Weekend Carnivore

Ever have those times in your life when you just want life to go back to normal? All the travelling I have been doing has been great (especially the nephew part of it!) but it does always shake up life a little bit. It hasn’t been the main hurdle between us and a normal life at the moment though. No, that would be the fact that our bedroom currently only has one fully standing wall!

Just a few days into the New Year, we moved some furniture in our bedroom and noticed some mold on the wall. Not just any mold but a nice black fuzzy variety that had worked its way up the back of our two wardrobes, our bedside tables and a few other items.

I have been having repository problems at night for over the last year which often would turn into morning nosebleeds. Problems which have proved baffling to various doctors who despite x-rays could find nothing wrong with my body. Gee, I wonder if I have been sleeping with my head next to this mold for so long and didn’t know it!

I would guess so. For the last month we have been having to cram all our things into our spare bedroom while the landlords drag their feet to repair the leaking roof, which apparently is the source of the problem. They have also taken three of the walls in our bedroom all the way back to the concrete brick to allow the walls to dry out before eventually (who knows when!) rebuilding them. In the time we have been sleeping in there (all our clothing in suitcases since we don’t actually have wardrobes now) I haven’t had a single night of breathing problems or any nose bleeds. I take that as proof.

In all this upturn, I haven’t done all that much proper cooking and my diet is suffering. Yesterday, I decided even if the walls are (literally) crumbling around me, I can still at least take control of what I eat.

So, back on the wagon, I go once again and started with this lunch dish. Sometimes I just need a sandwich to throw together to satisfy my grumbling tummy at lunch. It is also exactly this meal of the day where I am at most danger of reaching for meat. Aware of this problem, I have set myself the challenge of coming up with vegetarian sandwiches.

This week, I made a pickled carrot recipe as part of my monthly vegetarian recipe swap on Recipezaar. It was an intriguing concept and turned out to be rather nice. The recipe was posted on the site by Magpie Diner, who has many vegetarian and vegan recipes in her collection, and can be seen at – Carrots In Vinegar.

In the recipe, Magpie Diner suggested that they would go nicely with black olives. My brain started to work in the strange ways that it does and I wondered how the two items would work together in an egg salad sandwich.

For my British friends, in the States, egg salad is what you call egg and mayo. For my American friends, in the UK, something called egg salad would involve egg and actual salad such as lettuce. It is just one of those differences that took me a while to get used to when ordering food in the UK.

It turns out the combination worked rather well. The sharpness of the pickled carrots added a depth of flavour to the egg salad recipe. At the same time, the mellow nature of the black olives kept them from taking the sharpness over the top of acceptability.

Why not try out the pickled carrot recipe and then see what you think of them in this egg salad recipe. Otherwise, you could do this recipe without the pickled carrots and still have a nice olive an egg salad sandwich.

Vegged Out Egg Salad

Vegged Out Egg Salad recipe

Ingredients:

2 hard boiled eggs, roughly chopped
30 grams celery, finely diced
10 grams pickled carrots, finely diced
25 grams black olives, sliced thinly
50 grams extra light mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Mix everything together in a bowl.
2. Put between bread or stuff into pitas with some lettuce or other salad items.
3. Eat and enjoy

Makes: 2 sandwiches

Welcome to another one of those really long posts I make after I visit a foodie destination with my camera in tow. I am sure that most people find it strange that I enjoy taking photos of food markets and foodie hangouts when I travel. I can’t explain why I do but I think it is because I find that, for me, people make a city rather than the buildings. While I will very happily take the usual travel shots of monuments and statues, I get a lot more personal satisfaction by taking shots of the real people of a city. Plus, I also get to try out some really great food!

As I mentioned in my last Weekend Carnivore update, I am currently visiting my sister in the Philadelphia area of the United States. I grew up in this area before moving to London in 1996. Whenever I go home it is as much about getting the chance to have all the food I grew up with as it is seeing family and friends. Anybody that lives in a different country or even city than where they grew up will certainly understand.

Whatever city you visit, they are going to claim to have the best food. Well, let me just put my cards on the table and say flat out that Philadelphia and the surrounding area has the best food of any city in the United States. After all, there has to be a reason I ate so much and got this fat and I am more than willing to point the finger straight at the amazing food that the Philadelphia area has to offer.

