Squidgy Smooshy Smashy Tomato Recipe - Blog Extra

Cherry Tomatoes, I generally use a full packet and then use any leftovers for lunches. The amount of tomatoes dictates the quantities for everything else.
Olive Oil (A good slug to lightly cover the tomatoes and the tin)
Sugar a light sprinkling over all of the tomatoes
Salt again a light sprinkle. You can afford to go heavier on the sugar than the salt.

Garlic four cloves
Dried Chilli Flakes
Oregano
Tomato Puree 1 tbs (Generous)

Any Pasta


In a roasting tin (with steep sides) place the cherry tomatoes with the olive oil. cover the tomatoes in the oil. Add the sugar and salt to the oily tomatoes and stir around again. Put into the oven on a low heat, about 150.

Melt the butter in a small pan and crush 3 garlic cloves into the pan, cook gently, do not burn the garlic! When the garlic is translucent add the chilli flakes and oregano and cook for another minute. Set aside until tomatoes are ready. Before adding the tomatoes, stir in the tomato puree and make a kind of garlicy paste.

Cook the pasta Or for a lighter dish, I like to use rice noodles. You can also use linguinie or spaghetti.

You're looking for a wrinkly look on the tomatoes. Or full squidge, as I like to call it. There should also be quite a lot of liquid released into the roasting tin. After 15 minutes if they're not quite collapsing, wack the heat up to 200 for another ten minutes to give them a push.

When they're done carefully tip all of the liquid and tomatoes into the garlic pan. Stir and manipulate the tomatoes to smoosh them and release even more delicious juices. Stir until thickened.

I like to add a tiny knob of butter in at this stage to give it a shine. You should also spoon in some of the starchy water from the pasta/noodles

Serve.

Gingerbread Recipe - BLOGEXTRA

It's still Christmas in my heart! I actually love gingerbread, and would love to have these all year, but I might need to buy some gingerbread man cookie cutters...

The cookies are going to be quite thin, so even though the measurements seem small, don't get carried away. I also made icing which was really fun, I'd love to do this with children it's so simple and messy! 

You can buy icing bottles and premade icing in all kinds of colours for decorations, I used a simple icing sugar and water mixture, which I spooned into a sandwich bag. With a tiny cut in the bottom of the bag, hey presto! the perfect icing tool. 

Ingredients

350g plain flour 

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

3 tsp ground ginger

1tsp ground cinnamon

125g butter (unsalted) - ("Half fat to flour")

175g brown sugar

1 egg

4 tbsp golden syrup

I've put the measurements on here, but I mostly do all of my measurements by eye. By the taste of the cookies, that doesn't matter, I just needed to keep a closer eye on the timer... ignore the slightly charred corners. 

Make sure that the butter and golden syrup are at room temperature before you start. 

Preheat the oven to 180.

1. Sift the flour, soda, ginger and cinnamon into a bowl. Add butter and rub the mixture into breadcrumbs with your fingertips. Stir the sugar into the breadcrumbs.

2. This is tricky. Mix the golden syrup and the egg together. Stir gently into the dry ingredients and knead together. 

3. Line a tray with grease proof paper. Tip your dough onto a floured surface and roll out to biscuit thickness. Using cutters (or a glass with a thin lip), cut out your cookies and place them on the grease proof paper. 

4. Bake for 10-13 minutes. It's quick, you want to catch them right when they start to look crispy. Let them cool and then gently ice each cookie however you want. 

That's my gingerbread recipe. Enjoy all year round, why should Christmas have all the fun?

BLOG EXTRA KATSU CURRY

BLOG-CEPTION!!!

My excellent blogger chum at Chic It Yourself is full of ideas to keep up appearances on a budget. If you love sales, crafts and quirky tips this is the blog for you. I love Wagamamas, but I always have the same thing, yaki soba - not very interesting. CIY put up this recipe for Katsu Curry from another BBC food blog by Gizzi Erskine and inspired me to try something new. So here we go - entering the third layer of food blogging!

Keeping it stylish in my slippers and PJs before we begin.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil 
• 1 onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 carrots, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp medium curry powder
• 600ml chicken stock (I used an oxo cube, as recommended by CIY)
• 2 tsp honey 
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• ½ tsp garam masala 
• Salt and pepper
• 4 x 100g chicken breasts
• 100g flour, seasoned with lots of salt and pepper
• 1 free-range egg, beaten 
• 120g breadcrumbs

RICE

First I started washing the rice, you cannot really wash it enough. This is how I cook my rice: I wash it a few times in cold water (until I get bored, maybe 3 - 5 rinses). Then I let it stand in warm water with a pinch of salt. This par cooks the rice so I leave it until it cools down a fair bit.
I then rinse it once more in cold water before putting it into a sauce pan with a knob of butter. I fry the rice in butter and then cover the rice with water, bring to the boil. Once it's boiled for a few minutes, I take the rice off the heat, cover, and let it steam for 10-15 minutes.


THE CURRY

First, sweat the vegetables. saute the onion and garlic for a few minutes. Roughly chop the carrots and sweat them with the onion for ten minutes with the lid on. 

Next, stir in 2tbsp of flour and 1tbsp of medium curry powder. The flour and curry powder will turn to a nice paste that coats the carrots. Slowly add the chicken stock. Spoon in the honey and splash in some soy (this is the healthy way to make sauces glossy, rather than using butter). Simmer for 20 minutes.

SIDE NOTE . . .

Is anyone else's lid cupboard similar to this? I had a bit of a panic looking for the right size!

Meanwhile, across the kitchen . . .

Seasoned flour, egg and breadcrumbs. I was baffled by bread crumbs... how did CIY get hers so small and crumbly? I don't know the secret so my breadcrumbs were a bit of a disaster, still tasty though. Can you buy these perfect breadcrumbs? Chic It Yourself, seriously, what is the crumb-y secret?

 Coat the whole chicken breasts into the flour, then the egg and finally cover with the magic breadcrumbs.

Into a hot oven for 12-15 minutes and then slice diagonally when ready. 

Here's the rice steaming. I was a little worried that there wouldn't be enough to go round. (I'm used to cooking huge comfort portions) So I decided to use the left over egg to make fried rice.

 It is starting to look rather gorgeous. And smell incredible! I added the 1/2 tsp of garam masala and salt and pepper while I fried the rice.

We loved it! Try it  at Chic It Yourself