Blueberry, Cranberry & Sultana Scones

I spent a large amount of my childhood on camping holidays, whether it was the Lake District, Devon or Cornwall, there was always a hill to climb, lake to walk around and obviously, a coffee shop selling fresh cakes. The only thing better than a home-made scone, is a home-made scone after you've been dragged on what seems like a never ending walk. I'm not one for camping these days, I prefer the comforts of a hotel (far too precious to sleep outdoors), but my love for scones has certainly continued. I made these this morning, they are so easy to make and they keep quite well. You can pretty much add any fruit you like to them, I raided the cupboards and added whatever I could find and came up with these.

Ingredients:
250g Self Raising Flour
Pinch Salt
60g Caster Sugar
50g Chilled, Unsalted Butter (Diced)
1 Egg (Beaten)
90ml Milk (Little extra for bushing on top)
50g Fresh Blueberries
25g Dried Cranberries
25g Sultanas
Zest of Half a Lemon
2/3tsp Demerera Sugar

Set the over to 180 Degrees/C. Put the flour, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl and add the chilled butter. Mix together with your fingertips until the butter is completely incorporated and the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. Add the milk and the egg and mix together to form a dough - you can sprinkle a little more flour in if the mixture is too sticky. Add the fruit and lemon zest and mix in until it is fairly distributed through the dough.

Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and pat out until it is approximately 3cms thick. Using a 8cm Cutter, dip the edges in flour and cut out each scone, placing them on a baking tray. Keep patting out the dough and cutting more until you have used up the mix, you should get 8 or 9.

Once on the baking tray, brush each scone with a little milk and sprinkle over the demerera sugar to add some crunch. Then bake for 15/20 minutes until golden brown on the top and bottom.


The best thing about having scones at home, is that you can take as much jam and cream as you like - those little coffee shops never give you enough! I think these scones would go nicely with lashings of clotted cream and a blueberry or raspberry jam.

I have a few evenings off work this week, so I am already planning some new recipes to write about on here. I'm even going to attempt home-made gnocchi tomorrow, so fingers crossed!

Teagan thinks if she sits nicely, I might give her a scone - not likely. 

Welcome Back!

It's certainly been a while since I have posted up on here, but I'm officially back.  I've missed cooking over the past few months, my kitchen at university was so small I found it difficult to move my gigantic, clumsy limbs around the place in an orderly fashion - I'm messy enough when given a large space to work in let alone a tiny one, so I pretty much gave up on cooking anything too extravagant. However, now I have finished my degree I'm back in the comfort of my own kitchen with a lot more space and a lot more time to play with.

In other news, I applied to Masterchef a few weeks ago - I have wanted to apply for ages, but didn't ever get round to it. So another reason for coming back to my blog is that I need to teach myself to make loads of new things, just in case I get an audition!

Today I tried making my own pasta,  to make sheets so I could put together a lasagne for the family dinner. The pasta dough worked well, but I stupidly left my baby brother, Alex, in charge of making the cheese sauce for the lasagne. This resulted in a runny white liquid and a Le Cruset pan burnt to the point of no return. So we had tagliatelle and bolognaise instead...

This is how I made the pasta -it is easier than you think, especially with a pasta roller, takes ages but you can use a rolling pin.

Ingredients:
600g Pasta Flour (00')
6 eggs



This recipe makes a lot of pasta, so if you only need a bit for tortellini or anything similar you can halve the recipe. You can put all the ingredients in the food processor and mix until the egg and flour is combines, or you can do it the traditional way and make an egg-volcano and mix together by hand. Either way, you will need to knead the mixture until the dough feels smooth and not rubbery. It took me about 15 minutes and yes, my arms ache. Once you have finished kneading the dough, cling film it and leave it in the fridge for 30 minutes. I then used a pasta roller to roll out the pasta as thin as possible before cutting it into tagliatelli sized strips (about 10mm wide).

Teagan helping to make pasta

With the left over pasta dough, I made some little tortellini filled with chorizo and red pepper. To make the filling I finely chopped 50g of chorizo with a red pepper, 1 small red chilli (I'm sure you don't need to be told, but wash your hands after touching the chilli - I just learnt the hard way that chilli in the eye is not pleasant) and half a red onion and fried the mixture for 10 minutes on a low heat.
Click here for a good website which shows you how to fold the tortellini.

To cook the tortellini, I simply boiled them in salted water for 3-4 minutes. For the pasta sauce I used the same pan that I fried the chorizo in, added 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic to some olive oil and gently fried for two minutes before adding 1 carton of passata and a teaspoon of paprika. After seasoning with salt and pepper and leaving the sauce to simmer for 10 minutes, I added the cooked tortellini to cover them with the sauce before serving with a garnish of chopped basil.

