Awesome avocado dressing

Fancy kicking about amongst the flowers and picking avocados with me? A good avo brings me such happiness.

If you visit my parents you will go home with avocados.

If my brother visits London and doesn't bring me avocados and lemons, he will be in my bad books. Unbelievably he's 'not too fussed either way about them' so I felt I owed it to him to win him over. Would it be cheating to start my mission with a juicy steak?

Avocados have a lot of calories in them and their fair share of fat yadda yadda, I can't believe this stops people from eating them. They are SO GOOD FOR YOU. Full of antioxidants and good for your eyes, heart and unborn baby in wombs everywhere. They also taste delicious and the cold, smooth, buttery texture is like nothing else. Slather in your hair, on your toast, or blend it into a dressing. You can make it thinner than mine to coat your lettuce leaves but I've made mine like a loose guacamole.

Avocado dressing

Blend the below in a food processor, taste and season accordingly.

2 ripe avocados 

1 tbsp chopped chives

2 tbsp coriander

1 lemon, 1 lime juiced

1/2 tsp Chilli pepper / cayenne pepper

Lots of Maldon sea salt

Pepper

Splashes of rice wine vinegar

You can finish with olive oil or water or more lime if you like...

Pretzel Buns

Some food just screams EAT ME! Surprisingly, for me, it's the savoury stuff that beckons. I saw these Swiss pretzel buns on a food/photography blog and had to make them straight away. If you like bagels, or fresh, doughy pretzels then you're going to love these buns. They are chewy, salty, shiny and cute. They are addictive. I ate one warm with serrano ham, manchego and mustard mayo and then a few one with butter and heaps of jam. Excuse being that they're just not the same the next day.For a peek at some beautiful photography and the recipe, check out Rosa's blog

Pug Cake!

WOOF! 

 

It's a funny thing, sculpting something lifelike out of a block of icing. Pugs seem to have become a bit of a craze recently, tiny little dogs that look like they couldn't stop their feet in time from running into/face planting a wall. They are cute though, I've met one and they are funny little things with zany personalities. At first the face looking back at me just had that freaked out look and I felt funny pushing those googly eyes in their sockets.. but at the finish, as I sprayed her eyes glossy, she looked back at me and I couldn't help but stroke her little flat nose.

I only got a fuzzy pic of the final cake but this wee pug crowned a big choc cake surrounded with glossy love hearts. I sprayed the eyes shiny too which really brought her to life but I don't like fuzzy photos so you'll have to excuse me.

Ragu of Jamaican Oxtail

I love Oxtail, you have to give it a lot of love (and by that, I mean time) but it's a cheap cut and it's gloriously unctuous and rich in flavour. I get the slowcooker out for this one, which is of some comfort in this mighty chilly weather..blip blip. That's the sounds of the stew blipping away whilst you go out and leave it to work its magic for 6 hours.
I made this recipe as a gift and wasn't sure how hot to make it so I used regular chillies, if you want a proper Jamaican kick, grab yourself a scotch bonnet!

Serves 4-6 as a ragu with pasta. I would imagine Pappardelle would be beautiful with this. 

Toss 6 pieces of oxtail in -

1tbsp flour

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp chilli powder

½ tsp ground all spice

½ tsp ground ginger

Salt and pepper

Fry in a hot pan, sealing all sides of the meat.

Next, fry 2 onions, get some colour on them, this will give the depth to the sauce

Add 4 cloves of garlic

1 lrg thumb of fresh ginger

1/3 can coconut milk (not imperative, I just had some to use)

1 can chopped tomatoes

1/2 can of water swirled in the empty tomato tin

3 bay leaves

small bunch of thyme leaves

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tspcayenne,

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp dark vinegar

1 heaped tbsp dark muscovado sugar

Chopped chilli of your choice

Squeeze of 1 Lime 

Add the meat to the sauce and Let it cook on high for 5-6 hours in a slow cooker or in the oven and let rest before sliding the meat of the bone and serving. 

If you have any good oxtail recipes, I would love to hear them...

