Hungry Jenny

Fluffy Chocolate Orange Cake

2013-05-14T09:52:00.001+01:00

It feels like such a long time since I've made a cake with butter, that I'd forgotten what a difference it makes to the texture. So light and fluffy!

(That makes all my butter-free cakes sound a bit rubbish doesn't it?)

I'm not saying that all butter-free cakes taste heavier - infact, there are some where you can't even tell the difference. There's great satisfaction in serving a cake, hearing the yummy noises, and then seeing the surprise on their face when they hear that it has no butter and/or little sugar.

Obviously then there's also those moments where I serve with a pre-cursor of, 'er, this was a bit more experimental so the texture is a little...different.'

But anyyway. Before I dig myself into a bigger hole, let's get back to the main business of oohing and aahing at this deliciously fluffy chocolate orange cake here...

Fluffy Chocolate Orange Cake

Print-friendly recipe

For an 8” square tin (25 squares):

250g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
175g unsalted butter, softened
125g sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
50ml olive oil
Juice and zest of 1 small orange
75g dark chocolate, broken into small chunks

1.Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl.
2.In another bowl, beat together the butter and sugar. Mix in the beaten eggs, oil and orange juice.
3.Melt the chocolate gently in a pan, mixing in the orange zest. Take off the heat.
4.Pour the butter mixture into the flour mixture and fold in. Carefully stir in the melted zesty chocolate, using a skewer to swirl it around.
5.Transfer the batter to a lined square tin, using a knife to level it out. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until you can pull a skewer out clean.

More Hungry Jenny cakes here.
Other chocolatey recipes you might enjoy.

An Ode to Peanut Butter - Kitchen Hero!

2013-05-09T21:31:00.000+01:00

One fine day Sainsbury's said to me,
Gee, what do you think a Signature Dish would be?
Hm, I mused, how am I supposed to know?
Ask, they replied, who's your Kitchen Hero?

Look to your cupboard...and rummage around
Your Kitchen Hero is something that can be found...
As a staple product that you can't live without
One that you can never, ever have run out

Why, that's easy, I squealed with glee
Peanut butter is a foodal essential for me
I always have at least two jars in store
If I've only got one left, I run out to buy more

Peanut butter is something I used to hate
But now, every day, I turn to it like a mate
Straight from the jar, or with a trusty bit of toast
I get a daily fix, some days more than most

So back to the important issue at hand
One dish in particular I make that is most grand
My go-to dinner when nothing else will do
A dish to impress friends, it makes them say 'Ooh...'

It's speedy to make, and easy-peasy too
Just get that peanut butter and let me show you
Mix it with Greek yogurt and a little bit of stock
And boom! You got a satay sauce that no-one will dare knock

Read on for the full recipe, I hope you'll try it out
Whether you like it or not, let me know, give me a shout
If not, then this ode I hope you still enjoy
About this Peanut Butter Dinner Dish of Joy!

The Peanut Butter Dinner Dish of Joy!

Print-friendly recipe

Serves 2:

75g By Sainsbury's smooth peanut butter
75ml hot veggie stock
100g Greek yogurt
300g diced chicken breast
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp honey
1 + 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
75g celery stalks, chopped
50g mushrooms, sliced
2 spring onions, chopped
Handful of roasted peanuts (or cashew nuts)
Some fresh coriander, roughly chopped

150g white rice, uncooked
250ml boiling water

1. First, a bit of prep. In a jug, pour in the veggie stock, then gently stir in the peanut butter and yogurt.
2. Marinate the chicken in the soy sauce, honey and half a tbsp oil. Leave for about 10 minutes.
3. Put the rice in a pan with the boiling water. Bring to the boil, then turn down, cover and leave to simmer for 20 minutes. Take off the heat, leaving the lid on.
4. Add the remaining tbsp oil to a hot pan, and gently brown the chicken.
5. Add the celery and mushrooms, cooking for another few minutes of minutes.
6. Gently pour in the peanut butter mixture and stir through. Turn down to a simmer, cover and leave to cook a few more minutes.
7. Finally, stir in the nuts and toss in some fresh coriander. Serve with the steamed rice.

Other peanut butter recipes you might enjoy.

Pop Up Mushrooms (and Other Beings) in Chichester

2013-05-07T08:46:00.000+01:00

Ooh, whazat yellow dot in the distance?

Is that a...mushroom?

*Bling!*

*Boing! Blick-up! Bling!*

Ok, before you back away from slowly, let's start at the beginning, shall we?

My parents were visiting me in Chichester this weekend, and we were strolling back home in the evening after a nice Thai dinner when...

