Mince Pie topped frozen Greek yoghurt - YUM!

You may recall that, in the Turkey seasonal box from Knorr, were some mince pies.  Not just any old mince pie, but some really very tasty mince pies from Foreman & Field, that are made by pastry chef Michael Nadell.

Now, unusually for us, we hadn't - beyond the first taster - put the kettle on and snarfed the lot accompanied by a number of cups of coffee.  Oh no.  These mince pies demanded a bit more respect than that - and at £16.95 for 12, you can understand why.  So we tucked them up into an airtight container (just like your Mum told you to) and were keeping them for "best".  (Is there a "best", where mince pies are concerned?  We obviously thought so!).

Photo c/o Foreman & Field

The following day - and completely coincidentally - I was contacted by Lianne at W. Communications, the P.R. company I've been working with regarding Barefoot Wines, about another of their clients - the Chillbox Company.

Apparently, Chillbox have a newly opened outlet in Brixton Market (the first, by all accounts) where they are selling Greek frozen yoghurt.  It seems to me to be a spectacularly bad time to open - the middle of winter - when you're selling frozen goods, but who am I to judge?  Maybe the denizens of Brixton Market enjoy some frozen yoghurt after their tub of Paella and before thawing out with mulled wine.  (I have no idea whether paella or mulled wine can be purchased at Brixton Market, but I'll bet they can!).  However, to smooth their way into the Christmas market (see what I did there?), they've come up with a Christmassy mince pie topped version.

So anyway.  I like frozen yoghurt - and I'm particularly fond of Greek yoghurt.  So I was mildly interested but couldn't see any particular relevance to Jenny Eatwell's Rhubarb & Ginger, as the likelihood of my getting to Brixton Market this side of doomsday was fairly negligible.  I couldn't see any samples getting to me in a fit state to test, so it all seemed a bit of a no hoper.  That is, right up until I noticed the words "make at home recipe".

Maybe not as pretty as the Chillbox version - but who cares about pretty when it tastes this good?

AHA!  

The "in store" version is in either natural or chocolate flavour yoghurt with buttery crumbled mince pie, mulled wine sauce with subtle hints of ginger spice and finally, for an extra flourish, some edible 23ct gold leaf.  Frozen yogurt heaven, so they say - and I'm inclined to believe them!

Churn, churn, churn - or you could just freeze & stir every 30 mins!

The "make at home recipe" wasn't anything like as showbiz as the "in store" version, but just the promise of frozen Greek yoghurt - never mind the mince pie input - was enough to spark my interest.  Of course, as soon as I saw the mince pie aspect, I knew I had a potential use for at least a couple of those lovely Michael Nadell pies.

Well, I had every intention of making the frozen yoghurt over the weekend, but one thing led to another and there we were on Monday morning, still with the yoghurt in its pot in the fridge.  So hubby set to and made it.

The recipe is simplicity itself - I've reproduced it below for your delectation - and the end result is yummy, scrummy and feels deliciously naughty.  I have to admit that we made the full-fat version, but I have no doubt that the low fat version would be just as good - particularly if you use a good Greek yoghurt.

Once frozen, the ice crystals are very small and so the yoghurt retains its unctuous creaminess.  The single mince pie that you include with the yoghurt in the mixing stage doesn't look like it will make enough of an impact on the flavour profile - but if you choose a good mince pie (and Sainsbury's are our normal favourite) then the one pie is genuinely all you'll need.

We didn't get all fancy and make a separate sauce - but I think we might for our second go at this dessert, there will be a second go, of that I'm sure!  Something rich, fruity and slightly boozy would be just lush with the frozen yoghurt, I think.  I think we might just pass on the gold leaf, though.  Don't want to get too carried away - anyone would think it's Christmas!

Here's the good bits from the Press Release regarding Chillbox and its products, if anyone is close enough to Brixton Market to want to visit :

"With double the protein, lower carbohydrates and half the sodium, Greek yoghurt is only 124 calories per 100g so there really is no reason not to spoil yourself by picking a festive topping or three!

A standard size Chillbox is £3.75 with an extra two toppings. The 23ct gold topping is charged as an extra cost and not included in the standard topping price.