Ciao Venezia

I left Venice on Saturday, so I'm no longer based in my Venetian kitchen but I'm back home with my family for a month for Christmas before I move to Leamington for my final two terms. Venice has been fantastic, I've loved every minute of it. I already miss my girls from flat Garibaldi, no more watching Masters of Sex with a group of giggly girls (me especially) or drinking on boats on the way to the bars, or being forced to watch scary zombie films in the dark!! It is nice to be back in my own bed though - I've been spending most of my time here, promising my duvet I will never leave her again.

Thank you so much to everyone that made my time in Venice so special, you know who you are. Our last night out last thursday was definitely one to remember and a really amazing way to say goodbye to everyone (until January at least)! Finally, thanks to my mother for providing the funding for important visits to Piccolo Mondo and more vodka than I would like to admit (sorry mum).

Flat Garibaldi in Florence

I thought I'd include some final pictures from Venice that really sums up my time here. Holly, you better be thankful that Lucy didn't send me that photo ;)

Enjoying the cheap Prosecco - Alone...

Our Yacht - Pammy V

Ashleigh's Visit 

My Amazing Boyfriend

Jade, Ash, Charlotte, Megan & Me at Halloween

Tim & Stephen reading 50 Shades

Spider & Scary Doll/ Sexy Child

Lottie, Tim, Stephen & Me 

My Lovely Flat & Our Washing

Stuffed Tomato & Tomato Risotto

Last Thursday there was a public holiday in Venice to celebrate the festival of the Salute. It is a religious occasion where many people travel to Venice to take part in mass in the Salute Church, although the religious side is important to many people, we went purely because we were promised doughnuts and candy floss. And we weren't disappointed. We all skipped breakfast so we would have enough room to eat when we were there, started off with a deep fried doughy thing covered in sugar and filled with Nutella. It. Was. AMAZING. Once we had finished making a mess and covering ourselves in Nutella, we tried Arancini which are balls of risotto stuffed with cheese and ham or spinach etc. then covered in breadcrumbs and deep fried. To top it off I had a massive blob of candyfloss and remained on a sugar high for pretty much the rest of the day and did none of my essay. Whoops. So worth it though.

I'm trying to use up all of the ingredients I have left in the cupboards before we leave next week, so I made a stuffed tomato risotto thing for dinner.

Serves 4
Ingredients:

Six Large Tomatoes (2 Diced, 4 with tops sliced off and the insides scooped out and saved in a bowl)
250g Risotto Rice
1 Onion (Diced)
1 Large Handful Grated Parmesan
1 tsp Oregano
2 Cloves Garlic (Finely chopped)
1 Veg Stock Cube
1 Litre Boiling Water

First heat the oven to 180 Degrees and add the stock cube to the boiling water.

Fry the onions and garlic in a little olive oil until softened. Add the risotto rice and a little of the stock to the pan. Keep adding the stock a little at a time until the rice has soaked it up. Add the chopped and the insides of the tomatoes and add a pinch of salt, pepper, oregano and the parmesan. Once the rice is nearly cooked spoon some of the risotto into each empty tomato before placing them in a baking tray and roasting in the oven for 10 minutes. Take the rest of the risotto off the heat otherwise it will become soft and mushy (no one wants that!).

Serve any remaining risotto in a bowl and place a stuffed tomato on top, garnish with parmesan!

Never too old for a balloon eh?

Thought I would share a few more pictures from the festival including a lovely montage of me devouring my candy floss thanks to Emily, and Holly with her new friend - the minion balloon, which is not deflating in our kitchen!

Sorry Mum 

Tomato & Mozzarella Tart With Pesto Dressing

The vegetable tart that I made before is a big hit in my flat, so I thought I'd come up with a different version to mix things up a little. The picture of this is not great, I apologise, but we were so hungry I couldn't mess around with the camera to try and get a good shot! We have been pretty busy over the last week or so, with our final essay deadline on Monday as well as organising ourselves before our big departure from Venice on the 7th, I'v had less time to come up with new meal ideas and we are all running out of money to buy exciting ingredients. This tart is not as boring as it seems however, it has roasted pepper and prosciutto underneath the tomatoes, plus anything covered in extreme amounts of mozzarella is a winner in our flat. I served this with a pesto dressing as well.

Serves 4
Ingredients:

1 Ready Rolled Puff Pastry
1 Packet Sliced Prosciutto
3 Large Tomatoes (Thinly Sliced)
2 Red Peppers (Sliced into 1 inch strips)
2 Balls Mozzarella (Sliced)

For the Dressing:
1 Tbsp Basil Pesto
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tsp White Wine Vinegar
1 Handful of Parmesan Shavings

Roast the sliced peppers and onions in the oven for 20 minutes with a little olive oil - this reduces the water content in them to stop the pastry getting too soggy. Leave the oven on 200 degrees - it is important to have the oven fully heated before cooking the pastry, don't want any soggy bottoms!!