Eh?

There were a couple of men scurrying away from the scene, packing their stuff into a van. Turns out that this particular work in the making is by a Brazilian street artist called Nunca.

The random mushrooms were made by a South Africian artist Christiaan Nagel. He was a surfer and one day came across some polyurethane material, and thus the colourful mushrooms were born - popping up around the world ever since.

But what are these global artists doing in the sleepy city of Chichester?

Well, a quick search on Twitterland and I quickly realised that this is part of the #ChichesterStreetArtFestival 2013, where a group of international street artists have been brought in to colour up some of the city's walls! There happened to be a tour of the murals yesterday so decided to go and find out more.

The tour was done by Richard from Street Art London, who explained how they work with street and graffiti artists to help bring their work out more, through festivals like this, talks, tours and exhibitions. It was interesting to hear that you only need permission from the building owner (ie not planning permission as well via the council) to do something like this (for unlisted buildings at least).

The murals have been created are going to be permanent (unless it angers a load of people to take them down, which I hope won't happen). Here are just a few of them...

Blue tits by ROA

ROA, as you can see, does alot of big animals. This wall was actually quite a small canvas for him apparently! He always chooses wildlife that matches the environment - hence the blue tits for the countryside of Chichester. (You wouldn't find any armadillos splashed across a wall here!).

Thierry Noir, who painted 18km of the Berlin Wall, muses over the crowned king at the end here

These bright dudes can be found around the perimeter of the Chichester Festival Theatre, which is currently undergoing work. When the theatre reopens, I believe the panels are all going to auctioned off.

Owls by Dscreet

Still in the making at the point this photo was taken. Dscreet shuffled away as we came up - alot of these artists are shy or don't like to talk to people about their work. I guess seeing a bunch of people gawking at their work is not really what they need when they're trying to get on with it!

Stik

These minimalist guys are my favourite! They're on a wall that is right in the centre of town, so probably the most visible one - this spot was given to Stik as his work was considered the 'safest' - no risk of offending anyone here. Stik confines himself to 6 lines with these guys. I love how they have so much expression!

I took photos of them all, but just posted my favourite ones here, otherwise this post will be super long! And this is really something you should go and see with your own eyes. Main sites are at Chichester College, Metro House, Pallant House Gallery...and another couple of spots you'll have to find!

Hopefully it will help to generate more interest to the city, and bring more visitors to Chichester :-)

Hungry Jenny Faux Pas: Chocolate Flat-Loaf

2013-05-04T18:01:00.002+01:00

Baking is not like learning how to ride a bike, it seems.

This, my friends, is what happens when I attempt to bake after a period of absence...

Not too bad-looking, right? But erm...this was meant to be a Chocolate Loaf.

I seem to be blogging less and less these days. Partly because I honestly just haven't been feeling to experiment in the kitchen as much as I used to, but also partly because I feel so brain-fried from work these days, that the thought of going back onto my laptop in the evenings just makes my eyes scream.

This aint the end of Hungry Jenny yet though by any means. Today's been the first time in ages that I felt like writing, so thought I'd run with it and see what happened. Whoever still reads my edited ramble, I hope you still find some joy in it.

(I was rather hoping though that it wouldn't be about something that had gone wrong!)

It's been so long since I've baked properly that I cannot even begin to work out what happened with this loaf. The batter certainly seemed alright - it filled up the loaf tin in a decent manner and seemed a bakeable consistency too.

Having said that though, there have been times where the cake batter has gone into the oven in an indecent manner, but then come out very nicely baked indeed. So I tend not to judge a cake by its batter.

Ironically, the taste of the cake itself was really quite nice - still moist, sponge-like, and laced with chocolate. Just a third of the height it was meant to be.

So of course, I just cut it up into bars and pretended it was meant to be like that when I shared it out. Only you guys know the truth ;-)

Fancy a laugh at my other Hungry-Jenny-Faux-Pas?

Mussels in Brussels

2013-04-13T18:34:00.001+01:00

(Sorry, I had to say it!)

I went to Brussels last weekend for a few nights with one of my best friends, Sam. It was for her hen do (though she was after more of a chilled break away rather than a raucous one). So much of the weekend was lazing around exploring the sights, and of course, looking for food.

On the Sunday, we went to visit Bruge. Because of a problem at the hotel that morning (don't ask!), we didn't actually get to Bruge until late afternoon, which meant we kinda skipped getting a proper lunch.

Psst, fear not, for we did stop for waffles to keep us going in the meantime...

After going on a canal boat tour, we decided to find somewhere to eat dinner in the main square (T'Zand) before heading back to Brussels. We ended up in a place called 'La Source' - simply because there were mussels on the menu and offered free wi-fi.

