Gingerbread cookies

I know that it is not December yet, but few days ago I got the urge to bake gingerbread cookies. I'm back home in London for a week and the chilly weather really made me want to fill the flat with the smell of freshly baked gingerbread cookies.

I can't remember a single year in my life when I did not bake gingerbread for Christmas. For as long as I can remember it was something I really looked forward to. Until I moved to London I always used the gingerbread dough that my great aunt had prepared for us and very rarely resorted to the store bought versions and I can say that nothing beats the homemade stuff. However, with moving to London it was a bit difficult to get hold of my great aunt's gingerbread dough and I really haven't seen ready made doughs in shops over here, so the only option I was left with was to prepare the dough myself. As it was something I had never seen how it was made I was a bit scared in the beginning as I though that it would be incredibly difficult and time-consuming. Fortunately, I was proven wrong and this recipe is probably one of the easiest cookie recipes that I have made.

As I have given you the recipe way before Christmas there is no excuse whatsoever to resort to the store bought versions of gingerbread men and in addition to getting the most delicious and crunchy home-made cookies, your home will be filled with the amazing smell of freshly baked gingerbread. They are great for nibbling or even giving as gifts, especially as home-made presents are gaining popularity right now.

Ingredients
(Makes approximately 100 small cookies)
- 350g plain flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tsp ground ginger (or more if you wish)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon (or more if you wish)
- 125g butter, room temperature
- 175g light soft brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 4 tbsp golden syrup

- Various cake decorations or icing to decorate

Directions
Sift together the flour, soda, ginger and cinnamon and pour the mixture into food processor. Add the butter and blend until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs, then stir in the sugar. In another bowl, lightly beat the egg and golden syrup together and add to the food processor and pulse until the mixture clumps together. Take the dough out and knead until smooth, wrap it in clingfilm and place in the fridge for around 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C and line baking trays with baking parchment. Roll the dough out on a floured surface and use cookie cutters to cut out different shapes. For some cake decorations, you can put them on the gingerbread cookies before putting them into the oven, but for others you can't.  Depending on the size of your cookies, bake them between 7-15 minutes and make sure that they don't burn. When they have cooled down decorate them with icing and cake decorations.

Recipe from BBC Food

 

 

Chicken & vegetable parcels

One problem with cooking chicken is that if you overcook the chicken breast it becomes incredibly dry and tasteless and to be honest I've had my fair share of dry chicken breasts. Frying chicken breast is easy compared to cooking it in the oven and there was a point where I though that unless I choose chicken with bone in or at least skin on there is no other way I could cook a juicy chicken in the oven. After spending a considerable amount of time trying to find an answer to my problem on the internet (and failing miserably at it), it finally hit me - all I have to do is to ensure that the moisture does not escape from the chicken. Obviously one way to do that is to wrap the chicken breast into a nice slice of bacon or Parma ham or stuff it with some cream cheese, but that would defeat the purpose of having skinless chicken breast in the first place. So, after countless times of trying to cook moist chicken I finally found the answer - all I had to do was to place the chicken in a foil parcel and voila - no more dry chicken breasts!

This dish gets ready incredibly quick and can be easily made a day ahead and all you have to do is to chuck it in the oven and you'll end up with a perfect mid-week dinner. It's one of the quick, easy and healthy dishes that has become one of our favourite. The beauty is in the fact that it is so easily adjustable - you can add whatever vegetables you have at home into the parcel and it will come out as delicious. Serve the parcel on its own or with some rice or potatoes - it's delicious either way.

Ingredients
(Makes 2)
- 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
- 1/2 red pepper
- 75g snow peas (or sugar snap peas)
- 100g bok choy
- 1 carrot, sliced into thin strips
- 1 lemon slice
- Salt
- Pepper

Directions
Preheat the oven to 200C and cut out two large pieces of foil. Wash and dry the vegetables. Place the bok choy in the middle of the foil, top that with carrot sticks, snow peas and red pepper. Finally place the chicken breast on top of the vegetables and top the chicken off with a half a slice of lemon. Sprinkle with some salt and pepper and fold the foil together so that it would not touch the chicken. Place in the oven and cook for around 20 minutes (or until chicken is ready). Serve immediately just on its own or with some rice.

Simple steamed salmon

I love trying out new recipes and over time I've gotten the courage to try out some where the list of ingredients is hundreds of meters long and which take ages to cook. To be fair, there haven't been many occasions like that as I prefer to have my meal on the table quite quickly, especially when coming home  hungry after university or when I don't have time to spare to spend in the kitchen because the courseworks need writing and revision needs doing. Despite all the time constraints I have been very careful not to go down to the take-away places or just grabbing something to eat on the go and so far I've succeeded.

Although this recipe is not some sort of culinary masterpiece and does not involve lot of skill nor lot of ingredients for that matter, steamed salmon makes perfect mid-week meal. It's quick and dead easy to make and on top of that it is healthy and filling as well. In addition, steamed salmon makes a perfect base for a more sophisticated meal and it can be served with absolutely anything, starting from vegetables to mashed potatoes to rice, quinoa or just simple leafy salad. And because it is so universal I thought of sharing it with you. If you fancy dress it up with a nice horseradich-crème fraîche sauce or just serve it with some natural yogurt or sour cream or do what most people do - just serve it with a squeeze of lemon. I assure you that no matter what you serve it with or how you serve it the result will always be amazing - a quick, juicy, filling and healthy meal. Bon appétit!