Today, I paid a visit to one of the top foodie destinations in Philadelphia – Reading Terminal Market.

Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia

Reading Terminal Market is an indoor food market that holds a lot of historical value for the Philadelphia area. The market first opened in 1892 after a push to move the hoards of outdoor street merchants into one – less obstructive – location. Reading Terminal Market was one of the first places to operate a commercial refrigeration facility. It was a huge refrigeration system that allowed for the safe storage a wide range of produce even in the sweltering heat of a Philadelphia summer.

Location was key to Reading Terminal Market. It is called Reading Terminal Market because it was located alongside the train depot from the, then significant, Reading Railroad. This location meant that farmers from the Pennsylvania farmland could use the train to take their fresh produce to city for sale. As history marched on, it also meant that suburban housewives, could have the merchants at Reading Terminal Market put together baskets of shopping for them. They would then put the baskets on the trains and the housewives would collect them at their nearest station.

The origins of Reading Terminal Market are still echoed in it today.There are still a number of fruit and vegetables stalls that offer those living and working in the big city the chance to enjoy fresh produce from the Pennsylvania countryside. Certainly, I am always impressed with the stacks and stacks of fruit and vegetables for sale. It ranges from exotic fruit to things as humble as the tomato. Yet, even those humble tomatoes look great, don’t you think?

Tomatoes at Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia

Just about all the fruit and vegetable stands at the market look great but one of them really stood out for me on today’s adventure was the Fair Food Farmstand. They aren’t solely a fruit and vegetable stand, as they do sell some meat too, but I really liked the whole idea behind their business.

Food miles is such a buzz topic in the UK at the moment. If these folks are anything to go by, it looks like there are plenty of people in Philadelphia that feel the same way about eating local food. They source their food from sustainable farmers in the surrounding Philadelphia area. To me, that is keeping the spirit of the original merchants alive. I especially liked that fruit that had gone a bit too soft aren’t thrown away. Instead, they are offered up at a reduce price. It might be ugly but it will still make some yummy jam!

Cranberries at Fair Food Farmstand

Leeks at Fair Food Farmstand

Another echo from the founding days which can still be seen in the modern day Reading Terminal Market is the influence of the Pennsylvania Dutch. The Pennsylvania Dutch are actually German in ancestry. In fact, many people call themselves Pennsylvania German instead. The confusion comes from the word ‘Deutsch’ which means German but eventually came to be written as ‘Dutch’. Most people outside of the United States will think of the Amish when they think of Pennsylvania Dutch. They are just one group of people that fall under the PA Dutch umbrella. My own family background is ‘Dutchie’ but not Amish.

The Amish do play a large role in the modern Reading Terminal Market. They bring products from their Lancaster County farms into the market to be sold. The things they sell range widely from freshly butchered meats to preserves and even to amazing Amish baked goods. I told you it was this food that made me fat!

Amish man selling dried food at Reading Terminal Market

Wherever you go in Reading Terminal Market, you are going to run into Amish or Mennonite people selling their food items right next to the most outlandishly modern food stalls. I have to admit, I loved seeing that clash of cultures living to peacefully together.

This Amish run stand caught my eye because of the freshly ground peanut butter they were selling. It doesn’t get much more fresh than that! Even as I am typing this my mind is drifting off to fantasies of a peanut butter sandwich made with their freshly ground variety and washed down by their fresh pressed apple cider. Apple cider in the USA is non-alcoholic but I am sure I would be left in a food coma nonetheless!

Freshly ground peanut butter at Reading Terminal Market

It isn’t all Amish and fresh vegetables though. The selection of food temptations at Reading Terminal Market is nearly endless.

Those looking for vegetarian friendly goodies with a bit of sophistication, can head to the gourmet themed stalls. Oils and cheeses from around the world are in no short supply.

Fancy oil for sale at Reading Terminal Market

Sweet tooth’s are well catered for too. There is chocolate, cakes and candy to be had throughout the market. However, for me the one chocolate stand that stands out miles apart from the rest is Chocolate By Mueller. In fact, when I am far away in London, when I close my eyes and think about Reading Terminal Market, their stall is the first to dance in my mind’s eye.

