decided to bring it out herself. Despite the high expense that self publishing entails, Bridget has not regretted the decision.

“The Internet has been a huge blessing,” she says with a smile. Thanks to technology and the blog, Bridget has been able to market her books so well that she has recovered all costs incurred. Considering that she did not know how to even work a computer before she embarked on her cookbooks, this is no mean feat. There have been no book launches or media blitzes either, but word of mouth did the rounds and the resultant press write-ups propelled Bridget into the limelight. Publishers also took note. Bridget’s seventh book, currently with a major publishing house, will soon be out. And her eighth – a nostalgic look at life in Kolar Gold Fields (KGF), has been published by Author House UK.

The Best of Anglo Indian Cuisine - Bridget White-Kumar.

Bridget, who grew up in the close knit mining community of KGF where a large percentage of the population were Anglo Indians, believes that Anglo Indian cuisine is the first instance of fusion food in India. “It is a confluence of various cultures, not just Indian and British,” she says. “Even within Anglo Indian communities in different parts of India, the ingredients for the same dish can vary. In Cochin the use of coconut will be more, while in Calcutta the oil used would be mustard. But whichever the region, the use of spices remains constant. The judicious use of spices is the defining trait of our food. Not spicy and not bland,” she adds.

Bridget’s favourite meal is yellow coconut rice, mince ball curry and pepper chicken. It is a reminder of her childhood. And of a past that she remembers with clarity. With four generations of Whites in the mining sector and a family home in Robertsonpet in KGF, Christmases especially were a great time for merriment and feasting.

To read Bridget-White Kumar’s blog, click here. For copies of her books, contact her on 9845571254 or at bidkumar[at]gmail[dot]com or bridgetkumar[at]yahoo[dot]com
“My father was a mining engineer and we lived in huge rambling quarters in KGF. There were four mines and each mine would have their Christmas function; with a tree, games for children, Santa distributing goodies, a funfair with food stalls where coconut puffs and marshmallows were favourites and the Christmas dance which began at 9 in the night and wound up by 5 in the morning! The dance was a big event; people would come from Chennai and Bangalore to hear the groups playing,” she says.

It is recollections like these that you will find in her yet to be published book. People like Bridget White-Kumar prove that you do not have to be an academician or historian to bring the past alive. She could have led an ordinary retired life but, with her perseverance in documenting the food of a dwindling community and her resolve to pen memories of a world that has disappeared, she has chosen to tread a different path.

Plum cake
Serves 6
Preparation time 1 hour

Ingredients
300 grams flour or maida
250 grams butter
250 grams powdered sugar
3 eggs (whites beaten well separately)
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon chopped orange or lemon peel
100 grams black currant chopped
2 tablespoon date syrup (for colour)
2 cloves and two small pieces of chinnamon powdered
1 table spoon vanilla essence

Shift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Dust the orange/ lemon peel and chopped black currants with a little flour. Cream the butter and sugar well. Add the egg yolks, date syrup, cinnamon and clove powder and vanilla essence and mix well. Add the orange/ lemon peel and black currants. Slowly add the egg whites and flour and fold it well. If the mixture is too thick add a little milk. Pour into a greased and papered baking tin or dish and bake in a sow oven for about 40 to 45 minutes. Remove from the oven when done and set aside to cool.

(Taken from The Anglo-Indian Festive Hamper, one of the books Bridget White authored.)
⊕
Theresa Varghese
23 Dec 2009
Independent writer and ardent baker who loves all things to do with food

What do you get?  Well they are only around 85 kcal per pot and 0% fat, so you can certainly indulge in one of these for breakfast or a snack or even for dessert!  They come with honey, strawberry, tropical fruit or blueberry.

Now although these Total Greek Yogurt Split Pots are delicious just as they are, I couldnt resist the urge to mess around with them.  This weekend I seemed to have a lot of little clememtines in the fruit bowl, so decided to make a fruit salad.  I genlty poached the clementine segments in orange juice and a teaspoon of caster sugar for about 10 minutes.  Then once it had cooled added the chopped apple and banana.

I then took two Total 0% Greek Yogurt Split Pots with Tropical Fruits.

I topped the fruit salad with the Tropical Fruit Yogurt and put a teaspoonful of the reserved Tropical Fruit Sauce on the top of each one. The creamy yogurt cut through the acidity of the organges, delicious and refreshing.
Many thanks to the kind people at Total Greek Yogurt for providing me with these Split Pots to play with :)

Ive heard about Cobnuts, but live a long way from Kent and have never had the priviledge of tasting them. A Cobnut is a type of hazelnut traditionally grown in Kent. They are harvested in their green state form mid August and with brown shells and husks by mid October. All the Kentish Cobnuts are sold dehusked from November onwards.  I still havent tasted the fresh green cobnuts but I can certainly recommend this Handmade Chocolate and Kentish Cobnut Fudge which was sent to me, for review, by Potash Farm.  The fudge has a smooth creamy texture with lots of small nut pieces through it and a rich chocolate flavour, it was a big hit with my husband.

