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It's like peanut butter and chocolate. Each is great, but they're better together.

Richard Whitehead

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Peanut Flour Cake; it’s like a snickers bar, but as a cake.

New year, new diet. Everyday we’re looking for new trends that’ll be beneficial to us, foods that’ll help us win back a few extra years in our life, make our skin clearer, and/or generally help us in some way.

Here is where peanut flour comes in. Peanut flour is made by crushing peanuts finely, and then pressing out the oil, this makes it low in fat. It’s also high in protein, fibre and zinc. Peanuts and all its byproducts are known for their cardiac health benefits. In 2010, a study showed that high cholesterol was significantly reduced when peanut flour was introduced to the diet of hamsters, and this was then reflected onto us. There’s also an amino acid by the name of arginine that helps improve blood flow by opening up the blood vessels; it’s also a source of niacin, which is a vitamin that has heart protective qualities, is a great source of potassium and magnesium that help maintain a regular blood pressure.

Aside from all of this, peanut flour is gluten free and a vegan alternative; a diet that is steadily on the rise and beneficial for many. For this reason, I’ve decided to make three dishes that compliment the peanut flour, starting off with a peanut flour cake. Think snickers bar, as a cake. 

INGREDIENTS:

120g Butter

80g Caster sugar

3 Medium Eggs

110g Peanut flour

2tsp Baking powder

Pinch of salt

METHOD:

Heat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180°C. Lightly grease your cake tin with a little butter or margarine and cut a piece of greaseproof paper or non-stick baking parchment to fit to the base of the tin. Some people mix all the ingredients in one go, I prefer to do it in sections, this why I can see if things need to be adjusted as I go. Mix the butter and the sugar until you can see it’s well blended in, almost like a smooth paste. Then add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each egg. Sift in the peanut flour in small quantities (much easier than dumping it all in one go as sometimes it may seem like too much of too little), and sift in the baking powder and salt (you can do this together so that the baking powder blends in more with the batter). Beat it all until it has combined, but it is important to not over beat as it aerates the mix and sometimes causes the cake to sink - do it just long enough for it all have combined.

Pour or spoon the cake mix into your tin, and flatten it out. You can do this with either a spatula, or softly banging the tin on your table (if you feel your cake is aerated, the soft bangs may help remove any air bubbles). Place the cake in the oven for approximately 35-50mins (depending on your oven, mines pretty old so I had to leave it in for longer). To test if the cake is ready, try and pop in a small/thin skewer right in the middle. If the skewer comes out pretty much clean, then your cake is ready! If a gooey residue is on the skewer, leave it in for a few more minutes.

If for some reason your cake isn’t cooked on the inside, but is cooked on the outside, cover it in aluminium which allows the interior to cook without leaving the exterior burnt. Let your cake sit in the tin for a few minutes, then gently run a knife around the edge so that you can turn it out and place it on to a wire rack to cool further. You can then decide to either serve the cake as a whole piece or cut into squares.

Optional: Serve with ice cream (vanilla would work best), chantilly (which is whipped cream that’s been beaten with a tad bit of sugar), and you can add a chocolate drizzle or coating by melting some chocolate in a banhe Marie, adding a spoon of heavy cream in order to keep the chocolate glossy (for each bar of chocolate, add in 1 tablespoon of cream).

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Review: Oceano (Leyton, Ldn.)

For an aunts birthday, she had chosen the well-known Portuguese restaurant ‘Oceano’ in Leyton. The short reviews I had read online were mostly good, with customers thankful for the service and grateful for the prices. The odd person or two had spoken to me about keeping an eye on the bill, but aside from that everything I heard so far seemed to be pretty positive.

We had arrived a little late due to my iPhone Map leading us to completely different area, but were welcomed by a waiter and handed menus as we sat down.

For our starters we ordered two portions of the calamares at (calamaris, or as described “fried squid rings”). Now I’ve tried calamari in a handful of places, so I had a general idea on how it should be and I had notes in the back of my mind from one of my favourite foodies (FoodWithDom) about what a great calamari should taste like. Our calamari was a little oily, you could see some oil residue on the plate but the texture in itself wasn’t so bad; it wasn’t as crispy as I would have liked it to be, but it was well seasoned and went well with the garlic mayonnaise dip that it came with.