If you can cover it in chocolate then these guys have probably already done it. They combine expert chocolate and candy making skills with a (in)famous sense of humour. This comes out in the different chocolate molds they do that range from chocolate teeth to chocolate ears and lungs and even chocolate mice.

Chocolate noses

Big candy suckers for sale at Reading Terminal Market

I satisfied my own sweet cravings by taking one some of these chrystalized cream waffers. They are a light, but solid, candy that melts in your mouth. Most varieties are some sort of mint but there are cinnamon and orange varieties too. I never really see these outside of the Philadelphia area. So, I grabbed a few to munch on the train ride back to my sister’s house.

Reading Terminal Market candy

With all these foodie goodies around, it is only a matter of time before tummies start to rumble. Reading Terminal Market has that covered with rows and rows of restaurant stalls. Near enough any cuisine you can think of is represented but it would be a lie to say that the market is put together with vegetarians in mind. Most of the restaurants are based around a meat product but there are often vegetarian options on their menus too.

For example, I saw this really yummy looking vegetarian sandwich on sale at a really busy cheesesteak stand. I have to admit that part of the reason I took a photo was that it was called the ‘Euro’. I am not really sure what makes it a ‘Euro’ sandwich other than maybe some of the ingredients have an Italian slant. Either way, it really looked yummy. If I could ever find broccoli rabe in the UK, I would try my hand at making my own version.

Euro vegetarian sandwich

Speaking of cheesesteaks, my biggest discovery on today’s trip to Reading Terminal Market was a vegetarian cheesesteak. For those of you that don’t know, the cheesesteak is the signature dish of Philadelphia. It is thinly sliced beef quickly cooked with onions and topped with cheese. All of that is then served on a long roll to make a sandwich. It is so good and I am not sure you are allowed to live in Philly if you don’t like them. They are without a doubt the one food item I miss the most now that I live in the UK. The fact is though, they just are never going to be a vegetarian food.

That is what I thought anyway until today when I found the Basic 4 Vegetarian Snack Bar at Reading Terminal Market. I have been following them on Twitter for a bit now and was interested in seeing what was on their menu.

Basic 4 Vegetarian Snack Bar

I read their menu and there amongst the various veggie burgers was the vegetarian cheesesteak. Not without my reservations, I felt I wouldn’t be doing my duty as a vegetarian food blogger if I didn’t at least give it a try. I asked the counter staff a bit about their vegetarian cheesesteak. The ‘meat’ part of it is made up of seitan (something I haven’t ever actually seen in the UK but have heard about.), and the cheese is soy cheese. So, in theory this is a vegan cheesesteak.

I placed my order and watched as the woman prepared my vegetarian cheesesteak on the grill. At this stage I was still really unsure and looking around for which stall I would order from next if I turned out to hate this veggie cheesesteak.

Vegetarian Cheesesteak

What a fool I turned out to be because in the end the vegetarian cheesesteak was down right yummy. The seitan had a texture that took a little bit of getting used to but was more like actual meat than many of the other meat substitutes I have tried. The taste was spot on though. If there was one thing that could have made it taste more authentic it would have been to add a bit of grease into the mix.

I grabbed a shot of the cheesesteak before I devoured it.

Vegetarian Philly Cheesesteak

I felt so pleased with myself that I rounded off my vegetarian lunch at Reading Terminal Market with a white chocolate and raspberry brownie from The Flying Monkey Patisserie. Apparently, Rachael Ray would have approved.

Rachael Ray approved brownies

Before I finish this ultra long post, I wanted to share two things I saw around the market that might be of particular interest to my British readers.

On the one wall of the market, there is a showcase of the work of a photographer that has photographed food markets around the world. He is obviously a man out of my own heart. I smiled knowingly when I saw that one of the markets featured in the showcase was Borough Market in London.

Borough Market

Lastly, I was browsing the shelves of a gourmet grocer in the market. I looked up and saw this on one of the shelves. Now, keep in mind that this is a gourmet shop and everything there sells at a premium.

