Rachel Allen Archives - Munchies and Munchkins

A Day In London With Ballymaloe Country Relish

July 28, 2015 · by munchiesandmunchkins · Leave a Comment

Last month I went to London for the day to attend a few different blogging events, it was an action packed, ridiculously hot and thoroughly enjoyable day. One of the events I attended was at Cactus Kitchens and was a demonstration lunch with one of my very favourite chefs Rachel Allen and Ballymaloe Country Relish.

The afternoon started well with a glass of ice old lemonade which was definitely needed after some tube travelling on the hottest day of the year. Rachel showed us how to make gorgeous soda bread rolls and loaves as well as sausage rolls, scotch eggs, burgers and cheese fondue all enhanced in some way by Ballymaloe Relish whether by a dollop added into the mix or added at the end.

As you can imagine the food was incredible, we all enjoyed sampling the goodies on offer – my favourites being the sausage rolls and the devilled eggs. We also took some of the bread and relish home with us.

I’ve since used mine in loads of ways from homemade burgers, to liven up my mayo and I love it with a good strong cheese and oatcakes.

I’d definitely suggest buying some to give it a go. There are some other great products in the Ballymaloe range including jalapeño relish and mint jelly! Yum.

Thanks to Rachel and the Ballymaloe team for a great afternoon.

In The Ideas Kitchen With Rachel Allen & Panasonic

June 1, 2015 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 2 Comments

A few weeks ago I was invited to an event with Panasonic to test out their new Slimline Combi Microwave Oven and SD-ZB2512 Breadmaker. Having had a Panasonic breadmaker quite a few years ago that had been passed onto me by a family member who had it for a long time previously I can already vouch for their durability and great results but the new machine is on another level. The microwave is also pretty exciting with a slimline design but no compromise on what it can deliver. You can cook such a wide variety of food in it that it makes me wonder if you would even need a standard oven anymore!

The lovely Rachel Allen was demonstrating a few recipes for us in The Ideas Kitchen including the most incredible Dulce De Leche Brownies. Everything from Roast Beef, Foccacia, Baked Potatoes, Brownies as well as Lemon Drizzle Cake were made in front of us ( and by us ) in less than an hour using just the microwave and bread maker. Yes a joint of beef in the microwave and it tasted incredible.

The event was held at the truly gorgeous Cactus Kitchen in London which is famous for being the set for Saturday Kitchen Live and we even had a chance to take a sneak peek at the set which felt very strange when it was completely empty. I kept expecting James Martin to pop his head out from somewhere.

There were 6 bloggers at the event and we were placed in pairs to create two dishes for us all to enjoy at the end of the event. Myself and Gail from One Million Gold Stars were tasked with making Lemon Drizzle Cake and Roast Beef with Salsa Verde and it was all incredibly simple. I was incredibly impressed with both of the new machines and their ease of use. I was particularly excited to learn that the new breadmaker can be used to create artisan bread, rustic loaves and sourdough from start to finish..yes you can even use the machine to make your sourdough starter.

These were the end results:

It was a delicious meal with great company between my fellow bloggers, finally putting names to faces of people whose blogs I enjoy such as Karen from Lavender & Lovage and Sarah from Maison Cupcake as well as the lovely staff from Panasonic and Rachel Allen who I had met previously on a cooking weekend several years ago and I was touched that she both remembered me and asked after my daughters – such a warm, friendly woman.

I’m looking forward to my breadmaker arriving shortly and I will be sure to share what I think with you as well as my recipes I come up with.

* I was invited to this event by Panasonic and will receive a Breadmaker to review.

Cooking at Christmas time

December 27, 2012 · by munchiesandmunchkins · Leave a Comment

Has Christmas Day really come and gone already? It seems like we prepare for an absolute age and then it’s gone in a flash! I hope all your wishes came true and your dinners were delicious.

I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with family so I didn’t get a chance to cook which I missed! Yesterday I just relaxed and spent time playing with Izzy or watching tv with my OH but today I really wanted to get back in the kitchen. I was spoilt this year, spoilt by the wonderful time I got to spend with my family and the fabulous food I had to eat and once again spoilt with perfect presents from my OH and Izzy.