Chillbox is located at 14 Market Row, Brixton Market, SW9 8LD.  Opening times are Tues 10 – 5pm / Wed - Sun 10 – 10pm.  For Chillbox updates follow us on Twitter - @Chillbox_uk and on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/

Chillbox is the leading frozen yoghurt franchise in Greece.

The Christmas toppings are available up to the 24th December.

Chillbox is not fat free, it contains a low 1.6% fat - not counting toppings.

Chillbox does not contain any chemical additives.
 
Chillbox is sweetened with fructose not sugar, making it slightly more acceptable to diabetics".
 

MINCE PIE TOPPED FROZEN GREEK YOGHURT  (serves 5-6)

Ingredients :

900g Greek Yoghurt (low fat or full fat - your choice)
110g fructose sugar (available from most supermarkets)
125ml milk (again, semi skimmed or full fat - your choice)
1 mince pie to include with the yoghurt
1 mince pie to crumble over.

Method :

1.  In a mixing bowl, whisk together all the ingredients and, once fully incorporated, cover with cling film and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, up to a maximum of 4 hours.

2.  Pour the mixture into your ice cream machine and process for 10-12 minutes, until set the the consistency of soft scoop ice cream.

3.  Serve immediately, with mince pie crumbled over the top, or transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze until ready to use.  In this case, allow the yoghurt to warm up slightly before serving, so as to capitalise on its smooth creaminess.

Printable version

"Motherly Love" - a Zinfandel based cocktail that missed Mother's Day by a mile!

All of which was completely my fault, so I apologise for not getting this completely and utterly divine concoction to you sooner.

However - and here's the bonus - I can't think of anything I'd rather drink on a summer's evening when the grasshoppers are chirping in the lawn, the day is cooling down and I'm sitting on the patio just watching the garden grow.

Barefoot Wine (@BarefootWine on Twitter) sent me a bottle of Zinfandel with which to make the cocktail in time for Mother's Day.  However, because of one thing and another, we just didn't get to it on the day itself - and then for quite a long time afterwards.

However, things settled down and making the "Motherly Love" became a target.  I'd bought a punnet of strawberries for our first (abortive) go, but they had been such hard, miserable strawberries that I was glad we didn't get to use them in the end.  (In fact, we ate them up by putting them into a jelly, which did the trick admirably).

Having had a bit of a moan about the state of these strawberries, @VivaStrawb contacted me and suggested I search out the Viva strawberry, as it was apparently one of the best of the early croppers.  I found some in our local Waitrose and although they hadn't got a patch on our mid-season British strawberries, they were flavoursome, sweet and soft - perfect for the "Motherly Love" (and we ate the remainder with vanilla ice cream, that's how nice they were!).

We'd even found the perfect glass for the cocktail.  Hubby is an inveterate trawler of local charity shops and found the perfect tulip shaped glass with a bevelled stem.  It really is beautiful - and when filled with "Motherly Love", the sight was enough to please even the most jaded of Mums.

This really is hubby's project, to be honest.  After all, he found the glass, sourced the props for the photograph, made the cocktail (including making the simple syrup) and took the photographs.  All I did was discover the strawberries and drink the end result!

But how was the end result?  What does a glass of "Motherly love" taste like?  Well, the first sensation to hit you is that it is very cold .. then very sweet .. and a zzzip! from the Zinfandel .. and the tang of strawberry and lemon, jostling for position .. all followed by the gently soothing coolness of cucumber.


If I'm honest, the gin didn't feature in the flavour profile at all.  However, I am quite sure it featured where the texture (or "mouth feel") of the drink was concerned.  You know how gin can have a certain oiliness?  Well, the drink has a longevity of flavour which I'm sure is carried by the gin and I can imagine that if you left the gin out of the recipe, the drink would very definitely miss it.


A quick word about the Zinfandel itself - now I have to admit to being at odds with most red wines and a lot of white wines, too.  However, with the discovery of Zinfandel, I've found a wine that I can both drink and enjoy.  Barefoot's Zinfandel is wonderfully light on the palate, with a sweetness that is tempered by the fruitiness and is very, very drinkable.  You can't ask more of a wine, than that!


