Archives for January 2016

Black Farmer Sage and Onion Pork Loin Joint

5th January 2016 by Rosie

Having been sent a couple of Sage & Onion Pork Loin Joints from the Black Farmer to try before Christmas, we had one straight away and froze the other one to enjoy for another meal and also to judge what it’s like after it’s been frozen, thawed and cooked. I took the last one out of the freezer last night before going to bed and put it in the fridge to defrost until we were ready to cook this evening’s dinner.

The Pork Loin joint, weighing in at 500g, is recommended to serve 2 (though it’s more than adequate for my husband, myself and my daughter to share). It’s cook in the bag and comes in its’ own foil tray, so there’s no mess in your oven to have to clean up after cooking. It has a delicious coating of sage and onion on the top and sides, so there’s also no need to worry about having to add your own flavourings to it. Simply remove it from the fridge, pop it into a preheated oven at 200°C (180ºC for a fan oven) and let it cook for 55 minutes. Remove the joint from the oven and allow it to rest for a further 15 minutes whilst you finish cooking the rest of your dinner. When you’re ready to serve, cut open the bag – adding the juices contained within the tray to your gravy for a little added deliciousness.

Then simply slice and serve.

The perfect mid week dinner, ready prepared, hassle free, easy to cook & very tasty too!

I served ours with potatoes and veg with a home made onion gravy, enhanced with the pork loin juices.

I was sent two of the Black Farmer Sage & Onion Pork Loin Joints free of charge to review. I was under no obligation to post a review on the samples.

Tiramisu Coffee Cake

3rd January 2016 by Rosie

It’s my husband’s birthday today and his requested treat was for a tiramisu, however I’ve made (& we’ve eaten) one over the Christmas / New Year period already, and birthdays are all about a cake, after all, aren’t they? So, with this in mind, I dug out my recipe notebook and went to find a recipe that I came up with a couple of years ago and made him a tiramisu inspired coffee cake instead; therefore we both win – he gets his tiramisu, and I get to make a cake! Here’s how:

280g Butter

280g Caster Sugar

280g Self Raising Flour

5 Eggs

5ml Baking Powder

15ml Camp coffee essence

2.5ml Nielsen Massey Coffee extract

To drizzle the cake with:

10ml Instant coffee

10ml Hot water

20ml Amaretto

Frosting:

250g Mascarpone cheesse

150ml Double cream

60ml Amaretto

5 Tbs icing sugar

To decorate:

Cocoa powder

1. Preheat the oven to 180℃.

2. Grease & line two 20cm/8″ round cake tins.

3. Using the all in one method, to a large bowl, add the butter, caster sugar, flour, eggs, baking powder, Camp coffee and coffee extract. Using the all in one method, beat together until well combined (about 4-5 minutes).

4. Divide equally between your two cake tins and bake for 25-30 minutes until cooked.

5. Remove from the oven, allow to cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then remove from the tins onto a wire cooling rack until cold.

6. Mix together the instant coffee and water, stir until dissolved. Add the amaretto and leave to cool.

7. For the frosting, beat together the mascarpone cheese, cream, amaretto and icing sugar.

8. Place half of the cake onto a serving plate and drizzle with half of the coffee and amaretto.

9. Spread the cake half with about a third of the mascarpone cheese frosting.

10. Top with the other half of the cake and drizzle this with the remaining half of the coffee and amaretto mixture.

11. Spread the cake with the remaining mascarpone cheese frosting and dust the cake with the cocoa.

12. Serve without guilt or attention to calorific value. Just enjoy!

Roasted tomato, pepper & garlic soup

1st January 2016 by Rosie

It’s New Years Day 2016; the start of a new calander year for us all. Despite a very late night watching a film with my family into the ‘wee small hours’, the body clock kicked in and wouldn’t let me have a lay in, sadly, so it was time to get up, have breakfast and create my first dish of the new year then!

Having bought 3 nets of reduced tomatoes in Tesco a couple of days ago (29p/pack), as well as a pack of Romaro peppers (reduced to 39p), along with a couple of yellow peppers and garlic from my fridge, basil growing in a pot on my kitchen windowsill and some fabulous basil infused extra virgin olive oil from Pomora that I picked up at the BBC Good Food Winter show in November, I set about prepping and making a delicious soup for today’s lunch. Measurements aren’t an exact science here; it’s more about the flavour and your own personal taste guiding you through to the finished product, but to give you an idea what I threw together to make my soup, here’s what I used:

25 salad tomatoes

2 Romaro red peppers

2 Yellow peppers

4 cloves of garlic

6 Stems of fresh basil (stalks and leaves)

15ml Pomora basil extra virgin olive oil

Pinch sea salt

15ml Tomato puree

15ml Sugar

5ml Turmeric powder

Black pepper

15ml Balsamic vinegar

1. Preheat your often to 180℃.

2. Halve the tomatoes. Remove the stalks, seeds and pith from the peppers. Peel the garlic and put all of these into a large, heavy based roasting dish (my Le Creuset roasting pan is ideal for this).

3. Throw in the basil, then sprinkle with sea salt and drizzle with oil. Toss or stir together until all the vegetables are coated in the oil.

4. Roast for 30-40 minutes until the tomatoes are soft and pulpy and the peppers and garlic are cooked.

5. Remove the tomato skins into a sieve and squeeze the juices from them back into your roasting dish (no point in wasting that delicious, roasted flavour, eh?!)

6. Transfer the roasted tomatoes, peppers, garlic etc. from your roasting pan to a blender (I use a Kenwood blender jug attachment on my trusty Kenwood Major Titanium stand mixer). Add the tomato purée, sugar, turmeric and a good grinding of black pepper, then blitz until smooth.

7. Pour the soup into a saucepan, add the balsamic vinegar and heat through, tasting and adjusting your seasoning if required.

8. Serve with a splash of double cream and some lovely, crunchy croutons.

The Pomora Extra Virgin Olive Oil was a free sample I picked up at the BBC Good Food Show. It was not provided in order for me to develop or publish a recipe on behalf of Pomora.

Have a happy, tasty new year!

Black Farmer Sage and Onion Pork Loin Joint

Tiramisu Coffee Cake

Roasted tomato, pepper & garlic soup

Follow Me here too

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Categories