For our mains, I tried two other dishes aside from my own. My mum ordered the Bacalhau á Lagareiro, this is a grilled salted codfish which is served with punched potatoes and drizzled with hot olive oil and garlic. The codfish was well cooked, however my mum and I both felt that it did need just a tad bit more salt. The vegetables were perfectly steamed as they weren't too soft, and had just a little bit of crunch to it. The only downside for my mum was that the olive oil and garlic should’ve been served on the side as she felt there wasn’t enough for the portion and would prefer to drizzle it over the food rather than already have it on the plate. All in all, she rated it a strong 8 out of 10.

My brother ordered the Pasta Oceano, which was simply spaghetti with mixed seafood. This was absolutely delicious, the spaghetti was al dente, and the seafood was cooked to perfection. With each bite of the spaghetti you could feel as if you were in a beach in Portugal, with a gentle breeze blowing as you had your late lunch in an open-terraced restaurant. Downside’s to the dish? Well truthfully, there were none, but who would complain if a couple more prawns and clams were thrown in?

Now everyone who knows me, knows I love a juicy steak, and coming to Oceano, my heart was set on eating the Costeleta de Vaca na Grelha, which is a grilled t-bone steak. I asked for my steak to be cooked medium, and that is exactly what I was served. I was uncertain about what sides I would get as nothing on the menu showed what was on offer, so I left it to chance. With my steak, I had round chips, some spinach, plain white rice and a small pot of garlic mayonnaise. My steak was PERFECTLY seasoned and cooked, I have absolutely no complaints in regards to it aside from why wasn’t there more?!?! The round chips were delightful especially when dipped into the sauce pot, but alas, things couldn't all be amazing. The spinach served on the side was pretty lacklustre, there’s not much to say about it. The rice… well… it was plain rice, there’s not much really you can say for plain rice, at least it wasn’t sticky and was cooked just right. There was no sauce to drizzle on it, which was why I only took a few nibbles. Personally, I would’ve made an esparregado, spinach in white cream sauce, that would’ve complemented the whole dish. Aside from this though, lets be honest, the steak was beautifully done.

We drank Sangria all night, and left the restaurant wanting to come back again with the hopes that it’d be even better a second time round!

Overall:

Star Rating

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Everything you see, I owe to pasta.

Sophia Loren

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Recipe: King Prawns and Linguine Pasta with a creamy sauce.

I love prawns, and I love pasta. My favourite dish when going to Vapianos is the Gamberetti e Spinach with Linguine. It comes with a delicious creamy saucy which absolutely pleases the palate. However, I can’t always go and buy the dish, so I thought it best to learn how to make it myself at home. So here is my adaptation of my favourite pasta dish.

Ingredients:

King Prawns 225g

Vegetable oil/Rapeseed oil 3tbsp

Chilli flakes 2tsps.

Onion 1

Linguine pasta (or preferred pasta)

Single cream 300ml

Pesto 2tbsp

Salt and pepper

Spinach* optional

Method

Before you start anything, fill a pot half way with water and leave to simmer.

Whilst waiting for the water to simmer, get your onion, and dice it, then leave it to the side. The water should be simmering by the time you’re done, and at this point you should add your pasta. My preferred pasta for this dish is linguine, but it’ll go well with tagliatelle or spaghetti (well, it’ll go well with any pasta really, but those are my favourites for this dish!)

Whilst your pasta is cooking, in a separate pan, add your oil and leave it to heat up for just about 2 minutes or so before chucking in your prawns. Add in the onions you had previously chopped, followed by the chilli. This could be either chilli flakes, powder, paste or fresh chillies, all to your taste. Its recommended that you only add a little, and as you cook, if you feel you need a bit more you can add a little extra.

Pour in the single cream, mix, and then add the pesto. I used the Sacla classic basil pesto, and added in 2 tablespoons, again, you can add more or less, depending on your taste.

Follow this with salt and black pepper, then stir.

The cream will start to thicken a little bit, if you’ve tasted the sauce and it’s not quite right, make the necessary adjustments, and if the sauce is starting to become too thick and a tablespoon of milk (or if single cream if you have any extra).