So, getting back to the "Motherly Love", well, I'm a Mum - and I love it!  This is very definitely going to be on my drinks list once the weather warms up into summer.


MOTHERLY LOVE


Ingredients :


60ml Barefoot White Zinfandel (which is something of a misnomer, as it's pink!)
25ml gin
20ml lemon juice
3 strawberries
3 fine slices cucumber
20ml simple syrup
Lemonade
lots of ice.


Method :


1.  Muddle the fruits together (muddle = mash lightly) and shake all the ingredients, apart from the lemonade.


2.  Strain over cubed ice in a highball glass.


3.  Top up with lemonade and garnish with a cucumber slice and strawberries.


Serve.

 

Drunken Spaghetti - deceptive and delicious!

You'll have read the previous blog post about the Barefoot Wine cocktail, Moscato Love, and so won't be surprised to hear that this blog post is all about what we did with the bottle of Merlot that arrived at the same time.

This Valentine's Day has been a bit of a higgledy-piggledy mess of successes and failures.  Success in that we both (hubby and I) managed to find gifts for one another (see "Cherry Shortbread Hearts" post, up next) and thus clawed a tiny bit of romance out of a remarkably unsuccessful day.  The problems with the day all began when I hurt my back and couldn't cook and couldn't sit at the computer for very long.  This meant a bit of a re-hash of the menu listing for the week and hubby had to stand in for me in the kitchen (along with everything else he does) - and all my planned blog postings for Valentines Day have wound up appearing after the event.

Add to that the fact that it is son & heir's half term holiday, so we had one friend of his staying for a sleepover that took us through to Valentines Day morning.  We took that friend home, and had to go shopping - not terribly romantic.  The lovely Asda then let me down severely with their selection (which was, in fact, a non-selection of white fish) so instead of a lovely Valentines' Dinner, we wound up eating pizza.  Not just pizza, but disgusting pizza too.  To add insult to injury, son & heir went swimming and then unexpectedly stayed at his friend's house for tea.  I doubt we'd have gone out if we'd have known, but it would have given us the chance at least!


*sigh*  Oh well, I suppose there's always next year.

To get back to the recipe, the lovely folks at Barefoot Wine had sent us some menu suggestions to play with - and I particularly liked the look of their Drunken Spaghetti.


Hubby sprang into the breach and got busy in the kitchen making the spaghetti, which turned out to be quite deceptively scrumptious!


From looking at the recipe, it appeared to be a standard Bolognese except with the addition of carrot, celery and of course, the Merlot.

Now the "drunken" bit refers to the fact that you cook the spaghetti in a combination of wine and water (you can imagine the tears involved in losing a percentage of the lovely wine to this cause - so perhaps I might advocate the use of a rather lesser denomination of red, if you're going to have a go at this) which brings it up an interesting shade of pink.  I was pleasantly surprised to note that you can actually taste the wine in the spaghetti (so don't use a particularly sour vintage!), as I was anticipating that the flavour would be washed out by the water.  Not so.


The ragu mixture that topped the spaghetti was deliciously flavoursome.  No doubt the quality of the Merlot helped a lot here, as once you'd given the whole ensemble a liberal dusting with Parmesan, the flavours were complete.


In fact, just writing about it is making my tummy rumble - or is that just because it's lunchtime?


Outside of the recipe, the Merlot is an intensely flavoured wine - in fact, I'd go so far as to say it almost explodes on your tongue.  The bouquet is one of freshly cut pine wood, but the flavours are raisins, cherries and a deeper note that sparks the tastebuds into almost frenzied activity.  A really very surprising red wine!


Cheers!  (Again!).


DRUNKEN SPAGHETTI    (serves 3)


Ingredients :


400g dried spaghetti

2½ cups of red wine (Barefoot Merlot)

500g lean minced beef

400g tin chopped tomatoes

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped

2 celery sticks, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, crushed

500g Passata

a good pinch of dried oregano (or to taste)

2 tbsp olive oil

grated Parmesan to serve.

Method :

1.  In a deep frying pan or a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and saute the onion until tender.  Remove and reserve to keep warm.

