Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Bagel Brunch

The other day, I noticed that  Nigella Lawson had tweeted about her bagel cutter. She had bought it at the insistance of her children, who had seen it on The OC.

Several years ago, when The OC was first on our screens, after a couple of  episodes which seemed to feature  the bagel cutter in operation,  we did the same.  My sons both requested a bagel cutter  (at that time they were not available from Amazon)  and we decided to ask my husband to buy one on a trip to the States.

Amazingly, it is a kitchen gadget that we still use.  So many novelty items are fun for a while, but then become a nuisance gathering dust on the kitchen work top.  They are then  discarded, either to be stored in the garage, or given to a charity shop.  The bagel cutter has however, stayed the course, and it sits beside the toaster ready for use whenever anyone feels like a bagel!

So when I made my favourite Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Bagel, with herbs, I used the bagel cutter!

Of course there really is no recipe to give here.  Once my bagel was sliced, I used cream cheese and a lovely piece of smoked salmon, I then added some chives and dill, a squeeze of lemon, and voila!  I had a delicious (and quickly prepared)  brunch.

The next day I decided on a toasted cinnamon and raisin bagel, again I used the cutter and lightly toasted my bagel. Just perfect with butter and a cup of coffee.

If you have teenage children who love The OC, or just love fun kitchen gadgets then I recommend the bagel cutter!


NB The Guillotine is sharp. I wouldn't let young children use this.

My delicious bagel

The bagel cutter

Scrumptious ingredients

Put the bagel in the slicer

The guillotone is put over the bagel

Push down

And your bagel is ready use

Delicious

This is the cinnamon and raisin bagel

Maybe slightly over toasted ! 

Celebrating a Year of Blogging - A Little Give Away!

I've just checked my first posts, and found that my trifle, which I thought I had posted on the 7th February2011 was actually originally posted on the 2nd February 2011.

So next Thursday, 2nd February 2012, will be the first  anniversary of my blog.  It has been an amazing year for me, and next week I'll write about some of the highlights.

As a little mark of appreciation, to my followers,  I have a small give away to announce today.  I am giving away two things.

The first is a book, "Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits".  My sister in law bought me a copy, and it's a really super book full of inspiring icing ideas.  When I saw it on offer, I bought a second copy, thinking it would make a great give away.  Because it is quite a large book I am afraid this part of the give away is for UK only.

But so my overseas followers do not feel left out I also have two "British" tea towels.  They are light enough for me to mail anywhere, obviously UK residents are included in this one as well!

As we have the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics this year, I thought the tea towels were quite fun, and I particularly like the soldier.  As some of you know my elder son has recently commissioned as an Officer in the British Army (though he is not in a Guard's Regiment, so he won't actually ever wear a Bear Skin Hat!)

I'll put a link in the side bar, so you can comment on this
page

An inspiring book

A lovely Union Jack

Famous London Icons

Sorry, my range cooker is not included!

I loved the fact that they are both so bright and cheerful!

The usual things for entering the give away, please leave a comment telling me that  you would  like a chance to win  the book and/or the  tea towels, and if you aren't following my blog please do so, to be included.

For a second chance follow me on Twitter, and if (you are cleverer then me) you could re tweet the link for a third chance.

For my last give away I used the very high tech technique of writing the names of everyone who had entered on a piece of paper, putting them all in a vase, and asking my elder son to draw a name at random.  It worked very well and I will do the same again, though it may well be my younger son this time! There will be  two draws, one for the book (UK only) and one for the tea towels (whole world).

Do please enter, the more the merrier.

I was just going to post this, when I realised I hadn't put the date when the draw will take place, the 2nd February 2012 at midday (GMT).  Then I can let you know who has won!

Marmalade - Seville Orange Marmalade

I just love seeing the first Seville Oranges when they arrive in the shops in  January.  Marmalade making is very time consuming but well worth the effort, homemade marmalade is the bees knees!

There are various techniques for making marmalade.  For my first batch this year, I made a simple thin cut Seville Orange Marmalade.

One thing to note, if you have not previously made your own marmalade, is that it does takes time.  You don't have to be stirring the pot all day long, but you do need to be nearby to keep an eye on things.  One solution is to make marmalade over two days, you can do all the preparation and boiling of the peel one evening and then add the sugar and test for a set the next day.  I find it easier to do the whole thing in one day, but I do start as soon as I return from the morning school run, and I just have time to pot the marmalade before I return for the pick up.

To make about 5 jars of marmalade, I used

1 KG Seville Oranges
2 KG Preserving Sugar
1 Lemon
2 Litres Water

First I cut the oranges in half, I juiced the oranges and the lemon.  NB these are not juicy breakfast oranges, and do not produce a great amount of juice. I poured the juice into my preserving pot, which contained the 2 litres of water.


I threw out the remaining lemon, but kept all the oranges, and  scrapped out the pith and pips, putting it  all in a muslin cloth.   I then tied the muslin cloth and put it in to the juice and water.

The next step was to slice the orange peel, I tried to keep this as uniform as possible, and it was time consuming.

I added the peel to the preserving pot, and simmered for two hours, until the liquid had reduced by about a half.

Meanwhile I put some saucers into the freezer, so I could test for a set.

Once the mixture had simmered and the orange peel had softened, I turned off the heat.  I squeezed as much liquid as I could from the muslin bag, before I discarded it.

I added the sugar, and once it had dissolved I brought the pan to the boil.  I then boiled the marmalade for about 8 minutes, and tested for a set.  It took a further 3 minutes for setting point to reach.

Once I had removed the scum from the top of the marmalade I potted it up in clean and sterilised jars.