The wi-fi wasn't working properly unfortunately, but what cheered us up was that the mussels were available! Hurrah!

Sam and I both went for mussels a la marinere...
It's a good thing we were hungry because the portions were HUGE. When the pot you're given is large and the mussels are overflowing from it, you know you're faced with a challenge!

As we got stuck in, we found ourselves caught up in a game of Jenga, stacking up the empty shells in the lids. Juvenile I know, and probably a bit dangerous, given that it was distracting us from how full we were getting.

But look, we did it, ha!

(This is just my lid by the way!)

Of course, we then proceeded to transfer half the shells back into the pots, otherwise the poor waiter probably would have ended up dropping them all onto the floor when clearing our dishes. See, we're responsible adults really...

Speedy Hot Cross Buns (Yeast Free)

2013-03-31T11:09:00.000+01:00

Ah, it's Easter Sunday..! Ah, the clocks went forward..! Oop, there's no Hot Cross Buns to be seen!

Fear not, for in 30 minutes time, you can whip up a batch with store cupboard ingredients and have your day swinging back in motion again.

I don't know about you, but I'm not one to wait around for food. Baking cakes and pies is a long enough wait for eating anyway, in my mind, and it's probably why I've still never got round to making a full roast yet!

It's also the main reason why bread never features here, because all that hanging around for yeast just isn't my thing. I mean sure, there are special cases like Herman, but those moments are far and few between.

With this Speedy Hot Cross Buns, you basically just use self-raising flour and you don't have to faff around waiting inbetween stages of making them either.

When you've made the dough, you don't need to wait; after you've made them into dough buns, you still don't need to wait. They're even made in a cupcake tray so that you don't have to worry about them spreading into each other weirdly. Sure, they don't have that proper hot cross bun glaze on top, but hey, they are still worthy of their name.

So quit hanging around! Make the dough, get them in the oven and eat 'em now!

Speedy Hot Cross Buns (Yeast Free)

Print-friendly recipe

Makes 12 (cupcake size):

300g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
75g mixed dried fruit
75g softened butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
75ml milk
50g white sugar

50g icing sugar
1/4 tbsp water

1. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C. Sift the flour into a large bowl with the cinnamon and nutmeg. Fold in the mixed fruit.
2. Rub in the butter to a breadcrumb consistency.
3. In another bowl, beat the egg with the milk and sugar.
4. Make a well in the flour mixture, then pour in the eggy mixture. Gently start to bring it together into a dough.
5. Put your dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently pat it out to the thickness of a £1 coin.
6. Use a 2.5” round cutter to stamp out 12 rounds, and transfer them to a cupcake tray. Use a knife to score a cross on the top of each one.
7. Bake for about 15 minutes until risen and lightly golden.
8. Meanwhile, mix together the icing sugar with the water, adding a splash more water if needed to make icing thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Carefully drizzle the icing along the grooved crosses atop the buns.

More Hungry Jenny cakes and cookies!

Seedy Baking (with Cherry Flapjack Bites)

2013-03-28T22:02:00.000Z

I'm not gonna lie to you, I've felt pretty lazy over the last few months and not really feeling the baking, hence the lack of posts lately. Then by golly, inspiration hit in the form of a wodge of butter!

Ok, let me explain - I got a message from the Clover family asking if I wanted to take part in the 'Clover Seedburst Recipe Challenge'.

I wasn't sure at first, because I actually tend to steer clear of using butter in my baking (well, discounting PIES of course) - but what with Seedburst having loads of healthy seeds and wholegrains, and generally being less fatty than normal butter, I jumped at the challenge.

I started off with what I thought would be a relatively easy recipe to create - these Cherry Flapjack Bites...

But even before they reached the oven, I was convinced they weren't going to come out right (that's confidence for you!). Luckily though, I managed to salvage them...

It's hard to say where exactly it started to go wrong, but I only really noticed when I was er, about to pour the mixture into the tin. Hm, yeh a bit late in the day I know. The mixture just seemed quite dry and not meshing well. Solution? Well, at the last minute - I added in more butter into the mixture that was still in the bowl. It still didn't seem quite right, when the mixture was all in the tin though.

So I picked up my knife and spread more butter on top - yes, as if this flapjack was a large piece of toast.

And the result?

Perfectly edible, not-dry-at-all, cherry flapjack bites - phew!