Once adjusted to your palate, your pasta should be ready, so drain the water out using a sieve, and then pour the pasta into your creamy sauce and mix. For added flavour, throw in a couple spinach leaves, let cook for just a few minutes, and then you’re ready to plate up!

You can have a side salad alongside your dish if you choose to, with mine I made a simple lettuce and cucumber salad, seasoned with olive oil, vinegar, salt and black pepper.

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I am not a great cook, I am not a great artist, but I love art, and I love food, so I am the perfect traveller

Michael Palin

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Recipe: Chocolate Brownie Cake

This chocolate brownie cake is my absolute favourite. It's easy to make and I've used it as a basis for all my other cakes (minus an ingredient or two). It’s not excessively sweet, and goes well with a hot cup of tea or coffee. I also use this recipe for my cupcakes as I have found it to be very reliable, adaptable, and can be decorated in any way, for any occasion!

INGREDIENTS:

Margarine or softened butter 150g

Caster sugar 120g

Medium Eggs 3

Self-raising flour 150g

Cocoa powder 50g (add more if you want it to be even more chocolatey)

Baking powder 1tsp

Vanilla extract 1tsp (optional)

Pinch of salt

METHOD:

Heat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180°C. Lightly grease your cake tin with a little butter or margarine and cut a piece of greaseproof paper or non-stick baking parchment to fit to the base of the tin.

Some people mix all the ingredients in one go, I prefer to do it in sections, this why I can see if things need to be adjusted as I go.

Mix the butter and the sugar until you can see it’s well blended in, almost like a smooth paste. Then add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each egg.

Sift in the self raising flour in small quantities (much easier than dumping it all in one go as sometimes it may seem like too much of too little), and sift in the cocoa powder, baking powder and salt (you can do this together so that the baking powder blends in more with the batter).

In order to remove that eggy smell/flavour that sometimes resides in the cake mix, I recommend adding a little vanilla extract. Beat it all until it has combined, but it is important to not over beat as it aerates the mix and sometimes causes the cake to sink - do it just long enough for it all have combined.

Pour or spoon the cake mix into your tin, and flatten it out. You can do this with either a spatula, or softly banging the tin on your table (if you feel your cake is aerated, the soft bangs may help remove any air bubbles).

Place the cake in the oven for approximately 35-50mins (depending on your oven, mines pretty old so I had to leave it in for longer). To test if the cake is ready, try and pop in a small/thin skewer right in the middle. If the skewer comes out pretty much clean, then your cake is ready! If a gooey residue is on the skewer, leave it in for a few more minutes.

If for some reason your cake isn’t cooked on the inside, but is cooked on the outside, cover it in aluminum which allows the interior to cook without leaving the exterior burnt.

Let your cake sit in the tin for a few minutes, then gently run a knife around the edge so that you can turn it out and place it on to a wire rack to cool further.

Decoration suggestion:

Once the cake has set, you can decorate it in pretty much any way you like. I love chocolate drizzles so I tend to melt some and pour it over. You can simply melt a bar of chocolate with some butter in a bain-marie, and mix until it's smooth and the butter has disappeared (if you but 50g of chocolate, add 30g of butter; 100g choc = 70g butter). Let it cool just a little bit so that it's not extremely hot and pour/spread/drizzle over your cooled cake. With white chocolate, once its melted, it has to maintain a certain temperature or else it starts getting chunky. Once that's happened, you can't go back! Place the white choc in a heatproof bowl and set over a bain-marie until melted. Pour/spread/drizzle over your cooled cake. You could also have some whipped cream with the cake, ice cream or custard.

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There is no love sincerer than the love of food.

George Bernard Shaw

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Recipe: Fried Chicken with Red French Sauce & Buttermilk Ranch Dip

Here is my adaptation of KFC's delicious fried chicken. It was truly scrumptious and had an amazing flavour especially when dipped into my two homemade sauces. A quick heads up before trying this out yourself; when frying your chicken, pop a tiny piece into the already heated oil just to check that it's not too hot! The first time I made this my chicken came out pitch black as the oil was piping hot.