I'll be making a second batch this week using the whole fruit method, and should post that next week.  If you're not sure about time constraints, remember that Seville Oranges freeze well, and you could make your marmalade at a time that suits you.

I made a loaf of bread, to taste the marmalade

I love simple ingredients

Halving the oranges

Don't throw the pips

Into some muslin with the pith

A spoon will really scrape out the pith 

I popped the muslin over a sieve to retain any juice

And tied it up

The orange juice

I wore the gloves, as I find the citrus juice gets into any
tiny cuts or nicks in my hands

Cutting up the peel

Before

And after boiling

Stir

Add the sugar

Make sure it dissolves

Stir and bring to the boil

My sugar thermometer is not completely accurate,
so I prefer to do the saucer test

I use wax disks between the marmalade and the lid
to keep it well sealed

Completely......

Delicious

A Meal at Odette's Restaurant, Primrose Hill and another Super Easy Supper:- Butternut Squash, Chickpea and Lentil warm salad

Some weeks are so busy, I find I have little time to post.  My little girl was unwell on Monday and Tuesday, and looking after a poorly child does seem to  take a great deal of time and energy! On Wednesday I really had to catch up with housework and food shopping!

But on  Thursday I had a lovely treat.  I joined some fellow bloggers for a fantastic lunch at Odette's Restaurant, in Primrose Hill.  The food was delicious, I had a salmon parfait followed by a beautifully cooked  rabbit's leg, and it was very reasonably priced, £17 for two courses, and £20 for three!  I didn't have pudding but they looked lovely and there was a wonderful cheese as an alternative.  The lunch and the company complemented each other really well, they were  both wonderful!

Karen, at Lavender and Lovage, had instigated the meal, as she was over from France and wanted to meet up with a few other bloggers, you can find her wonderful new blog here, and the lovely Vanessa from Goddess on a Budget, kindly booked the lunch.  I was rather awed to be in such splendid company, as well as these two super bloggers there was Kate from Turquoise Lemons,  Ren from Fabulicious Food, Helen from Fuss Free Flavours,  Fiona from London Unattached, Solange from Pebble Soup and Charlotte, who not only blogs, here,  but has her own company producing gluten, wheat, diary and soya free baked produce at Go Free Cakes.  If you don't know these blogs I recommend a look, they are all inspiring and full of interesting ideas.

Sadly however, I am not really a lady who lunches,   and I do have a family to cook for.  It is good to try new recipes, especially in January when the weather is dull and food can see quite boring.  So always on the lookout for something that sounds tasty (and not too challenging) I was delighted when my husband found a recipe for a winter salad, in the Times a few Saturdays ago.  I adapted it to our tastes (and for ease used tinned pulses rather then the fiddle of soaking) and I was really pleased with the results, it will certainly be a regular weeknight supper from now on.

Butternut, chickpea and lentil warm salad.

The key ingredients are:

Butternut Squash
2 Red Onions, but I used some lovely Roscoff Rose Onions instead
Lentils (soaked the night before) or in my case open a tin of green lentils!
Chickpeas (1 tin )
Pancetta or you could use organic, free range bacon, which I found to be perfect
Cumin Seeds
Bay leaf
Chopped, Fresh Coriander and Parsley
Rapeseed Oil

Cube the butternut squash and bake in the oven with the onions (cut into chunks) for about 45 minutes

Fry the bacon in a little rapeseed oil, with a bay leaf, once the bacon is  cooked add the lentils and the cumin seeds (about a teaspoonful ground with pestle and mortar)

Once the squash and onion are cooked, transfer to a large dish and add the rinsed chickpeas, the bacon and lentils.  Sprinkle with the fresh herbs.

There was plenty for four of us, and if you removed the bacon and maybe added a little more spice, would be lovely for vegetarians.

A delicious wintery midweek supper

The butternut squash

Cubed and ready to bake

Don't forget to add the onions
these beauties came back from Brittany with us in the New Year

Adding the cumin to the bacon

And then the lentils

The salad, ready to be eaten!

Don't forget to look out for my anniversary give away, coming up soon!

A Very Hungry or Should that say Tasty Caterpillar!

We had another family birthday last week.  My younger son turned 23, and he requested a chocolate roulade for his birthday cake.  However, he hadn't anticipated his 5 year old sister helping with the decorating, so rather then an elegant dessert he had a very hungry very tasty caterpillar!

I decided to use  the same recipe for this birthday cake,  as I had used for my Buche de Noel, a photograph of which you can find here.

It was Nigella's Yule Log, and you can find the ingredients and instructions for it here, or in her book, Nigella Christmas.

I had never made a roulade before Christmas, and I found this  recipe really super,  it's worked for me, twice!  Always a good thing!  So if you want to try a chocolate  roulade to cheer yourself up during murky old January I can really recommend this one.

Munch! Munch!

A very happy caterpillar

Perfect for January, no fat in the cake!

Whisked egg whites and sugar

Yolks (and more sugar)

Mixed together

Adding the cocoa

folding in the egg whites

Out of the oven

Perfect

I found the dark chocolate very rich at Christmas
so decided to use some milk chocolate in the icing

Mixing

And spreading the icing

The tricky bit,
rolling the roulade

Covering with icing

Transforming into a caterpillar

I was looking back over my blog, as I try to catch up with putting recipes on the recipe page, and realised that I have nearly reached a year of blogging!  My first post was on February 7th 2011!  So, of course, I will have a little give away to celebrate.

I should post about the give away over the next day or two, so keep an eye open for it and do join in!

PS I am adding this to Sarah at Maison Cupcake's wonderful Forever Nigella Event!  Thank you for suggesting I enter it, Sarah.