I've had so many lovely emails today suggesting things to cook for the christening. I'm actually getting quite excited about it now and have been concocting all afternoon. Camilla, One of my besties who lives in Singapore, sent me such delicious sounding creations that I had to share them with you too.
Camilla's easy peasy Pea, baby spinach, feta and mint salad
(6-8 people)
Whole bag of frozen PETITE POIS
Bag of Baby spinach roughly chopped
Block of Feta chopped into cubes
Toasted pine nutes
Dressing:
Fresh mint, lots chopped up
A really good glug of Olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
A squeeze of honey
Salt & Pepper
1. Leave peas to defrost, even run water over them to help them along! No need to cook
2. Once Peas thawed, add chopped baby spinach and chopped Feta
3. Mix all the dressing ingredients together and pour over the pea, spinach and feta mixture, even better if done a few hours before.
4. Add toasted pine nuts and more fresh mint before serving.
......
Chocci's Macademia Nut and white chocolate brownies
If you "swap the macadamia nuts for white Toblerone they're even better, if that's possible..."
Ingredients:
300g dark
chocolate, broken into pieces
200g unsalted
butter, plus some extra for greasing the pan
280g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 free-range
eggs
230g caster
sugar
1 tsp vanilla
essence
200g macadamia
nuts, toasted for 5 mins
200g white
chocolate chips (or chocolate broken into pieces)
Steps:
Pre-heat the
oven to 170 degrees celcius.
Brush a 20 cm
tin square pan or similar sized round pan with melted butter and line with
baking paper.
Melt the dark
chocolate with the butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water
until fully melted. The bowl should not touch the water, and take the
chocolate butter mixture off the heat once it has melted. If it get too
hot, then the brownies can get a bit greasy when it is baked.
Whisk the eggs,
sugar and vanilla essence in a large bowl until just combined.
Add the melted
chocolate butter mixture and mix lightly.
Fold in the
sifted flour.
Add the
macadamia nuts and chocolate chips.
Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until a
skewer comes out with gooey crumbs (not completely dry). The top of the
brownies should be completely dry.
........
Chaz is away at the moment which means I can make girly, salad-y creations that he wouldn't touch with a barge pole. This is a bit of a mish mash - I've fully taken advantage of his absence and throw in everything he won't eat - pomegranate seeds, sweet potato etc - and it's turned out surprisingly delicious...I might even make him try it..
Today's Magical Mish Mash
Grilled Chicken
Pea shoots
Lambs Lettuce
Roasted sweet potatoes
Roasted cherry tomatoes - they didn't really work though, id leave them out it I were you...
Half a pomegranate
Vinegrette dressing
Next time I'd add roasted pine nuts too.
Thank you Camilla!!! xxxxxxxx