Exotic brown sauce for sale

I was a bit amused that they were carrying so many more bottles of the fruity variety than the normal. Even so, it shows that what is exotic and gourmet is all relative!

I hopped across the Atlantic again this week. My younger sister gave birth to her first child on the 14th. That was followed closely by me buying transatlantic ticket to meet my nephew and help out a bit. When I spoke to my sister on the phone shortly after she had given birth, she met my call with “you have to make me cookies”. Drugs, are a wonderful thing.

After a bit of probing, we established that it was oatmeal raisin cookies that both my sister and her husband were craving. Of all the cookies in the world they could ask for, they picked one that I had never actually made myself. I went on a hunt to try to find what I thought would be the perfect oatmeal raisin cookie recipe to celebrate the birth of my nephew.

After all that searching guess what oatmeal raisin cookie I finally ended up making? The oatmeal raisin cookie recipe on the back of the Quaker Oats box! You know what though? It was a pretty outstanding cookie recipe. I guess they really do know their oats!

The best thing out them is that since they include oatmeal, you can make a fairly convincing argument that they are acceptable as a breakfast food. At least that is what I am telling myself!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups Oats, uncooked
1 cup raisins

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F/180C/Gas Mark 4
2. Beat together butter and sugars until creamy.
3. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.
4. Add combined flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well.
5. Stir in oats and raisins; mix well.
6. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.
7. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.
8. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove to wire rack.

Makes: 4 dozen cookies

Everybody loves it when they get the chance to post one of their award winning recipes on their food blog. Well, I can’t do that because while I entered this recipe into a cooking contest it didn’t actually win. However, I was really proud of it. So, I am taking this opportunity to show off my non-award winning tart recipe!

A few times throughout the year, Recipezaar hosts cooking contests that start off with all the contestants being given a list of ingredients. Right up until the great ingredient reveal, it is a complete mystery what will be on the list. Once we have the ingredients list, you then have to create a recipe using at least five of the ingredients on this list.

The list of ingredients for this latest contest was:

1. Beef broth
2. Canned tomato soup
3. Prepared yellow mustard (American mustard)
4. Sour cream~ all varieties
5. Prepared pie pastry- frozen shells, refrigerated rolled dough, or homemade (shortcrust pastry)
6. Sliced almonds
7. Prepared horseradish ~jarred, not raw
8. Balsamic vinegar
9. Blue/ bleu cheese
10. Red onions
11. Mini marshmallows
12. Brown rice
13. Plain bread crumbs
14. Shredded coconut
15. Fresh broccoli
16. Red miso paste
17. Canned salmon
18. Ground turkey
19. Liquid smoke
20. French fried onions
21. Worcestershire sauce
22. Evaporated milk ~any
23. Canned DICED tomatoes ~ no additional seasoning or ingredients
24. Flour or whole wheat tortillas
25. Pumpkin pie spice
26. Hard Pretzels ~any shape

This latest recipe contest, had the additional twist that the recipe have to fit into a specific category.

The categories we could pick from for our recipe contest entries were:

1. Appetizers
2. Brunch Buffet
3. Potluck at the Office

It is a good thing that I like a challenge because it certainly was a mixed bag of ingredients! As soon as I got the list I put my thinking cap on and I eventually came up with these balsamic onion, mushroom and blue cheese tarts.

The recipe development period of this contest took place over the build up to Christmas and the judging period took place over the holiday. So, I wanted to come up with a recipe that I thought would fit into the party season. The judging is done by the other contestants and general Recipezaar members doing blind tastings (your name isn’t on the recipe at this stage) and then rating them. So, if you want to be in with a shot you have to actually get people to make the recipe. I went with the idea of these little blue cheese tarts thinking that since they are served cold they would make good make ahead party food.

In the end, my balsamic onion, mushroom and blue cheese tarts didn’t win the contest. They did get some good reviews though and really just having people try and enjoy what I come up with for these contests is the fun part for me. That is especially true when the contest ingredients force me to learn how to prepare a recipe I would never have made without the extra push.