2.  Add the beef and brown over a high heat until it has rendered its fat.  Drain the beef by moving it to one side of the pan and spooning away the fat.

3.  Re-introduce the onions to the pan, and include the garlic, carrot, celery and tomatoes.  Stir over a medium heat until softened.

4.  Add the passata and a half a cup of the wine.  Stir well to combine and add the oregano and seasoning to taste.

5.  Cook over a medium heat so that the sauce boils gently, so reducing the liquid, for some 15 minutes or so - or until a thick consistency has been reached and the vegetables are all tender.

6.  In the meantime, bring a large pan of lightly salted water to the boil.  Add the rest of the Merlot (try not to cry - it's worth it, honest!) and the spaghetti.

7.  Cook to the packet instructions (usually around 8-10 minutes) or until al dente.  Drain, then return to the pan and add a drizzle of olive oil and season with freshly ground black pepper.

8.  Serve the meat sauce on top of the spaghetti and garnish with a good covering of finely grated Parmesan cheese.

Lovely!

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Moscato Love - a Valentine's Day cocktail (or any time, actually!)

Wow.  What a gorgeously delicious, refreshing, mouthwatering, eminently drinkable combination this is!

Now I'm not normally one for making cocktails.  However, when Barefoot Wine got in touch and asked whether (as I cook with wine quite often), I'd be interested in having some of their white Moscato dessert wine and Merlot red wine to play with, (see recipe for Drunken Spaghetti, next up on the blog) I just couldn't refuse.  Well, especially with Valentine's day hoving into view.

With the wine, came some suggested recipes - one of which was for the Moscato Love.  Now I dare say you could call this cocktail whatever the heck you like - as I can see that it has uses across all the seasons.  It is obviously appropriate for Valentine's day, however if you bear in mind the Cranberry juice and the red colour, it would make a fantastic alternative to Buck's Fizz at Christmas.  The flavours though - now they are all summer.  I can imagine that it would be utterly divine, paired up with raspberries from the garden, poured over ice and enjoyed whilst sitting on the patio watching the garden grow.  Fabulous!

As I say, I'm not one for cocktails - and in fact, I'm not one for alcohol in general (unless I'm cooking with it!).  However, this one just blew my little socks off.  I know that there are those out there who would be laughing into their martini glass at this being referred to as a "cocktail", but to be honest I really don't care.  Here's a thought - if you're catering for folk like me, who don't imbibe on a regular basis and who aren't wine drinkers, then this is a great choice - and I wouldn't mind betting that the drinkers will be just as happy with it!

My thanks go out to Barefoot Wine for giving us the opportunity of sampling the Moscato.  Outside of the cocktail, it is of course a very sweet wine (it's a dessert wine, when all is said and done) but in contrast to many it has a remarkably pure and clean flavour without any of the heaviness that so often comes with a dessert wine.

Cheers!

MOSCATO LOVE

Ingredients :

1 bottle of Barefoot White Moscato
250ml of lemonade
1 cup of raspberries
2 teaspoons of honey
2 cups of cranberry juice
Ice.

Method :

1.  Combine all the ingredients except the lemonade and the ice.  Blend until smooth.

2.  Gently add the lemonade, so as to minimise the loss of fizz.

3.  Pour over ice, or add ice to the jug.

4.  Be ready to get up and make some more!

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It's Tuesday's run-down on the menu plan for this week!

So, "what's the recipe for today, Jim?".  I'll bet not many of you recall that little bit of Radio 2 history.

I can well remember, when I was off school and feeling poorly, the sound of Radio 2 wafting through from the kitchen where my Mum was making a pie, or baking a cake, or just doing the dishes.  The programme was the Jimmy Young Show and he had a regular recipe slot, which was announced by "Raymondo", in a chipmunk style voice.  So, what's the recipe today, Jen?

Well, they go as follows :

Tues : Sausage casserole

Wed : Tandoori Chicken, saffron rice and salad

Thur : Ham & Apple Pie, parsnip mash, carrots & peas

Fri : Drunken Spaghetti

Sat : Trinidad Prawn Curry with rice

Sun : Chicken Normandy, Tenderstem broccoli, carrots & parsnips

Mon : Chilli con carne & rice.