I won’t list all my presents but I will tell you that I will be experimenting with new recipes, cooking methods and playing with kitchen gadgets for quite some time!

Some of my books:

Already bookmarked around 30 MUST TRY recipes.

I was also lucky enough …after numerous hints to get a new waffle maker so it would have been rude to not try that out. It’s very different to my old waffle maker (my mums) so my first attempt looked like this:

I blame the waffle maker instructions. It said use 1 tablespoon of mixture .. Clearly not enough so I doubled it for attempt 2 which was a major improvement :

Both tasted delicious. For those interested the recipe I use for waffles is here and I often add extra ingredients such as vanilla or cinnamon… Or even chocolate chips.

Waffle making was not enough I needed to make something delicious for dinner so I tried a recipe which I have heard fave reviews about. Ham in coca cola. Sounds weird, tastes dreamy.
I used Nigellas recipe which you can find here I made a few small adjustments. Instead of using molasses followed by mustard powder and sugar I simply rubbed in a tablespoon of English mustard after I had placed my cloves in the scored fat and then followed by rubbing in 2 tablespoons of molasses. Worked well for me and the end result was so good I was amazed.

Here are some pics :

Bubbling hot hot hot

Just ready to go in the oven

Begging to be eaten but best leave it cool…

Worth waiting for

And one more just because it looked so pretty

If you have a ham lurking in your fridge you must try this, if not then well there are lots of hams in the shops at the moment. Buy one, try this. You will not be disappointed.

My kitchen addiction only seems to be growing so expect more and more recipes very soon.

I am aiming for healthier recipes in January. Until then enjoy.

P.S thanks for the feedback from you lovely people who tried my sprout recipe on Christmas Day. So glad you loved it too!

Drum roll please. Special guest post & Maple Pecan cake recipe from Rachel Allen

October 30, 2012 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 3 Comments

Earlier this year myself and Izzy won an amazing prize from Plum baby to attend a cookery course run by the very lovely Beverly Glock and one of my favourite chefs Rachel Allen.

It was fantastic and I met some lovely mums including obviously Rachel Allen who is not only a great chef but a genuinely nice lady (and fellow mum) who has very very kindly agreed to share a recipe with us so I’ll stop waffling and leave you to read why Rachel likes this recipe:

Maple Pecan cake – perfect for Thanksgiving

I absolutely adore Maple Syrup, one taste of it always brings me right back to when I was younger and used to visit my grandparents in Canada. Maple syrup and pecans are a classic combination and work particularly well together in this delicious cake… I hope you enjoy:

Ingredients

200g (7oz) self raising flour
1/4 tsp salt
200g (7oz) soft light brown sugar
125ml (4&1/2fl oz) buttermilk
200g (7oz) butter, melted plus extra for greasing
50ml (2fl oz) maple syrup
2 eggs, beaten
75g (3oz) pecans, finely chopped

For the praline:

50g (2oz) caster sugar
50g (2oz) pecans

For the icing:

300g (11oz) cream cheese
25ml (1fl oz) maple syrup
200g ( 7oz) icing sugar, sifted

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/ Gas 4), then butter the sides of the cake tins ( 2 x 18inch) and line the base of each tin with a disc of baking parchment. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl and mix in the sugar.
In a separate bowl, whisk the buttermilk with the butter, maple syrup and eggs. Add the wet ingredients to the flour and sugar, mixing together to combine, then fold in the chopped pecans.
Divide the batter between the prepared tins and bake for 20–25 minutes or until golden on top and springy to the touch.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Loosen around the edges using a small, sharp knife and carefully remove each cake from its tin before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling down.
Meanwhile, make the pecan praline. First line a baking tray with a sheet of baking parchment, then place the sugar in a non-stick frying pan or saucepan and scatter the nuts over the top. Cook over a medium heat until the sugar turns a caramel colour.
Do not stir the pan, but carefully ‘swirl’ it to allow the sugar to caramelise evenly and to coat the nuts in caramel. Alternatively, you could just toast the pecans instead.

For the icing: Whisk together all the ingredients until smooth. Place one cake upside down on a plate and spread over some of the icing, so that it’s about 5mm thick.