I was really happy with the sweet tangy taste of the balsamic onions and how well it paired with the earthy tastes of the mushrooms and blue cheese. I am sure I will be making the recipe again myself rather than just for the contest. That has to be a good sign that it wasn’t that bad! Try them and see for yourself!

Balsamic Onion, Mushroom & Blue Cheese Tarts

Balsamic onion, mushroom and blue cheese tarts

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 1/4 cups chestnut mushrooms, thinly sliced
350 grams shortcrust pastry, the store bought pre-rolled variety.
1 egg
1/2 cup sour cream, reduced fat is fine (you can also use creme fraiche)
1 pinch salt
1 pinch fresh ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
70 grams blue cheese, a nice squidgy variety

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400f/200c/gas mark 6
2. Put a pan over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter.
3. Once the butter starts to froth, put the thinly sliced red onions in and turn the heat down to low.
4. Cook, stirring often, until the onions have become translucent. This will take about 10 minutes but keep an eye on them.
5. Add the sugar and the balsamic vinegar to the onions and cook on low, stirring often for about 10 minutes until the onion mixture is sticky and the liquid thickened up.
6. Set the onions aside to cool.
7. Melt the remaining butter in another pan and cook the mushrooms for a few minutes until they have just started to change colour.
8. Set the mushrooms aside to cool.
9. Whilst the onions and mushrooms are cooling, layout your pastry. You want the pastrt to be about as thick as a pinkie finger. If your pre-rolled pastry is thicker roll it out to the desired thickness.
10. Using a round cookie cutter or a glass, cut out 12 rounds of the pastry.
11. Press each round of pastry into a hole of a 12 yield muffin tin. If your pan usually sticks, spray each hole with cooking spray before hand.
12. Next, put the egg and sour cream into a bowl with the salt and pepper and beat together.
13. Stir through the dried parsley and crumbled blue cheese. Set aside.
14. Spoon a bit of the balsamic onions into the base of each tart.
15. Top the onions with the mushrooms, trying to cover as much of the surface as possible.
16. Spoon the blue cheese mixture over the top of each tart.
17. Put tarts in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes until the pastry has gone golden and the cheese mixture has set.
18. Take out of the oven and allow to cool before serving so the cheese mixture can firm up a little bit.

Serves: 12

The new year has arrived and yet again many of us are hanging our heads in dietary shame. Things have been bad enough in our home that I am not even allowing myself to step on the scale for the next month. If I see the number without having a whole month to do damage control I may end up beyond depressed. If I didn’t gain ten pounds I will consider it a result. Yup, that bad!

All of which means it is time to get serious again and shift this weight. I am so sick of stagnating with my weight loss. Which is more or less what I have done for the past year. I know I can get to the finish line. It just requires me to focus and and not be sidetracked.

So, to usher back in my diet blinkers I am starting the healthy eating over with a new version of – what you must know by now – is pretty much my favourite dish. What you have to love about hummus is that once you have a basic hummus recipe down you can play with it in any number of ways. Even changing up just a few ingredients can make, what tastes like, a totally different hummus recipe.

In addition to jump starting the diet efforts, I am also aiming to use up things lurking in the back of my fridge before I allow myself to buy any ‘new and interesting’ items. I am always wanting to try new things but then I end up with half a jar of something that I don’t know how to use in enough ways to finish off.

Preserved lemons are something I was playing with not too long back. When I opened the fridge to try and brainstorm for a new hummus recipe, sure enough, that partially used jar of preserved lemons was sitting right there between the fish sauce and the the mango wasabi mustard. After a bit of contemplation, I took up the challenge.

Guess what? It turns out preserved lemons can work really well in a hummus recipe. Since both have Middle Eastern origins that shouldn’t be too shocking, I suppose. Plus, most hummus recipes include lemon juice. So, the basic flavours are already accounted for in the classic recipe.

Most things I have read about how to use preserved lemons in recipes, only includes using the skin. I couldn’t find anything about using the preserved lemon pulp but it felt so wrong to just throw them out. I threw them into the mix rather than throwing them away and it turns out that it actually really worked. I think that is because they carry the salt content. So, if you just either skip or limit the salt in the rest of your hummus recipe it works well and you haven’t wasted any of the lemon.

