The Team: Laura and Aoife
The Location: Andy and Aoif's house
Yeah, we kicked it! Go Team Laura and Aoif!
I'll keep this post short and sweet - those who are part of dinner club know our cooking spoke for itself!
Aoif and I decided to start with soup and homemade brown bread, with Aoif taking on the soup challenge and me the bread task.
Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup
You'll need
4 cloves garlic,
2 large onions,
9 carrots,
1 butternut squash,
2 sweet potatoes,
1 vegetable stock cube
How the magic happens
Chop onions and crush garlic and soften first. Then chop everything else and put in a pot, add a kettle full of water and boil for about 30 minutes. Check that the veg is cooked and then liquidise to form soup! Easy peasy
Homemade Brown Bread
You'll need
550g coarse wholemeal flour
350g plain flour
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons bread soda
generous layer of wheatgerm
1.5 litres buttermilk (or milk soured with vinegar)
How the magic happens
Pre-heat a fan oven to 190 degrees. Using kitchen towel, grease two loaf tins with margarine and put them to one side. Put 550g of coarse wholemeal flour in a big mixing bowl. Add 350g plain flour to it. Put in a pinch of salt, and sieve in two teaspoons of bread soda. Mix that all up with a wooden spoon. Pour a generous layer of wheatgerm (you'll find it in the breakfast cereal aisle in the supermarket) over the top, and mix again. Make a hole in the middle and add 1.5l of buttermilk/soured milk. Mix like a good thing until it's all mixed together evenly then divide the mixture between the two loaf tins. Turn back the oven to 190 degrees and put the bread in on the middle shelf for 25 mins. After 25 mins have a gander at it, tap it, turn it around maybe, turn the oven back to about 160 degrees and put it back in for another 25 mins or so. Keep an eye on it all the while because fan ovens can differ and you might need to turn the oven down slightly. When the time is up take out your bread and turn it out onto a waiting wire tray. Turn it the right way up, let it cool and there you go - cheap, healthy, tasty, recession-tastic brown bread!
Moving on, main course was:
Philadelphia Pork Loin Rolls with Apricot
(We got this recipe from the fab Philadelphia recipe site - www.philadelphia.co.uk. Check it out whenever you're lacking inspiration for what to make!)
You'll need
200 g Philadelphia Light
175 g finely chopped apricots
1 tbsp chopped tarragon
4 pork loin steaks, each weighing about 125g
A drizzle of olive oil
300 g fine egg noodles
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
3 spring onions, chopped
1 tbsp chopped parsley
How the magic happens
| Heat the oven to 200˚C. | ||
| Mix the Philadelphia Light, apricots and tarragon in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. | ||
| Trim any fat from the pork loins. Place each loin in turn on a chopping board, cover with a layer of cling film and flatten out using a rolling pin. Then spread each loin with the Philadelphia stuffing. Roll up individually and tie using string. | ||
| Heat a drizzle of oil in an ovenproof frying pan and cook the pork rolls until browned – this should take about 5 minutes. Transfer the pan to the oven and continue cooking for 10 minutes. | ||
| While the pork is cooking, cook the egg noodles as directed. Drain, and then toss with the soy sauce, oil, ginger, spring onions and parsley. | ||
| Take the pork from the oven, remove the string and cut the rolls into slices. Serve on a bed of the warm noodles. |
So far so delicious! But we pressed on and didn't let anyone go home until after our
Five Minute Chocolate Mug Cake (in a microwave)
Yup, it's as dangerous as it sounds; from now on you're just five minutes away from a mini-chocolate cake! A few people have requested I put up this recipe asap, so here it is!
You'll need
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa (although I used one cocoa and one drinking choc)
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons choc chips (optional, but we went with!)
a small splash of vanilla extract (or essence, or whatever mentions vanilla in the home baking aisle of the supermarket!)
a mug
How the magic happens
Add the dry ingredients to the mug and mix well. If you're adding choc chips, do it now! (If you leave it until after adding the milk, oil and egg they'll sink - you have to coat them in dry mixture.) Add the egg and mix thoroughly (I used a fork). Pour in the milk and oil and mix well too. Put your mug into the microwave and cook for 3 mins if you have a 1000 watt microwave, or 3 mins 45 seconds if you have an 800 watt microwave. The cake will rise up scarily high - don't panic! When the time is up let it cool a little then tip out onto a plate/into a bowl/into your mouth...
We added ice-cream and chocolate sauce to be extra indulgent, but you could always ice this as a little cake or add other goodies you fancy to it.
Unfortunately there was no scandalous conversation at this dinner club I can report on. It began with us helping each other out with work problems we'd come across during the week, and ended with silence as we all concentrated on not bursting!
Until next time,
Lollipop and Aoif x
