Kedgeree Samosas

Sep 27, 2011 By Vicky in Snack 8 Comments Tags: eggs, filo pastry, Mackerel, rice, samosas

Samosas are essentially crispy triangular pastry parcels of savoury food and are originally Asian in origin. I love the idea of samosas; it’s the perfect portable lunch, less messy than a sandwich and a lighter alternative to the pie. Samosas are little pockets full of flavour and spice and are served with complimentary chutney. I recently had this strange idea that kedgeree would work really well as samosas. I couldn’t find a recipe so I just formulated my own. So this dish is one hundred percent S’tasty original. It tastes delicious and you won’t find it anywhere else

More …

Arctic Roll Revival

Sep 20, 2011 By Vicky in Cake 5 Comments Tags: arctic roll, chocolate cake, ice-cream

The Arctic Roll is back. This cake and ice-cream concoction was the Ben and Jerry’s treat of the 80′s. It prempted the Vienetta and was that little bit of luxury when times were tight. It was the Sunday best and had a similar mystique to baked alaska. At the height of its popularity, more than twenty five miles of Arctic Rolls were sold every month in the UK alone. The original arctic roll is essentially vanilla ice cream wrapped in a thin layer of sponge cake to form a roll and bound together with a layer of sweet sauce. More …

Courgette, Cheese and Chive Scones

Sep 13, 2011 By Vicky in Snack 12 Comments Tags: cheese, chives, courgette, scones, vegetarian

Thanks to my OH’s work colleagues, we’ve recently been getting a lot of great home grown organic produce as gifts. Kevin Cooke gave us some lovely courgettes which, as I mentioned before, are not the OH’s favourite food. So, once again, I was faced with the challenge of glorifying this great vegetable. I created some delicious courgette, chive and cheese scones. The courgette in these scones make them deliciously moist and they’re a perfect lunch box filler. More …

Anchovy and egg salad with aioli

Sep 9, 2011 By Vicky in Salad 4 Comments Tags: aioli, anchovies, croutons, eggs, lettuce

I think it’s probably safe to say that the Irish summer is well and truly over. Rain is pelting down and attacking the windows and the trees outside are being whipped of their leaves. Autumn is most definitely upon us, so this may be the last summery salad that I post for a while. I saw this salad on Rick Stein’s Spain on BBC and just had to make it. I am not generally a fan of anchovies on their own, though I like them in dressings or sauces. So, I wanted to try this salad as a way of starting to appreciate the humble anchovy. This salad really relies on the quality of ingredients, so good anchovies and free range eggs are a must. The accompanying aioli is so delicious, that, I’d nearly eat it alone with a spoon. This salad makes a great starter or tea-time snack and it definitely convinced me to eat more anchovies. More …

Bickies, Bickies, Bickies

Sep 1, 2011 By Vicky in Treats 4 Comments Tags: biscuits, chocolate, coconut, nuts

Sometimes I feel like a little homemade treat, and these biscuits always hit the spot. Sable biscuits take a bit of time to make, but are definitely worth the effort. They are feather light, buttery and perfectly crisp. I use this recipe a lot and you can create so many different biscuit flavours and shapes with it. I sometimes cover sables with lemon curd and a swirl of meringue on top, sort of a miniature lemon meringue biscuit. I also used them in this recipe to create mini banoffee pies. On this occasion, I cut them in different shapes and dipped them in melted chocolate with a light sprinkling of toasted nuts and desiccated coconut. If this recipe seems like just a bit too much work, check out my friend Caitriona’s review of a small Irish company, Kooky Dough, that produce readymade cookie dough, which might just save you in a biscuit emergency. More …

Old School Rice Pudding (now and then)

Aug 25, 2011 By Vicky in Dessert 8 Comments Tags: jam, rice pudding, vanilla

In some ways a lot of things have changed in the last twenty years and in other ways they remain the same. My love of rice pudding has always been a constant. When I was a kid I used to love rice pudding. So much so, that as soon as I had devoured every morsel of rice pudding in my bowl, I would grab the empty saucepan, bring it to the kitchen table, and scrape away every last bit. My Mum used to find it funny that I always did this. One day she surprised me by taking this photo of me mid bite at the table. You can tell by my look of surprise that I wasn’t expecting to be captured in the act! I found this picture recently and was instantly taken back on a journey in time. For a bit of fun I decided to recreate this photo just to see visibly what has changed. I also revisited this favourite dish of mine and created a more sophisticated adult version but essentially the same old rice pudding I know and love. More …