I have a feeling this won’t be the last hummus recipe I develop over the next year as I try to continue down the scales. If they all work this well, I will be a happy – hopefully smaller – woman.

Preserved lemon hummus

preserved lemon hummus recipe

Ingredients:
1 (400g) can chickpeas, drained but the liquid reserved
1/4 cup tahini
3 cloves garlic
2 preserved lemons, including the pulp, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons reserved chickpea juice
freshly ground pepper, to taste
sea salt, to taste, if required
fresh parsley and lemon zest, to garnish

Directions:

1. Put the chickpeas, tahini, garlic and preserved lemons into a blender or food processor.
2. Blitz in short bursts, pushing the mixture down when needed until everything is combined.
3. Add the chickpea juice and mix for a few more seconds. If you want it less thick you can always add more of the juice.
4. Taste a bit and decide if you need to add any salt. If you do add the salt and pepper. If not, just the pepper and mix for a couple seconds.
5. Roughly chop parsley and zest a lemon.
6. Serve topped with the parsley and lemon

Serves: 2 to 4

Do jaffa cakes qualify as a biscuit or a cake? This quandary has been pondered with such frequency in British society that it may just rival that of the chicken and the egg. I say, stop wondering and make this amazing jaffa drizzle cake!

I have had this Jaffa Drizzle Loaf recipe in my ‘to try’ folder since I first saw it in BBC Good Food Magazine in 2006. That is a long time to hold out on a recipe. For New Year’s Eve I decided to borrow the infamous misquote from Marie Antoinette and let myself eat (the) cake. A decision made much easier by the prospect of sharing the jaffa drizzle cake recipe with a house full of party guests.

Jaffa drizzle cake recipe

It turns out that this jaffa drizzle cake was truly worth the wait. Unlike actual jaffa cakes it is very much a cake but it really does taste near exactly like like a jaffa cake. The main difference being that the cake part is ultra moist and carries just the right level of orange flavour.

Happily, the jaffa drizzle cake recipe is also one of the more simple cake recipes I have followed in recent times. All the mixing of the cake batter is done by hand with a wooden spoon. Saving me from having to get my electric mixer out. One less thing cluttering up my worktop is never a bad thing.

The only place that I, ever so slightly, strayed from the written recipe was to not so much drizzle the dark chocolate as to lather it on the top of the springy spongy orange cake. Admittedly, I did at first attempt a drizzle but it wasn’t looking as neat as I would wish for a party presentation. In the end, I resorted to just spreading the melted dark chocolate all over the top of the cake, allowing it to drizzle down the sides. I have to say, I will do it exactly the same again because once the chocolate hardened, the layer of chocolate added a lovely slight crunch to each slice of the cake.

This is certainly a keeper of a cake and I shall not be leaving it another four years before I once again make this jaffa drizzle cake recipe.

Hurrah! I can make shortbread! If I managed to follow a shortbread recipe and make some tasty shortbread cookies without any bid disasters then so can you! I have had my eye on this Cranberry Shortbread on Recipezaar for the past couple years but I never had the confidence in my baking skills to try it out. This year though, I decided to give it a shot.

I am glad I did because it turns out that this cranberry shortbread recipe really wasn’t that difficult at all. I have made a good number of recipes posted by the king of Recipezaar, Sydney Mike, so I should have known better than to be a bit frightened by the recipe.

Cranberry shortbread recipe

The only part of the cranberry shortbread recipe that I needed to get my head around, was getting the dough the right texture to roll out without it sticking too much. To get to my comfort zone, I had to add a little bit more butter but the shortbread recipe still turned out really well. After all, is a slightly more buttery taste in a shortbread going to get all that many complaints? I think not!

What I really enjoyed about this shortbread recipe was the way the sharpness of the dried cranberries worked so well with the rich shortbread. I am sure this would be a good recipe for all times of the year. However, this play in seasonal flavours makes it a particularly good addition to your Christmas cookie tray.

As I have said, I am not all that much of a baker. So, when Christmas baking season comes around, I am not afraid to reach for recipes that others have perfected. In fact, I think that is part of the fun of holiday baking. It is great to try out the recipes that other people love to bake. For the next few Weekend Carnivore updates, I am going to share the love and show some great Christmas baking recipes that I have learned from other people that share their recipes online.