Roll the pastry out onto a baking tray, use a fork to prick the pastry before layering the sliced prosciutto and the roasted peppers on top. Add the tomatoes in circles and top with the mozzarella. Bake in the oven on 200 Degrees for about 20 minutes until the pastry is crisp and the mozzarella is golden brown.

While the tart is cooking, combine the oil, vinegar and pesto in a bowl with the parmesan shavings. Mix together with a pinch of salt and pepper to make the dressing.

When I made this tart I didn't roast the tomatoes first, so the pastry was not as cooked through as I would have liked, but if you do roast them I think it would be easier.

Aubergine & Mozzarella Pasta

I had a similar dish when I was on holiday in Rome a few years ago and never attempted to make it until now. I'm really running out of ways to make pasta exciting, so I gave it a go. The picture doesn't really do it justice, there are two balls of mozzarella running through the tomato sauce which melt and make the sauce creamy and it does that stringy thing too. I also roasted the onions and the aubergines to give them a slightly more smoky taste before adding them to the sauce, I think it is better this way as the aubergine doesn't get too soft either and it does need a bit of texture.

Serves 4-6
Ingredients
1 Large Aubergine (Diced)
1 Onion (Diced)
3 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
Olive Oil
1 Packet Penne Pasta
2 Balls Mozzarella (Chopped)
1 Jar Passata
2 Cloves Garlic (Finely Chopped)
1 Handful Basil Leaves (Chopped)
1 Tsp Oregano
Salt & Pepper

Roast the aubergine and onions in a glug of olive oil and the balsamic vinegar with a pinch of salt and pepper. Roast them in the over on 200 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Place a pan of salted water on to boil, when boiling add the pasta and leave for 10-15 minutes until cooked al dente.

Add the passata and garlic to a pan with the chopped mozzarella and oregano. Leave to cook until all the mozzarella has melted. Add the roasted vegetables and leave for a few minutes to soak up the sauce. While doing so, drain the pasta and add it to the sauce. Serve with some chopped basil on top and lots of parmesan.

Not sure it quite lived up to the little restaurant near the Trevi Fountain where I had it first, but it makes a change from standard tomato pasta!

Sweet & Sour Chicken with Egg Fried Rice

My little Italian blog has had an Asian take over this evening - although maybe sweet and sour chicken is something the brits invented like tikka masala? Sorry, I haven't done my research...We have been really craving chinese food for ages, pretty much the whole flat with the exception of Emily (who is a good, hard working girl unlike the rest of us) has been hungover for the whole of the weekend and we needed something take away-esque. It was the last weekend we could really justify going out as we have essay deadlines again soon, so we took full advantage. I'm not going to tell you any stories because I will get in trouble for gossiping, all I'm going to say is that some of us will not be going near alcohol any time soon (cough, Holly, cough).

Serves 4
Ingredients:

3 Chicken Breasts (Diced)
2 Carrots (In Batons)
2 Red Peppers (Cut into Chunks)
1 Can Pineapple Chunks (Drained)
100g Cashew Nuts
1 Onion (Diced)
6 tbsp Tomato Ketchup
4 tbsp White Wine Vinegar
3 tbsp Sugar
1 Clove Garlic (Finely Chopped)
Olive Oil, Salt & Pepper
200-250g Rice
2 Eggs (Beaten)
150g Peas

Place a pan of water and leave to boil. Boil the rice until cooked, drain and leave to cool (or rise under a cold tap).

Fry the onions and garlic in a pan, add the chicken and leave to cook through for 5 minutes stirring constantly. Add the carrots and peppers. Mix the ketchup, vinegar and sugar in a bowl and add to the chicken and veg. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper and add the cashew nuts and leave to simmer for 10 minutes. Add a few splashes of water if the sauce gets too thick.

While the chicken is simmering, heat a frying pan with some olive oil and leave to get really hot. Then add the cool rice to the frying pan. Push the rice to one side of the pan and add the eggs to the other side of the pan. Leave to cook through and then use a fork or a chopstick to break up the egg and mix it into the rice. Next add the peas and leave to cook for a few minutes. Serve the rice with the sweet and sour chicken for an easy and healthier version of a classic.

It was a welcome break from pasta and now we can have chips too because we invested in some ketchup!
We are expecting really high waters tomorrow, higher than my wellies apparently, according to our resident weather girl, Emily. Looks like I will get a chance to wear my bikini after all!

Oh I also forgot to mention that we had an apple strudel for pudding. I didn't make it but it was soooo good and now I feel really greedy - just like every other day I suppose.