I'm quite looking forward to that lot!

This evening's Sausage Casserole isn't just any old Sausage Casserole, oh no.  It's from the Good Food Channel's website and is from a recipe by Tana Ramsey.

Not a bad sausage casserole ...

Now both hubby and I have been known to produce a fairly good Sausage Casserole, but this one caught my attention because of its use of fennel, redcurrant jelly and balsamic vinegar in the mix.  Also, it has an interesting little savoury finish in that you mix up some whole grain mustard and creme fraiche (or cream) and drizzle it over the top.  Sounds like it could definitely hit the spot!

I'm not sure what to serve with it just yet, although I have almost settled upon some oven baked sweet potatoes.  I've got a couple lurking in the cupboard that need using - and I do want something different to the rest of the week's rice or pasta.

That's what I'm aiming for!

Wednesday's evening meal will be Tandoori Chicken from The Curry Guy.  I do have a lot of trust in The Curry Guy's recipes - and if he says that this is the closest he's come to creating a genuine Tandoori Chicken, then I'm up there for having a go.

I'll be so pleased if the rest of the family like this recipe, as we've been searching for a good reproducible home cooked version of the restaurant standard for a long, long time.

Now, Thursday's Ham & Apple Pie is one that I'm especially looking forward to.  It's an Arthur Potts Dawson recipe, from lovefood.com and I really like the idea of the layers of bechamel, ham, cheese and apple that the pie comprises.  The recipe isn't very far removed from our Kentish Pie, so I know that the flavours are sound - it's just the knack of the cook and the seasoning that counts.  This is another recipe for Bramley Apple Week - it's been a lot of fun, sourcing interesting apple recipes - and there's another one to come, in the shape of the Chicken Normany, before the week is up!

Not "the" recipe - but gives you an idea of how it should look!

I've got my fingers crossed for Friday.  Whether I make the Drunken Spaghetti or not on that day depends entirely on whether the powers that be get the wine to me in time.  I was contacted by a P.R. company for Barefoot Wines, who enquired whether I would like to receive a sample of a few of their wines to cook with.  Now as you know, I've been using wine quite regularly in my recipes so this was too good an opportunity to miss.  Hence the crossed fingers - as I was intending on using the Drunken Spaghetti recipe as a Valentine's Day possibility.  Aaah, cute, eh?  Get him drunk on spaghetti - nothing wrong with that picture, is there?

It seems like ages since we had a decent "proper" curry - and when I found Gary Rhodes' recipe for the Trinidad Prawn Curry, it sounded so light and tasty that it really got my mouth watering.  It's a different type of curry to the Indian style and although it uses curry powder instead of separating out each type of spice, the method of dealing with the curry powder is very different to what I'm used to - so I'm interested to see how that will work.

A random "Chicken Normandy" picture.

Sunday's Chicken Normandy takes me back to childhood again, when I am sure my Mum used to make a version of it.  I'm breaking out the good old Bramley apples again - I don't think I've ever used them so often - and with cider in the sauce, I'm hoping it measures up to my memories of the dish.

The observant amongst you may have noticed the appearance of the Chilli con Carne (or Chilli con Healthy) again.  For some reason, we keep dodging the appearance of this one.  I'm starting to wonder if it's the name that's putting hubby off - anything marked "healthy" is very definitely the cause of much suspicion - so have decided to re-name it plain old Chilli con Carne.  I will make this dish, I will!

So there you are.  A bit of an apple theme going on, but it's forgiveable I hope!

Oh, now speaking of apples - I forgot about the Dorset Apple Cake and the Cherry Shortbread Cookies I've got planned.

I'll be making the Dorset Apple Cake somewhere around Friday (for consumption over the weekend - helps to feed hungry teenagers!).  It's a recipe that the blog's old friend Willie gave to me absolutely ages ago and I have never got around to making.  So I'm going to be remedying that.  It looks incredibly simple to make and is the kind of cake that is capable of being a dessert with the addition of some whipped cream.

The Cherry Shortbread Cookies are really just an excuse to use my new cookie cutters - which are in the shapes of hearts and lips.  Valentines Day on the way?  Really? 

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