Place the other sponge on top, right side up, then cover the whole cake with the icing, using a palette knife dipped in hot water to smooth the surface. Decorate with the caramelised or toasted pecans to finish.

Thanks to Rachel for the above recipe which can be found in her new book called Cake, I bought mine from Amazon

You can also watch her new tv show Cake diaries on the Good Food channel, although its worth having a slice of cake to watch it with as you will get hungry!

For all you tweeters you can find Rachel on @rachelallen1 she’s very involved and seems to reply to every tweet she can so any baking questions you have it’s worth asking. She’s also pretty damn good at wordswithfriends 🙂

I will be trying this recipe out next week so I’ll let you know if mine turns out as well 😉

A Plum Prize

July 5, 2012 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 6 Comments

*Before we start at the end of this blog is a very lovely easy to enter competition.*

A month or so ago whilst Izzy was having one of those days (and nights) I entered a spurt of competitions online..mainly to kill time while she was napping as I knew she would be awake before I got the chance to actually do anything. Well it looks like I should thank my teething child as it has definitely paid off.

Two weeks ago I had an email telling me that I had won a competition with Plum Baby if you hadn’t heard of Plum and well if you aren’t a parent that could certainly be the case they produce an organic food range for babies and toddlers which is a bit different to the norm..definitely more adventurous that you would expect for little uns but in a good way. So the email informed me I had won an all expenses paid trip to Buckinghamshire staying at a hotel, two days at Plum cookery school with food expert Beverley Glock and one of my fave celeb chefs Rachel Allen ( check my earlier blogs for one of her awesome biscuit recipes) that’s pretty good yes but wait there is more.. They also threw in £500 to spend on Izzy and a video camera to continue filming the weaning journey. Woop I was more than excited.

Train travel was included in the prize so I ( very hesitantly ) climbed aboard a train from Swansea and made 4 changes including London underground at rush hour all by myself (and Izzy of course).
It was pretty scary but most people were amazingly helpful and I had an offer to lift the pram off at every stop.. I think my beautiful little girl made people all gooey.

The first day at the cookery school I met the other mums ( there were 5 winners in total) and their wonderful babies! This was easily one of my favourite parts of the whole experience.. Izzy loved spending time with babies of a similar age and I enjoyed chatting to some really lovely mums. We met Beverly and Rachel who were both really friendly and down to earth.

Rachel and Beverley showed us how to cook dishes such as stroganoff and sweet cape curry (to the same recipe as Plum use for their sweet cape taste adventures) as well as Muffins using a pouch of fruit purée as a substitute for a lot of the fat content of a usual muffin- definitely one to try.

To finish off we made chicken nuggets ( the healthy way) using chunks of chicken breast dipped in egg and covered in crushed up Plum baby crisps. These were so good you would never know they were covered in baby snacks.

I enjoyed all the recipes although I was ever so slightly disappointed that we weren’t more hands on with regards to the cooking as I do love to cook but I picked up a load of tips including : wash your eggs prior to use.. (If you are wondering why just think about it a little longer) using fruit puree to sweeten cakes etc. The only one I will admit that I won’t be trying at home is the cauliflower cheese made with formula milk to serve to the whole family- I tried it and it tasted fine but just not for me..sorry Beverley.

I’ll finish off with some more lovely photos and a bit of good news for my lovely readers I have not 1, not 2 but 3 sets of the new taste adventure range Plum baby food up for grabs and it couldn’t be more simple to enter, in fact I am giving you 3 entries each. 1. Comment underneath telling me why you would love some Plum goodies. 2. Tweet me @writingforfun telling me why 3. Post a pic of your baby on twitter with the hashtag #Iwantsomeplummunchies I will pick 3 winners from all entries made before 8pm on July 15th 2012.

*a quick thank you to all at Plum, Beverley Glock and Rachel Allen as well as Finn PR.

A Day In London With Ballymaloe Country Relish

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In The Ideas Kitchen With Rachel Allen & Panasonic

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Cooking at Christmas time

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Drum roll please. Special guest post & Maple Pecan cake recipe from Rachel Allen

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A Plum Prize

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