I've worked the extra butter and oil into the recipe below, so you should be able to nicely dodge last minute er, adjustments like this. But I reckon you should just go ahead and do the buttered toast effect on top anyway ;-)

Cherry Flapjack Bites

Print-friendly recipe

Makes around 28 bites (for a 12 x 8" tin):

250g self raising flour
250g rolled oats
125g white sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
200g dark cherries, halved
1 egg, lightly beaten
200g Clover Seedburst butter (or any other soft butter)
75ml olive oil
50g melrose cherry jam

1. Sieve the flour into a large bowl, and mix in the oats, sugar and baking powder.
2. Fold in the dark cherries.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg with the butter, oil and jam until smooth. Add to the dry mixture and mix well.
4. Pour into a lined 12 x 8" tin, using a knife to smooth out the top.
5. Bake at 180 degrees C for 25-30 minutes until nicely brown.

I've since used Clover Seedburst in other baking recipes, because oddly enough, it feels a bit wasted just spread on plain old bread! It's more fun to bake with instead. So keep your eyes peeled for more recipes I'll share soon ;-)

More Hungry Jenny cakes you might enjoy here!

A #happyday of Happiness! (With Smiley Shortbread)

2013-03-20T08:15:00.000Z

Isn't it great that there is now an International Day of Happiness to celebrate and spread the spirit of happiness around the world?

Yes, the 20th March is now an official date to take proper action for happiness, people!

Happiness has become huge in recent years, what with movements like the Action for Happiness bringing together people who want to build a happier society, spreading and inspiring ideas for exercising happiness and wellbeing. And now the UN has declared an official day of the year to celebrate all that is happy, encouraging events and activities to be held, so that happiness can be spread to everyone. In a contagious sort of way (the good kind).

Isn't that just lovely?

Yes, I genuinely think so! (Incase that came across sarcastic.) Maybe that's because of the nature of my job, where I get to read lots of personal development books every day, and so perhaps the cheerleader in me is getting constant practice at overshadowing any negativity. Maybe because I've always believed in good karma. Or maybe it's also because this date happens to be my birthday also ;-)

You can of course feel as cynical as you want about it, but I just see it as a perfect excuse to take some kind of action, whether big or small, to bring happiness to others. Yeh, that's right, to others!

Of course, happiness means different things to different people. It seems to be the case though, that going out of your way to make someone else happy can be much easier than consciously trying to make yourself happy.

I don't mean that in a doormat sense or just trying to become a people-pleaser. But just about being more aware of what's happening around you in the moment, and thinking what little thing you can do to make someone's day. Without any agenda - just kindness and generosity for the sake of it! And then when you start to put a smile on other people's faces, you should quite naturally bring happiness to yourself. So it's all win-win really isn't it?

And if none of that stirred anything inside you, then perhaps the silliness of the faces on my Smiley Shortbread will make you chuckle :-)

Smiley Shortbread

Print-friendly recipe

Makes about 36 (2.5" round cutter):

300g plain flour
200g butter, softened
100g sugar
Some ice cold water
Coloured icing pens of your choice!

1. Sift the flour into a large bowl with the sugar.
2. Rub in the butterand then start to bring the mixture together into a dough, using a splash of ice cold water to help bind it together if required. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C. Roll out the dough onto a floured surface to the thickness of a pound coin.
4. Use a 2.5" round cutter to stamp out as many circles as you can.
5. Transfer to a lined baking tray, then bake for about 30 minutes, until light brown. They may still be a little soft when you take them out, but will continue to firm up as they cool.
6. Once cooled, take an icing pen and turn those shortbread circles into happy faces!

Ah...group hug everyone! Go on, take the pledge to spread the smiles :-) What will you do today to spread happiness?

Chocolate Coated Carrot Cake (Muffins)

2013-03-17T17:25:00.000Z

Damn, that's a nice bit of alliteration ruined, isn't it?

Well, at least the muffins themselves taste good!

This has been on my 'to-make' list for ages. Carrot cake in the form of muffins. It's loosely based on my Dirty Carrot Cake a few years ago, so it's not like I was stuck with creating a recipe. But carrot cake does always take a bit of effort with the carrot grating, you know?

Hm yes, so three years later and finally got round to doing it. I decided to put some melted chocolate over the top, rather than your usual cream cheese or other icing-kind of frosting. You can of course add in whatever mixed fruit you want inside, or maybe even throw in some nuts if that's what takes your fancy.

The name itself though, I'll admit, is a bit ridiculous. But it's difficult to know what else to call them, because they are, quite simply, carrot cake...muffins!

