I found this recipe in a fictional book (of all places) - Jane Green's 'The Love Verb' (great book!) had a different recipe every chapter. Mostly vegetarian recipes (nearly all involving spinach) and while a lot of them looked a bit healthy for me some still looked interesting enough to have a go at! Although the one I chose in the end was probably the only one with meat in...
I wasn't too sure about the mix of cream, mayonnaise, curry powder and... greek yoghurt (surely only for breakfast?) but it looked quick and easy to try without much time or effort wasted if it wasn't for me! Plus I needed to have a healthy meal for a change and you can't get much healthier than two packets of spinach right?
I found it best to do the sauce by taste as I didn't want it to taste too yoghurty. Also the more breadcrumbs and curry powder the better - if you've got stale bread to make the breadcrumbs use it!
You will need:
1 packets frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and liquid squeezed out (I used fresh)
2 chicken breasts (boneless and skinless)
seasoning: (I wouldn't take the measurements too seriously here)
1/2 medium jar mayonnaise
1/2 medium carton greek yoghurt
1/2 small carton single cream
1 tablespoon curry powder
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
1. Preheat the oven to 175C.
2. Cover the base of a large rectangular dish with the spinach.
3. Season.
4. Place the chicken breasts on top of the spinach and add seasoning.
5. Mix together the mayonnaise, yoghurt and single cream.
6. Add more or less curry powder, according to taste.
7. Spread the mixture liberally on top of the chicken breasts and spinach until all is covered.
8. Sprinkle the top with breadcrumbs and cook for 45 minutes.
Serve with rice or potatoes!
The mayonnaise, curry powder, cream and yoghurt mixture turned out to be delicious (who knew!) and combined with the breadcrumbs, chicken and spinach it made a great meal. Definitely one I will be doing again.
It has become a tradition every year that I make my boyfriend a birthday cake which he takes into work (after I've sneaked a slice for myself of course!)
The first year I made a chocolate on chocolate cake with fudge chunks, second year was the same but it didn't quite live up to the first year! This year I went for something a bit different, vanilla sponge with white chocolate icing and... marshmallows (not my idea, I wish I could take the credit!) Yes, marshmallows in the icing. I can't say they were planned, after making the sponge it just looked like the cake was going to be missing something, and I had to beat my first cake (I appear to be in competition with myself!) Cue a late night visit to the supermarket to look for something as good as fudge chunks, after staring at the cake section for a few minutes without much inspiration I let my boyfriend choose something. He chose mini marshmallows!
I've never seen marshmallows on a cake before and combined with the sugary sweet white chocolate I was a bit worried about causing some kind of sugar overload in the office. But it was seriously yummy, if I say so myself, and I'm not even a big fan of white chocolate. There was just something about the freshly baked soft sponge combined with the fluffy marshmallows that you couldn't beat!
The victoria sponge recipe is something my mum taught me when I was younger (she used to make it every week - minus the white chocolate and marshmallows) - it's the usual recipe with a few bits that have been added and tweaked over the years.
You will need:
6oz (150g) margarine - make sure its room temperature or warm
6oz (150g) castor sugar
3 eggs
6oz (150g) self raising flour (says sieved but I didn't and it was fine)
1 tsp baking powder (optional)
few drops of vanilla essence
For the butter icing: 4oz (100g) butter - make sure its room
temperature or warm
8oz (200g) icing sugar (again sieved)
100g white chocolate (any quantity would be
fine here - I experimented with 30p cooking
white chocolate instead of the £1.85
belgian chocolate option)
few drops of vanilla essence
tub of mini marshmallows
1. Mix the margarine and sugar with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy (it takes a while by hand)
2. Add the eggs one at a time beating to a smooth consistency between each addition (add a tablespoon of flour with the last egg)
3. Add the remaining flour, baking powder and vanilla essence - just long enough to incorporate the flour.
4. Bake in 2x7" sandwich tins, greased and lined, for 20-30 minutes at 190C.
5. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
6. Beat all the ingredients for the icing together until it is soft and fluffy.
7. Add the marshmallows and lightly mix in until they are incorporated into the icing.
8. Ice the cake - the way I've done it did make a lot of icing (it was quite hard to squeeze it all in the middle), you can halve the ingredients for the icing.
9. Sandwich the sponges together.
Any ideas for next year?
Maybe I'll be brave enough to try making real white cake, Django style!
