Pistachio Choc Chip biscuits

I haven't baked for a while due to my oven playing up, but its not stopping me completely! I decided to make biscuits using some chocolate pistachio I was given to make these dull evenings indoors a bit more comforting..hmm..

Makes about 15 biscuits

Ingredients:

150g butter
100g soft brown sugar and 3 tsp vanilla sugar
200g plain flour
5ml tsp salt
50g pistachio chocolate (or substitute for other chocolate or choc chips)

Cooking Instructions:

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until it's light and creamy, add the flour and salt, mix well to form into a dough. You shouldn't need to use any liquid but if you do, just a teaspoonful at a time of tepid water.

2. Place the dough onto a floured board, add the choc chips or chopped pistachio chocolate, then shape into a 6cm width roll.

3. Wrap the dough in tinfoil and place in the fridge to firm up.

4. When firm cut the dough into even pieces, place the cookies on two baking trays and cook in a preheated oven for 10-15 minutes at 160c on the middle and top shelves, changing the trays after about 9 minutes.

Smoked Salmon Tagliatelle

I was given a load of smoked salmon yesterday so I decided to use it to make a warm filling pasta dish for dinner instead of just eating with scrambled egg for breakfast. It worked out pretty tasty and certainly filled me up!

Ingredients:

2 Salmon (smoked) portions, sliced and diced into thin pieces
100 ml creme fraiche
250ml Milda (creme and sunflower oil) this is basically just a creamy white sauce which you can make your self.
1 white onion
3 garlic cloves
1/2 a broccoli
1/2 a courgette
6 cauliflower florets
Fish seasoning powder or mixed seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste
300g of tagliatelle


1. I started by heating some olive oil in a wok and adding the onion and garlic.
2. Meanwhile put a pan of water on to boil for the pasta
3. Add the broccoli, courgette and cauliflower and stir for 2-3 min
4. Add the milda or ready made creamy white sauce and stir in.
5. Add the smoked salmon pieces and stir in the mixture.
6. Mean while add the tagliatelle to boiling water, see packet for specific time
7. Add seasoning, salt and pepper to the sauce mix , stir in and let simmer.
8. When the pasta is cooked, strain it and add it to the sauce, mix up well and transfer to bowls.

Carrot and orange Stir-fry

This is somethings I found and thought I'd give try as its a lot different from my usual stir-frys. I also added a few ingredients to make it a bit more interesting.
Don't let the fact that theres a tiny bit of ketchup in it put you off, as it surprised me the way it worked so well with the soy sauce and sugar you can't even tell that its ketchup. This is very quick and easy to make and tastes really good give it a try!

Ingredients:

2 TBSP sunflower oil
1 clove garlic
5 carrots, sliced or grated
1 leek, shredded
4 broccoli florets
1/4 courgette
1/5 white cabbage. chopped
1 orange peeled and segmented
2 TBSP tomato ketchup
2 TBSP Soy sauce
1 TBSP demerara sugar
1 hand full peanuts
1/2 hand full mixed sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds

1. Heat the sunflower oil in a large preheated wok add garlic
2. Add grated carrot, leek, cabbage, courgette to the wok and stir for 2-3min
3. Add orange segments, make sure you don't break them up as you add them to the mixture
4. Mix the ketchup, soy sauce and sugar in a bowl then add it to the wok and stir for a furhter 2 min.
5. Add the nuts and seeds, mix in then transfer to a bowl immediately.

You can add chicken or quorn to the stir-fry to make it even more filling and interesting.