Smoked salmon and Gouda cheese salad with raspberry sauce

loving this salad and I think it's a must try. I made this as a starters for my dinner party to celebrate my husband's birthday last week. A winner with the 20 people I catered for.

Smoked salmon, Gouda cheese on herb salad served with raspberry sauce

Scrumptious raspberry sauce: must try

Ingredients
1/4 cup champagne vinegar
4-1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1-1/2 cups fresh raspberries, divided
1 package (5 ounces) spring mix salad greens
4 ounces Gouda cheese, shaved
1/3 cup Brazil nuts, chopped and toasted
2 shallots, thinly sliced

Directions
Place the vinegar, sugar, salt and 1/4 cup raspberries in a food processor; cover and process until pureed.
Divide salad greens among eight salad plates; top with cheese, nuts, shallots and remaining raspberries.
Drizzle with dressing. Yield: 8 servings.

Recycling Monday

Who said leftovers had to be boring, my family voted for a recreation of the Sunday meal as they did not want me to "kill" the beautiful beef (this means they did not want me to over cook it in the process of re-making a different meal). I would like to say I'm glad I listened  because tonight's meal was even better than yesterday even though we did not have Yorkshire peas and had corn as a side.

Tender Rack of Lamb

Rack of lamb is the most beautiful any day anytime meat, be it a normal family meal or that special meal with important people. How you cook it defines what occasion and makes it special for that particular time.

I admit that it can be dear but it's just well worth the extra pound sometimes.

Trim off the excess fat from the rack, season the rack with salt and pepper then pan fry the rack on both sides for about five minutes turning regularly.

Put meat in the oven and 180C for 14minutes for medium-rare or longer depending on liking. Allow meat to rest for about 15 minutes before cutting it.

Enjoy.

Packed lunch ideas: Mini Toad in a hole

My children love their Toad in a hole for supper so last week I did a trial run on miniature 'Toads' cooked in muffin cups. They loved them, I asked if they would be happy to have these as packed lunch and I got squeals and jumps of excitement.

So last night I made these; very easy, no additives, no preservatives, economical and most of all children will enjoy them.

Yorkshire Pudding recipe:
Serving: 3 children

62g plain flour
1 egg
150mls milk
Pinch salt
1 1/2tbs olive oil (avoid using dripping this time as children will be eating this cold and dripping will congeal when cold)

3 sausages halved and skin removed

Preheat oven to 200C
Divide oil into six muffin tray holes and place tray in oven for oil to heat up
Mix together the pudding ingredients and whisk till smooth and lump free.
Divide mixture into the hot cups and gently drop a half sausage in each slot
Return to oven and cook for 25minutes.
Cool completely before packing into the lunch boxes

I added 1frubes yoghurt, carrot and cucumber sticks, a cup cake and Capri-sun for a drink plus water for the day.

Cost: less than £1 per head for the whole lunch and it will all be eaten up.

Passion Fruit Parfait

As requested by my seven year old passion fruit loving son who kindly asked for passion fruit based dessert (second time this week), I decided to make Passion Fruit Parfaits (thanks to the GreatBritishChef recipes)

Passion Fruit Parfait
Servings: 6

Ingredients
Passion fruit parfait recipe
120g of caster sugar
3 eggs
100ml of double cream
75ml of concentrated passion fruit purée

Sauce
6 passion fruits
100g caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 160°C

Method
Whisk eggs and caster sugar till thickened
Add purée and double cream and whisk briskly

Divide mixture into six greased and sugar coated ramekins
Place ramekins into an baking tray and half fill the tray with hot water (or enough to cover 3/4 of the ramekins
Bake for 40-45 minutes or until set
Remove from tray and allow parfaits to cool

To make the sauce,
Cut open the fruits and scrape the contents into a pan, add sugar and bring the contents to boil until sugar is dissolved to achieve a syrupy mixture. Allow to cool.
Run knife around the inside of the ramekins to loosen the parfait and place parfaits onto serving
plates. Pour over some of the passion fruit syrup and use remaining syrup to decorate plate

You can serve this with a quenelle of vanilla ice cream or creme chantilly and a biscuit

Molten Lava Cake

If you are a chocolate lover and have no time to fuss about in the kitchen then this is your dessert of choice. It's simple, it's sweet, rich, moist and yes it does hit the spot 

SimpleFoods

Molten Lava Cake

Prep Time: 30 min
Cook: 14 min
Yield: 6 cakes
Level: Easy

Ingredients
150g dark chocolate
50 milk chocolate
10 tablespoons soft butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
3 large eggs
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons raspberry liqueur (optional)

Directions
Preheat oven to 180C

Grease 6 ramekins with butter and coat around with sugar then chill.
Melt the chocolates and butter in the microwave, or on ban marie
Add the flour and sugar to chocolate mixture. 

Stir in the eggs and yolks until smooth.
Stir in the vanilla and orange liqueur. Divide the batter equally into the ramekins
Place in the oven and bake for 14 minutes.
The edges should be firm but the center will be runny.
Sift some icing sugar onto the serving plates
Run a knife around the edges to loosen and invert onto dessert plates.