Chocolate Coated Carrot Cake Muffins

Print-friendly recipe

Makes 12 muffins:

1 egg
100g white sugar
125ml olive oil
250g carrots, finely grated
150g dried mixed fruit
Juice and zest of 1 orange
250g plain flour
1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
50g dark chocolate, broken into small chunks

1.Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
2.Beat together the egg, sugar and oil. Stir in the grated carrot, dried fruit and orange juice.
3.In a large mixing bowl, sift in the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and orange zest. Fold into the mixture carefully until all is smooth.
4.Spoon the mixture into a lined 12-hole muffin tray. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until you can pull a fork out clean.
5.Whilst you allow the muffins to cool, put a saucepan on low heat and gently melt the chocolate. Use the back of a spoon to drizzle the chocolate over the top of the muffins. Allow to cool completely before eating (if you can wait!).

You might also like this Butter and Sugar free Carrot Cake, or slightly naughtier Dirty Carrot Cake ;-)

More Hungry Jenny cakes here.

The Story of the Giant 'Ginga' bread Man

2013-02-03T17:24:00.001Z

Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the sweetness of the 'ginga' bread man!

The story of how this 'ginga' bread man came to town is a bit of a funny one.

My capoeira teacher Bia was due back from being in Brazil for 6 weeks and I wanted to bake her some 'welcome back to the UK' goodies. I had some butter to use up and some fresh ginger in the fridge, so naturally, baking a batch of little gingerbread men seemed like the perfect gift.

And so I got to work, making the dough, and left it to rest in the fridge. It was only when I went to get my gingerbread man cutter that I realised why I've never actually used it.

The neck on the cutter is so thin that when you go to stamp out a man, his head gets chopped off! Oop. (I would have shown you but it might have disturbed you to see a beheaded gingerbread man.) I didn't fancy stamping out the men and sticking their heads back on, so needed a Plan B. And then it came to me.

Why, build a GIANT gingerbread man of course!

(Now, by giant, I mean as-big-as-the-biggest-size-tin-I-own. Which is roughly 10 x 7", so I used the leftover dough to make some gingerbread stars too.)

But anyway, with him now becoming more epic, I realised that it wouldn't just do to present him as an ordinary gingerbread man with buttons. He needed to look more awesome than the standard gingerbread. And so, he was turned into...the 'ginga' bread man!

'Ginga' is the name of a standard move in capoeira, where it means 'to swing' or rock back and forth. You basically step back with one foot, then the other from side to side, swinging your arms infront of you to protect your face.

Now, I only thought of the name after baking him, which is why he is simply waving, rather than preparing for attack! But with the iced trousers and belt, and er, slightly crooked smile, I would hope that he does look like a tough old capoeirista cookie ;-)

"Gar, you wanna piece a' me?"

The recipe can of course be used to make any kind of giant gingerbread man you want (or a batch of small gingerbread pieces). Don't waste any leftover dough from the big man though, use it to create smaller men, or some extra star/circle shapes.

The icing I've left out the recipe below because to be honest, I'm crap with working out the ratio of icing sugar to water. (Basically I just kept adding in sugar to the mix until it was thick enough to spread.)

This is the lovely chewy kind of gingerbread, rather than the hard kind, and so it will still be slightly soft when you take it out the oven. Only make this then, if you're patient enough to allow this to cool and firm up a little before eating...

Giant Gingerbread Man

Print-friendly recipe

Makes 300g dough (could probably create up to a 20" tall giant gingerbread man!)

4 tbsp golden syrup
25ml water
50g unsalted butter, softened
50g brown sugar
125g plain flour
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1. Mix the syrup with the water and set aside.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar, then mix into the syrup mixture.
3. In a large bowl, sift in the flour, then mix in the ginger, cinnamon and soda.
4. Add in the butter mixture, then start to knead to bring together into a dough. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
5. Roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness. Use a knife to cut out your giant gingerbead man!
6. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C. Carefully transfer your man to a lined baking tray and chill again for 10 minutes if possible. Bake him for about 15 minutes until golden.

Your giant gingerbread man will still be slightly soft, so place him on a cooling rack to firm up before icing and eating!

More Hungry Jenny cookies that might take your fancy!

Raspberry Chocolate Muffins (butter free)

2013-01-24T22:02:00.000Z

Oh, cake, how I've missed you...

Maybe it's from the usual Christmas hangover of cakey treats, sweets and chocolate lingering about still, but I've barely used the oven over the last few weeks.

It's nearly February now though, so it's time to get back on it and back in the kitchen where I belong (I mean that in a non-Stepford wife manner of course). I. Just. Cannot. Deprive. Self. Of. Baking. Any. Longer.