Potash Farm have a range of nuts, fudges and brittles, chocolates, biscuits, preserves and sauces sold from their website. A 200g bag of Handmade Chocolate and Kentish Cobnut Fudge costs £5.25

YOU CAN GET A DISCOUNT OF 10% OFF ANY ORDER FROM POTASH FARM UNTIL 10TH OCTOBER 2013, JUST USE THE CODE: FARMERSGIRL 10

Im a big fan of olives and Oloves is a new way to eat olives as an on the go snack.  The little foil pack contains 30g of flavoured olives and there are four different flavours: Lemon and Rosemary, Basil and Garlic, Chilli and Garlic and Chilli and Oregano.  The Oloves were very tasty and the flavourings tasted natural.  One of the big pluses for this way of presenting olives is that there is no oil or brine in the packages and they are only 50 calories per pack.  Holland and Barret are currently selling packs of Oloves for 99p with two for £ 1.48.

 I also used one of the packs as part of my homemade pizza topping which worked well,  they stayed moist and added a great flavour to the pizza.

I was given a pack of this locally produced In House chocolate for my birthday.  Ive tried the Green and Blacks Spice Chilli chocolate, but this little bar packs a much bigger punch.  It has real pieces of dried chilli in the dark chocolate and a small piece is quite sufficient to give you a real buzz of chocolate and leave your tongue tingling from the heat of the chilli.  I loved it!

In House chocolates gained 6 Gold Great Taste Awards and 2 Shortlistings in the Scottish Food Excellence Awards, renowned as the Food Oscars of the Scottish food industry.  All the chocolates are made by hand in Scotland and they run chocolate workshops and have an online chocolate club.

Mmm, chocolate!  Lovely Cadbury Chocolate, there really is nothing quite like it.  Im a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to my Cadbury flavours, I tend to go for Fruit and Nut or plain Dairy Milk.  I would never have picked up these two flavours, but I surely wasnt going to refuse them when they were offered for review!


The Cadbury Dairy Milk with Daim was the bar I preferred, I enjoyed the contrast of the smooth melting Dairy Milk and the crisp, crunchy pieces of Daim bar.  Ive never really understood the appeal of the Oreo, I can see that they are the cookies of childhood for our US cousins, but we have prefectly good sandwich cookies in the UK. Anyway, I found the Dairy Milk with Oreo a bit too sweet for me and the filling had no contrast, being soft.  I scoffed it down anyway, but I wouldnt choose it. Everyone has their own favourites and Cadbury have plenty of new flavour combinations to choose from, something for everyone.  Personally the Dairy Milk Crunchie is calling to me....

The New Covent Garden Soup Co. are well known for their delicious chilled soups and they have introduced some new Skinny Soups,  I was sent Skinny Souper Green with Italian Basil Pesto


New Covent Garden Soup Co. Pulled Pork and Bean Soup is Soup of the Month for November and a substantial spicy meat and bean combination.  I served it with Quesadillas for a tasty and filling lunch.

Its always a particular pleasure for me to review Scottish products like this Scottish Rapeseed Oil from Borderfields.  Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil  is a home grown substitute for olive oil with a healthy balance of omega 3, 6 and 9.  It also has half the saturated fat of olive oil and no additives.

Borderfields Cold Pressed Scottish Rapeseed Oil is ideal for all kinds of cooking, baking, stir frying and drizzling.  I used it to roast some pumpkin chunks for a Kale, Pumpkin and Smoked Cheese Tart the oil has a lovely creamy flavour but it doesnt overpower the flavours of the food you cook in it.  I also roasted some the pumpkin seeds with spices to make a tasty snack.


Borderfields Cold Press Rapeseed Oil is available across the UK at Asda, Sainsburys, Aldi and Morrisons and at Tesco in the North and Scotland.
RRP of £3.99 for 500ml bottles:

I picked up this pack of Extremely Chocolately Honeycomb Crispies at Marks and Spencer, I didnt realise that they were designed to be low calorie for the Count on Us menu planner, when I chose them, but I have to say I was quite impressed.  Each square is individually wrapped (ideal for lunchboxes) and they are 120 calories per crispie.  They are nice an crunchy and you can really taste the honeycomb.

I was supplied with the following products for review:  Cadbury Dairy Milk with Daim, Cadbury Dairy Milk with Oreo; Covent Garden Soup Co. Pulled Pork and Bean and Skinny Souper Green with Italian Basil Pesto; Borderfields Scottish Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil.  

I purchased the Extremely Chocolatey Honeycomb Crispies and am sharing my review because I enjoyed them and thought you might too.

I was not paid for any of these reviews and all opinions are my own.