Kahlua chocolate chunk cookie recipe

Who doesn’t love a good Christmas cookie? They don’t have to be just for the kiddies either! This Christmas cookie recipe for Kahlua chocolate chunk cookies, is one which I have been making for the past few years. I got the recipe from the lovely Kittencal over at Recipezaar. Part of what I love about her The Big Kahlua Vanilla Cookies recipe is that it is so versatile.

In the original cookie recipe, she uses white chocolate. Through the years, both through necessity and through experimentation I have tried it with all sorts of different types of chocolate but keeping the base of the cookie the same. In the end, I have settled on using a combination of milk chocolate and white chocolate. Instead of chips, I get really good chocolate bars and use a knife to make chocolate chunks.

They are a luxurious tasting Christmas cookie that has just a hint of extra richness from the Kahlua. Which means you can take something comforting and familiar and jazz it up to be something extra special for the Christmas period. A real treat just at the time of the year you want it most!

I love cooking and baking for parties because it means I get to try out new recipes and share out the calories. Otherwise, the baked goodies would just sit here willing me to allow them to jump straight on to my, already too big, belly.

Since the Christmas and New Year period is the season of parties, now is the point in the year where I do most of my baking. I save up recipes from magazines and websites all year round just for this time when I can bake and taste without feeling all that guilty about it. Though, I am fully aware that my diet will return with a vengeance in the New Year as a sort of culinary rehab.

In addition to baking and cooking the Christmas recipes of others, I also enjoy creating my own Christmas baking recipes. I am much more of a cook than a baker and I always feel a bit of shock when a baking recipe I have devised actually turns out okay. This weekend, I was met with just such a moment of shock when these mocha chocolate cupcakes turned out to be pretty darn good!

The recipe is based on the idea of a black coffee cake recipe which is in a copy of an American church cookbook from 1980 that my Nana gave to me when I turned 18. The original cake isn’t decorated at all. It is simply a cake with no topping. So, not only was I nervous about turning it into cupcakes but I also wasn’t certain a topping was going to work. Yet, it turned out to work very well indeed.

Since I was making them for a Christmas party, I used food colouring to turn the buttercream frosting festive red and green. However, you could very easily skip that stage and just use the white buttercream frosting. In fact, I think if you did that and just dusted the top lightly with cocoa powder you could call them espresso cupcakes.

For these though, I carried through the coffee theme to the top of the mocha chocolate cupcake recipe by topping each off with a chocolate covered coffee bean. That may sound a tad posh but I found a whole big bag of them on sale at lidls for £1.99. Your party guests never need to know!

Mocha chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting

Mocha chocolate cupcake recipe

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup strong coffee
1 cup milk (I use semi-skimmed)

For the buttercream frosting:

1 cup butter, softened
3 1/2 cups icing sugar (same thing as powdered sugar)
1 teaspoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

To decorate:

Chocolate covered coffee beans (optional)
Assortment of edible sprinkles (optional)

1. Preheat your oven to 35Of/180c/gas mark 4
2. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Add the eggs, oil, coffee and milk to the dry mix and beat on a medium speed until well combined.
4. Line a cupcake pan with papers and pour the batter into each paper. Fill about half way up or it will spill out over the top of the paper while cooking. I got 15 cupcakes from this mix. So, you may have to bake in batches depending on how many holes there are in your tin.
5. Bake for between 15 and 20 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle of the chocolate cupcakes comes out ‘just moist’.
6. Take out of the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool. They need to be completely cool before you add the frosting.
7. When the mocha chocolate cupcakes are cooled, start making your buttercream frosting by putting the butter, sugar and salt in a large bowl and beat until blended.
8. Add the milk and vanilla and beat for another 3 to 5 minutes or until smooth and creamy.
9. If you want to make coloured frosting, divide your buttercream frosting recipe into as many bowls as you want colours. Then add a few drops at a time to each bowl and beat on low until combined. If you want a deeper colour add more drops until you get what you require.
10. Spread an equal amount of frosting on top of each mocha chocolate cupcake.
11. Decorate each mocha chocolate cupcake with a chocolate covered coffee bean and sprinkles, if using.