Milk Bar Grasshopper Pie

This space has been quiet for a while. Real life has taken over this month and I feel very guilty about it, so here is a pic of the Brownie Pie that I made on Valentine's Day from the Milk Bar Book, to keep the blog breathing. 
My friend Hannah is making their 'crack pie' on Sunday... I. can't. wait. 

NERDS CAKE

 
It was my niece Jasmine's 8th birthday last week. Holy Moly, where does the time go? 
I went to the trouble of making Amanda's super yummy and wholesome chocolate cake (I used wholemeal flour) and then covered the whole thing in little nuggets of dextrose, sugar and malic acid. OOPS! I hate to think what a mission it was to get the kids to sleep that night. 
I wanted to make Jasmine an awesome cake but didn't have time to do anything 'novelty'.. so I took a moment to think what I loved to eat at her age... NeRdS! NERDS AND POPPING CANDY! 
From the base to the top we have..
Grape-Wild Cherry-Strawberry-Peach-Amped Apple-Double dipped lemonade-lightening lemon. If that wasn't already a party for your mouth I chucked a load of popping candy on the top last minute. Fizztastic. 

 

This cake is seriously moist and tastes just how chocolate cake should and the bonus is, you can cut all the tops off and dip in left over soured cream icing (from that blueberry cake)

 Layer with a firm buttercream and plaster round the sides to stick in all those nerds. I used a spoon and didn't worry too much about where they were going, you could just mix them all up and throw them on, that would be fun.

 Layer up baby.

 Love you Jazzle Fizzle, here's to many more years of silly cakes and Jessie J sing offs. xxx

Spiced rack of Lamb with Persian Rice

 

A rack of lamb takes 25 minutes to cook (the same time as the rice), it's quick and easy to carve with no waste, I love it. Give your lamb some love by marinating it over night with a homemade rub and letting it REST after roasting, it's so important if you want juicy meat. See the juices creating a steady pool under the lamb, yeh, you want that!

You can put whatever you like in your marinade. I don't want you to look at my recipe and be put off by the number of ingredients. If you only have ginger, garlic and garam masala then that's enough to make a real difference but this marinade is seriously the bee's knees. Score the fat of the lamb (not too deep) and rub in the marinade, sit over night or at least 8 hours in the fridge.
I'll write the recipe at the bottom of the post, but here are the steps. You need to oil the lamb and bring to room temperature before searing.

Sealing and blackening the meat.

 Soaking the golden raisins and barberries

Putting together the ingredients for the rice whilst the lamb cooks.

Once the meat is sealed on all sides, pop it in the oven to roast for 15 minutes on 190C.

Take it out, pop it on a plate and cover with foil for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, make your rice.

When the rice is ready, slice up the lamb and pile it on top. Easy Peasy.

Marinade
Juice of 1 lime
Dried lime powder or the zest of the time
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 thumb of ginger, grated
1/2 tsp sumac
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 heaped tsp garam masala
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
2 black cardamon pods, bashed (or green, if you don't have black)
2 pinches of salt and freshly ground pepper
Rice
3 cups Basmati rice (this make loads for 4 people, but trust me, this is magical rice, you'll want a mountain of it)
1 red onion, strips fried until crispy
Big pinch of saffron
2tbsp of the following-
toasted flaked almonds
chopped pistachios
dried barberries (soaked in water)
golden raisins (soaked in water)
Big pinch of dried rose petals
grated zest of 1 lemon
Cinnamon bark/ 1 tsp powdered 
knob of butter
1tsp sugar
Fresh coriander, chopped

To make the rice, and this is by no means authentic, just what I like to do..
Wash the rice 3 times in water. 
1.Cover the rice with water 1cm above the rice level and bring to the boil.
2.Quickly reduce the heat to a bare simmer and place a lid on the pan, leave for 10 minutes without checking/lifting the lid.
3. Lift the lid and stir in all the ingredients bar the coriander.
4. Mix and return to the heat with the lid on and after 3 minutes, turn the heat off and let steam away with no heat. This should provide a slightly crisp base (delicious)but the rice will be fluffy.
5. Season with a little salt, stir through coriander and serve with the lamb. 
I like to serve with a little salad and yogurt dip. Do you have any interesting ways with lamb?