All posts tagged: recipe testing

Mean clean beefburgers

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Cooking as a couple can go one of two ways: either you get into an argument over how fine to dice your onions and you end up eating the finished product 4 hours late in complete silence (all been there?). Other times you take tips from each other in order to create something truly epic. We’ve been making burgers together since we started dating, taking influences from our favourite restaurants and cook books, in an attempt to create the perfect home burger. Our burger recipe is the product of lots of different trials (and some catastrophical fails) until we had developed the perfect formula. What to do and what not to do: We’ve used Jacobs crackers in the past (a la Jamie Oliver) – I don’t really rate this. They dont provide much flavour and the texture is a bit crumbly. I’ve tried raw onions mixed through the mince and it is horribly wrong. Onions never go soft if they aren’t cooked properly, and stay acidic and unpleasant We’ve used BBQ or Cajun seasoning in the beef mix before now. …

Cooking with matcha

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I have recently rekindled my love of green tea after discovering matcha – a powdered green tea made from specially selected green tea plants, which are shade grown for a few weeks before being ground up. The result is a clean, smooth-tasting tea that doesn’t have that horribly bitter after taste that first put me off regular green. It’s really easy to drink and has helped me through many a starvation lull on one of my fast days, as i’m currently trialing out the intermittent fasting (or the fast diet) in an attempt to (pun-alert) have my cake and eat it too (sorry.) But I’m more interested in matcha being used as an ingredient in cooking. The first time I tasted matcha was in a life changing dessert at So Japanese, Soho. This place was recommended to me by an ex colleague for its unbeatable sushi (and at a reasonable price for sushi) but I would also highly recommend the Japanese desserts. The Matcha & White Chocolate Cake with Black Sesame Ice Cream & Fruit Mousse   This was ordered …

Beth’s Swansea Scotch Eggs

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My black pudding bonbons have become famous. They started off as a humble Glamorgan sausage (a Welsh vegetarian croquette made of leeks and cheese). Then I introduced my old friend, the mighty black pudding and experimented a lot before I perfected the recipe. They’ve been called ‘yummo’ by John Torode, ‘delightful’ by Thomasina Miers and ‘banging’ by my very honest flatmates/ food guinea pigs. But behold… they have transformed again, into Scotch Eggs, with a hidden runny yolk inside! Beth’s Swansea Scotch Eggs Makes 5 large scotch eggs 7 medium eggs 1 leek 5 sage leaves a small bunch of parsley a small bunch of thyme 400g black pudding chubb 1½ tsp English mustard 200g extra mature cheese, grated ½ loaf of white bread (nothing fancy) Salt and pepper 4 heaped tbsp flour oil, for deep frying Take two eggs, separate and keep the yolks and whites together. Add the yolks to a mixing bowl, and the whites to a deep baking dish for dredging later. Cut the leek lengthways three times then very finely slice. Add to …