So here, fresh for you, are some lovely Raspberry Chocolate Muffins. They are made with creme fraiche which keeps them lovely and moist for a good few days after baking - if you can make 'em last, that is ;-)

Raspberry Chocolate Muffins

Print-friendly recipe

Makes 6:

150g self raising flour
75g brown sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
75g fresh or frozen raspberries, halved
1 egg, lightly beaten
100g creme fraiche
100g underripe banana, mashed
1/4 tsp vanilla essence

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C.
2. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl with the sugar, cocoa powder and baking powder. Fold in the raspberries.
3. In another bowl, beat the egg with the creme fraiche, mashed banana and vanilla essence.
4. Pour the wet mixture into the raspberry flour mixture, and fold until just mixed.
5. Spoon the mixture into 6 lined holes of a muffin tray, then bake for about 20 minutes until risen to raspberry chocolate goodness.

More Hungry Jenny cakes here.

Other butter free baking recipes that might take your fancy.

The Ginger Beefburger Craving

2013-01-17T22:41:00.002Z

Goodness knows why, but a random craving for a ginger-flavoured burger came over me the other day.

In my haste though, I ended up taking a bit of a backwards approach to this.

The craving came about one evening just after I'd finished eating dinner (yes, I was expecting to want something sweet but it was ginger burgers I wanted, for some reason).

I didn't want to be a complete lardpot and make burgers there and then however. I mean, I had literally just eaten my dinner. There was beef mince in the freezer though, waiting to be used, so decided to take it out to defrost for lunch the next day.

Then off to bed, right? No. With no accompanient for these burgers around (ie cupboards bare of burger-friendly bread), I hopped out on my bike to the local store. Never mind that it was due to close in half an hour, I thought - if they're out of burger buns, I'll just get pitta bread or something.

Surprise, surprise, with the shop nearly closing, they had neither. Just the un-burger oval shaped rolls you see above. Fine, I thought. I'll just shape the burgers into ovals instead.

Of course, come the next day and I forgot this wee change of detail. I was just gearing myself up to make these phenomenal ginger burgers. Thus promptly forgetting to shape the burgers for the rolls I had. Hence why the one in the photo looks a bit inadequate.

So sorry about that. But I can assure you, they still tasted pretty darn good! Craving satisfied.

Ginger Beefburgers

Print-friendly recipe

Makes 8 little burgers (or 4 big'uns):

500g lean beef mince
50g celery, finely chopped
2 tbsp grated ginger
2 tsp honey
2 tsp olive oil
Juice of 1 small lemon
1 small egg, beaten
1 tbsp vegetable oil
As many burger buns as you want and a bit of fresh spinach if desired

400g potato, chopped into chunks
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
150g sweetcorn
150g frozen peas

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degees C. Put the potato chunks in a pan of water and bring to the boil. Leave to simmer for about 10 minutes.
2. Drain and transfer to a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and season, then roast for about 30 minutes.
3. Put the sweetcorn and peas in a pan of water, and set aside.
4. Meanwhile, mix together the beef, celery, ginger, honey, oil, lemon juice and egg yolk in a bowl. Shape the mixture into 8 little (or 4 big) burger shapes.
5. Add the vegetable oil to a large frying pan. Use a spatula to transfer the burgers into the pan (do in batches if needed).
6. Press down lightly on the burgers to ensure they cook evenly. Cook on each side for 3-4 minutes.
7. Whilst the burgers are frying away, turn on your pan of veg to boil gently for 5 minutes to cook through.
8. Serve the burgers in toasted (or untoasted) buns with a bit of spinach, alongside the roasties and veg.

Other beefy recipes you might enjoy.

The Weight is ON!

2013-01-09T17:14:00.003Z

Happy New Year everyone! Erm, yeh, sorry for being a bit delayed with that, and for being rather quiet on the blogging front also.

I've been busy eating!

(Well, something like that.)

It's too belated now for a 2012 round-up and 2013 musing. But one thing I want to say is that I reached the end of the year one whole hefty stone heavier than I was at the start of the year – and this means Triumph!

Around the end of last year, I noticed that I was starting to veer too much towards underweightness. Not on the overly drastic side or anything, but I decided to actively try and get myself to a healthier-looking state.

But then I very quickly became daunted by the fact that there seems to be loads more help and advice readily available for healthy weight loss, rather than healthy weight gain. Not surprising of course, but the only conclusion I could come up with by the end of the month's challenge was to just eat more.

(Yep, that still sounds as stupid as it did last year.)

But as I thought about this more over the course of the year, it dawned on me where I'd gone a bit wrong.

A couple years ago I was training for a big run, so naturally, was running loads – almost every day for about 6 months. The same year I started Capoeira and also a new dance class, but was already doing Aikido and another dance class. So I'd quite heavily upped my active, er, activity.