Makes: about 15 cupcakes depending on the size of your tin

I feel a tad bit of a fraud. A few weeks ago, I was reading a message board for UK food bloggers when I saw a post asking if anybody would be interested in reviewing a brand of yoghurt. I love trying out new things, so I said yes. A few weeks later, there is a knock at the door and 14 – yes 14 – containers of yoghurt were being delivered.

No problem there other than figuring out how I was going to use all that yoguhurt before it expired. Where I feel a bit of a fraud is that the yoghurt I was suppose to try out and review was Total Greek Yoghurt. Far from being the first time that I have tried this brand of Greek yoghurt, I have in fact been eating and enjoying Total Greek Yoghurt as part of my diet for a few years now.

In fact, if you read back through Weekend Carnivore, you will find a number of posts where I evangelize about Greek yoghurt in general. There are a variety of reasons for my tubthumping. Firstly, even the full fat version of Greek yoghurt, and especially the Total brand, is still pretty low fat. So, once you get down to the fat free – what Total calls 0% – you are at very low calories and no fat.

More importantly for me though, is that I am lactose intolerant and for some reason, when I eat Greek yoghurt I don’t react. Without sounding like a commercial – and I promise you I would never do a false review of any product – this is only the case with the Total brand of Greek yoghurt. I have tried supermarket brands of ‘Greek style yoghurt’ and I more often than not react. I won’t claim to know why and please don’t assume that it won’t be the case for you if you are lactose intolerant but it is true for me.

Apart from the healthy nature of Greek yoghurt, I enjoy using it as an ingredient because it is so versatile. I often eat it at breakfast, as you would predict, topped with fruit or even with a bit of whatever sugar free jam I have on hand swirled into the mix. However, where it really comes into its own for me is as a replacement for sour cream, creme fraiche or, even in some cases, cream.

When cooking something like a creamy sauce or curry, I will happily stir in a bit of the Greek yoghurt and get the same result. For this I would favour the full fat version since it doesn’t separate at all during heat.

As a general rule, I find that the less fat you have in the Greek yoghurt the more sour the taste and the less creamy. This is the same with Total and it simply means that where I would want to replace cream I use the full fat variety (I have used it to make homemade ice cream, for example) and when I want to replace sour cram or creme fraiche I go down to the 2% or o% varieties.

One way that I use the lower fat varieties is to cut into mayo to make lower fat coleslaw, potato salad or dip recipes. You don’t notice a taste difference but you sure do notice the calorie and fat grams difference.

To mark my mission to finish 14 tubs of Total Greek Yoghurt before their New Year expiry dates, I thought I would create a new recipe that combined two of my favourite uses for the ingredient. Spinach dip is an American party classic and every good American home cook has a potato salad recipe in their recipe arsenal too. So, I thought why not combine the two?

This was the result and I have to say I rather enjoyed it and I hope you do too!

Low fat spinach dip potato salad

Low fat spinach dip potato salad

Ingredients:

450 grams baby new potatoes, skins left on
110 grams frozen spinach
70 grams fat free mayonnaise
85 grams 2% Total Greek Yoghurt
2 tablespoons dried onion flakes
1/2 teaspoon vegetable bullion powder
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried chives
salt and freshly ground pepper, to season

Directions:

1. Cook the baby new potatoes and let them cool slightly. I do this by steaming them for 30 minutes in my electric steamer but you could boil them too.
2. While the potatoes cook and cool, defrost the frozen spinach and squeeze out all the excess liquid.
3. In a large bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients and stir really well to fully combine. Use a good amount of seasoning since there is a lot of moisture going into this recipe. However, judge how much salt you need based on how salty your bullion powder is because it can be rather salty.
4.Stir the spinach into the bowl just to combine with the mayo and yoghurt mixture.
5. Cut the baby potatoes in half width wise and fold into the spinach mixture.
6. Cover and cool in the fridge for at least an hour to allow the flavours to develop.
7. Take out of the fridge, give a good stir and serve.

Makes: 4 hearty servings