Ingredients
(Serves 1)
- 150g salmon
- 150g French beans
- Salt
- Pepper

Directions
Bring water to boil, place the steamer in the pot and lay the salmon there skin side down. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and steam for 10-12 minutes until ready. To prepare the beans (or any other vegetable of your choice) boil or steam them until ready. Serve immediately.

Chicken & pesto penne

I know I promised to be healthy with my posts, but in all honesty pasta can be considered relatively healthy if you have wholegrain pasta and don't serve it with loads of cream. And as this tastes really good I just had to share it - especially as I improvised all the way. I came up with this dish one day after coming home late after lectures and as all the shops had already closed I could not pick up anything. To add to that, I honestly had no idea what I had in the fridge. My choice was either go home and make something up as I go along or have a take away. Thankfully I decided to give it a go at home.

To my luck I had some pasta, chicken and pesto at home. Surprisingly, the result of my improvised dinner was so good that I decided to share it. It's quick to make and has everything you want in your pasta dish without the unhealthiness - lean chicken, tomatoes to count towards your 5-a-day, crème fraîche instead of the cream for the creaminess and pesto to top it all off. And as always, no pasta dish is perfect without some, or in my case a generous sprinkle, cheese on top. It is quick, really nice and filling, but at the same time not too heavy - it could be nicely served for a dinner during the summer. For a more sophisticated take on the dish add some pine nuts to the pasta and serve with a nice glass of chilled white wine.


Ingredients
(Serves 1)
- 100g wholewheat penne
- 110g chicken fillets
- 50g cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 tsp crème fraîche
- 1 tbsp pesto
- Parmesan to serve

Directions
Put the pasta to boil. In the meantime chop up the chicken fillets to small cubes. Fry them in some olive oil until nearly done, then add the cherry tomatoes to the pan and fry stirring until the chicken is ready. Then put the crème fraîche and pesto on top and mix well to cover the tomatoes and the chicken. When the pasta is done, drain it and place back into the pot. Add the chicken and pesto and mix well over some heat. Place the pasta in a bowl and serve with a generous sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

Steamed wild snapper & cabbage

I just realised that instead of being a food blog with a good selection of different meals (and emphasis on the healthy note, of course), my blog has basically turned into a baking blog. Fortunately, it is not too late to fix this and from now on I will try to emphasise the main courses and salads and soups a lot more than I do baking (or I'll at least try to balance them out). So, after so many cakes and muffins, I decided to get myself together and start preparing healthy meals again. I've already made a quite impressive list of all the meals I will prepare so I'm sure that I won't get off the track this time (but no need to worry - I'll still post something sweet every once in a while).

And on that healthy note the first dish in this pursuit for more healthy food is the steamed wild snapper with cabbage. Ever since trying out steaming I've loved it. It is healthy and incredibly quick way to cook things. However, up until now I've only steamed vegetables and mainly salmon and thus I decided to try out some other fish. I was a bit sceptical at first as this recipe seemed too simple to be good, but it came out delicious. The tender fish with the crispy garlic bits and little chilli result in a very tastebud tingling combination - even my other half said it was amazing. Therefore it must be good and it's not just me going that it tastes great, for a healthy dish. Takes just 15minutes to make and you end up with a healthy, filling and incredibly flavourful meal.

Ingredients
(Serves 2)
- 2 wild snapper (or other white fish) fillets
- 1 tsp grated fresh root ginger
- 300g green cabbages, finely shredded
- 2 tsp sunflower oil
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp chopped chillies
- 2 tsp soy sauce

Directions
Shred the cabbage and place on a steamer and steam for 5 minutes. In the meanwhile prepare the fish by sprinkling it with chopped chilli, ginger and a bit of salt. Place on top of the cabbage and steam for 5 further minutes until cooked through.

Meanwhile, slice the garlic thinly and heat the oils in a small pan. Add the garlic and cook stirring until the garlic is lightly browned.

To serve, transfer the cabbage to serving plates, place the fish on top of it and top each fish off with 1 teaspoon of soy sauce and the garlicky oil. Serve immediately.

Recipe from BBC Good Food

Parma ham & melon

Every now and then I feel like eating something simple and tasty. Something that does not take hours to prepare and does not need a long list of ingredients. Sure, sophisticated or a bit more special food is great - I am a big fan of trying new things and experimenting with ingredients which I have to google to find out what they are and how do they look like. However, sometimes simplicity is the key to food. And this brings me to todays recipe. I even don't know whether it is correct to call it a recipe as it basically involves eating two ingredients together... Nevertheless it is undoubtedly one of my all time favourites. It is one of those universal recipes that you can have any time of the day just by yourself or serve it as canapés or a starter at a dinner party - just organise the melon and ham in a fancy way and voila! It has always been a big crowd pleaser so you can't go wrong with serving this. Also, there are endless ways of serving this dish - melon wedges, cubes, slices and the bit lazy ones amongst us (or ones under time constraints) can even buy ready-to-eat melon pieces and serve it up with the ham.

I am still amazed how good this combination of sweet melon and salty Parma tastes like. It's perfect combination for a refreshing summer dish and adds a nice dose of sun into my day whenever I have it. For a more sophisticated take on the recipe, drizzle with some good quality balsamic vinegar and for a more filling dish, serve rocket on the side and increase the quantities.

Ingredients
(Serves 1)
- 200g melon, sliced
- 90g Parma ham
- Fresh black pepper to serve
- Balsamic vinegar, to serve (optional)
- Olive oil, to serve (optional)

Directions
Peel the melon and slice into pieces. Place the melon slices onto a plate and top them off with Parma ham. Drizzle some balsamic vinegar and olive oil on top if you wish and serve with freshly ground pepper.