The following year was when I wasn't eating properly following my jaw op, so that probably didn't help matters. And as I got back into the swing of things with the classes, I didn't realise that what was happening was that I was doing way more 'exercise' than what I was eating. Oop.

I do less exercise now anyway (one of the dance classes was discontinued, and stopped running ages ago) – but over the last year have consciously eaten more regularly during the day as well (ie mini meals inbetween breakfast, lunch and dinner).

So now having seen that I've finally gained some healthy weight, I'm going to keep at it – with a bit more focus around developing new dishes to boost pre- and post- fitness activity. This is where I fall down the most (not literally) – working out what to eat before and after training. That period after work and before an evening class is too short to wolf down a big meal – but too long to have just a small snack.

What this all means though is that there will hopefully be lots of new tasty savoury healthy dishes to share with you. But don't worry, there will still be plenty of cheeky cakes and pies!

Watch out, it's going to be an extra Hungry year...

Other Hungry Jenny thoughts you might be interested in

The Friday Pie Day Nightmare Before Christmas

2012-12-21T07:30:00.000Z

There I was, minding my own business, making some cute little turkey stuffing pies for a Christmas gathering when...

*aaarrgh!!*

Well, it's pretty safe to say that these went a bit wrong.

The thing is, it was happening before my very eyes watching the oven, and yet I could not think of how to put a stop to it. Of course, I realised afterwards (well, during actually) that I could have quite easily have avoided this whole mess to begin with.

(No – not by buying shop-bought pie bites instead!)

The turkey stuffing mixture I made was really simple – minced turkey, fresh sage, and shallots. In a marinade of white wine vinegar, olive oil and honey. Normally I'd cook pie filling first, let it cool and then add to the pie casing, to avoid any unwelcome soggy pieness.

In this instance though, I figured, since they were so iddy, it wouldn't really matter and would be fine. (It sounded logical in my head at the time)
Of course, it wasn't, and sure enough, after a mere 10 minutes in the oven, the filling was starting to bubble dangerously away in their mini pie shells. Nooo..! I screamed at the oven. But it was too late – there was nothing else to do now but wait.

Out they came, and as you can see, the overbubbling marinade led to a bit of blackened pastry. Thankfully they still tasted good, albeit a little sticky around the edges where the marinade had slipped away. They just took a little explaining when serving them at the Christmas gathering (and they still went down well, thank goodness!)

And hey, at least they all burnt consistently on one side...

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures.

Fancy a laugh at my other Hungry-Jenny-Faux-Pas?

The Tangy Orange Yogurt Cake That Just Made the Cut

2012-12-19T16:11:00.000Z

This freshly squeezed orange cake was on its way to being all you'd want an orange cake to be. Moist, springy and zesty with just the right amount of sweetness. It even warranted a dance of cake joy around the kitchen when I took it out the oven and sneaked a taste.

Then I decided to put icing on it.

Icing is something I very rarely play with, I'm more of a simple muffin or sponge traybake kind of cake girl. Plus I personally find it too sweet so I can never manage to eat stuff like icing and frosting. So whenever I do decide to jazz it up with some icing, I try to keep it minimal.

Naturally, what this means is that I sort of forget how to make it properly.
The ingredients and method I remember – fresh orange or lemon juice, zest, icing sugar, and whisk.

But the quantities? Hm, fuzzy on those details, but it didn't occur to me to just look up an older recipe I've done with icing sugar. I figured that it would be pretty straightforward to judge there and then.

So I whisked together what turned into fairly runny icing. Ah, that's fine, it'll set, I thought. As I started to carefully drizzle it on, I realised that I'd made quite a lot, so decided to just just pour it all on. (Yes, the icing was pourable – why this did not ring alarm bells in my head, I do not know.)

As it started to run down the sides of the cake, I realised that I'd made a BIG mistake.

Of course, by this point, it was far too late. (And it could have been worse, as I did contemplate hacking off the top layer of the cake to take off the icing.) With the knowledge that the sponge cake itself was still perfectly fine (icing absorption aside), I stuck it in the fridge to leave the icing to 'set' properly before slicing it up. And served it with a side of warning that it would just taste er, slightly soggier than intended.