INGREDIENTS:

3 Chicken Breasts

Vegetable oil 500ml

Egg whites 2

Plain flour 1½ cups

Brown sugar 1tbsp

Salt 1tbsp

Spices:

Paprika 1tbsp

Onion salt (granules) 2tsp

Chilli powder 1tsp

Black pepper 1tsp

Celery salt ½tsp

All spice ½tsp

Oregano ½tsp

METHOD:

Preheat the fryer to Gas Mark 4/350F. 

Mix all the spices together in a bowl, then combine the flour, sugar and salt. 

Place your egg whites in a separate bowl.

Wash your chicken breasts and chop to whatever size you'd like (cubes or rectangles are a good idea). Not too small and not too big either.

Coat your chicken pieces in the egg white, then transfer them to the flour mix. Do this one at a time, and then place on a plate on the side to dry a little. 

The technique I use so that it doesn't get too messy is to use one hand for egg white coating, and the other for flour mix coating. And an ideal way to get your ‘flour hand’ to not mix with the egg and become sticky is to place the chicken in the middle of the bowl with egg hand, and with your flour hand, throw the flour thats on the sides on top of the chicken before actually going in and holding it and coating it thoroughly.

Once all pieces are done, repeat the process then let it rest.

Fry the chicken in batches and once browned, place onto a plate with paper towels so that it can soak up any excess oils.

It is then ready to serve.

SAUCE SUGGESTIONS

Red French Sauce:

Vegetable oil 1cup

Sugar 1cup

White wine vinegar ¾cup 

Ketchup ½cup

Salt ½tsp

Worcestershire sauce or BBQ sauce 2tsp

Buttermilk Ranch Dip:

Buttermilk 1cup

Mayonnaise ½cup

Lemon juice 1sp

Paprika ½tsp

Mustard powder (or regular dijon mustard) ¼tsp

Salt ½tsp

Sprinkle of black pepper

Put all ingredients together and mix. Taste and adjust to your palate.

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You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients.

Julia Child

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Recipe: Baileys Chocolate Drizzle Cheesecake

My first alcoholic dessert was a Baileys Chocolate Drizzle Cheesecake. I had stumbled across a Baileys Liquor pouring cream in my local Morrisons store, I found it to be quite unusual since I had never seen it before. I didn’t really need it, after all, what would I even use it for? As I was shopping, I found my thoughts drifting to the cream, and thinking what could I make with it. After a while I decided it was worth a shot, and had decided to try a cheesecake!

Aside from this being my first alcoholic dessert, it was also my first cheesecake, so I was extremely proud of the results and thought to share it here with you!

Ingredients

For the base:

Digestive biscuits 250g

Melted butter 95g

For the topping:

Double cream 280g

Icing sugar 70g

Bailey’s Liquor/Pouring cream/ Irish cream syrup (or alternatives like Tia Maria to taste

Cream Cheese 500g

Method

For the base: Crush the digestive biscuits until they are all completely crumbled. If you prefer more crumble than cheesecake add more biscuit.

Pour in the melted butter and mix it all together really well and place in your chosen tin. A loose base cake tin is recommended as it makes it easier to remove the cheesecake from the tin. Pop your tin in the fridge and leave it in there for about an hour whilst you make your topping.

For the topping: Beat the double cream with the icing sugar until it starts to thicken. Make sure that as soon as you notice thickness to not continue beating, it’s not supposed to be like butter. Add in your liquor, the stronger you want the cheesecake, the more you can add. Add the liquor in spoonfuls so that you it’s not too overpowering. I recommend 3 tablespoons.

Separately, beat the cream cheese until it has softened and add it in to the whipped cream and liquor mix. Mix gently, and don't over beat it.

Your biscuit base should be ready by now. Put your liquor mix on top of the biscuit base and flatten it out. Put it in the fridge again for a few more hours or overnight, and it should be ready to eat.

Decoration suggestion:

Once your cheesecake is set you can decorate it however you like.

My personal favourite is a simple drizzled chocolate which sort of compliments the liquor. To do this melt half a bar of milk chocolate and pour/drizzle onto the cake. Pop it back in the fridge so it can set some more. You could also sprinkle grated chocolate instead and/or add whipped cream.