But for you guys, don't worry, you're safe – my recipe below is minus the icing ;-)

Tangy Orange Yogurt Cake

Print-friendly recipe

For a 12 x 7” traybake (cuts into 30 slices):

275g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 eggs
150g white sugar
Juice and zest of 2 oranges
250g Greek yogurt
1 tsp vanilla essense

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Sift the flour into a large bowl with the baking powder and bicarb of soda. Add in the orange zest.
2. In another bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar, followed by the orange juice, yogurt and vanilla.
3. Tip into the flour mixture, then fold well until just mixed. Transfer to a lined traybake and level out with a knife.
4. Bake for about 30 minutes until risen and slightly springy to the touch.

More Hungry Jenny cakes here.

Five Spice Stroganoff

2012-12-13T08:34:00.000Z

When it comes to dinner time, you want something quick and simple to make, right? Especially after coming home from work. But that doesn't mean you need to be making the same dishes over and over. I try to vary my meals as much as possible, partly to keep the food brain whirring for ze blog, as well as to keep my tastebuds on their toes.

Sometimes though, when you start to get an inkling of a tasty dish, you should just run with it and keep trying different iterations! Like with (what eventually turned into) this Five Spice Stroganoff dish.

It started when I was rooting around in my cupboard and realised I hadn't used Chinese Five Spice in a while. Weird, cos it's one of my favourite spices. Somehow though it got shoved to the back and forgotten.

The first iteration was literally just the five spice on its own (with a bit o soy sauce). Nice, but a bit dry.

Next up, a couple of spoons of Greek yogurt. Tasty, but it can split when you cook it (well, if you're in a hurry and don't do it properly like me, that is!), and look a bit weird.

Third attempt, some cream cheese and coriander. Nicest version so far, but for some reason, the coriander felt a step too far. (Maybe because the coriander I used was not as fresh as I thought...)

Then finally, a simple dollop of creme fraiche, Stroganoff-style. Ok, so I think Stroganoff normally uses sour cream but same diff. Add in shallots and mushrooms and you've got yourself a nice Five Spice Stroganoff.

And no, I did not try out these dishes in succession, all in one night!

Five Spice Stroganoff

Print-friendly recipe

Serves 4:

400g boneless pork loin steak, chopped into bite-sized chunks
3 tbsp soy sauce
1.5 tbsp Chinese five spice
2 tbsp groundnut oil
150g celery, chopped
150g mushrooms, sliced
100g shallots, finely chopped
100g crème fraiche

300g white rice
500ml water

1. Rinse the rice and put in a nonstick saucepan with the water. Bring to the boil, then turn down to the lowest heat. Cover with a lid and leave to simmer for 20 minutes. Allow to stand for 5 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the soy sauce, five spice and 1 tbsp of the oil. Add the pork, mix well and leave to marinade for at least 15 minutes.
3. Add the remaining oil to a large hot pan. Saute the pork chunks for about 5 minutes to brown. Add the celery, shallots and mushrooms, mixing everything together well.
4. Spoon in the crème fraiche and gently stir in. Turn down to the lowest heat, covering with a lid if you have one, for about 5 minutes. Serve atop your freshly steamed rice.

Other porky recipes you might enjoy.

Friday Pie Day: A Few Festive Pies to Take Your Fancy

2012-12-07T16:00:00.000Z

Oh my gosh. It's actually been six weeks since my last Friday Pie Day. What is the Hungry Jenny world coming to?
To compensate for this greedy lack of pie sharing, I offer to a bumper load of savoury festive pies to set you up for December...

First up, are these Cranberry and Basil Pie Bites.

What, a vegetarian batch of festive pies? Oh, don't look so shocked at me, I'm not always so meat-inclined!

Ok, well I am, as truth be told, I made these for a festive get-together I went to last week, along with a batch of turkey mince pie bites. (I'll share the story with you in another Friday Pie Day to come, but in a nutshell, they tasted good, but looked crap.)

Anyway, back to the good pies!

These Cranberry and Basil Pie Bites are really quick to prepare and bake – you don't need to blind-bake or pre-cook the filling. You just build the pies and stick them in the oven. Easy!

Cranberry and Basil Pie Bites (v)

Print-friendly recipe

Makes 24 (using a mini muffin tray):

125g flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp oregano
50g cold butter, diced
Some ice cold water
OR 200g normal shortcrust pastry

150g cream cheese, at room temperature
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp fresh basil, finely chopped
50g dried cranberries

If using premade pastry, go straight to step 3

1. Mix the flour, salt and oregano into a large mixing bowl. Rub in the butter to a breadcrumb mixture.
2. Gradually add a tablespoon of water at a time to knead the mixture into a dough. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Cut the pastry in half and roll out one half onto a lightly floured surface. Use a 2.5” round cutter to stamp out 12 circles. Lightly press them into a non-stick mini-muffin. Repeat with the remaining pastry half.
4. Put the cream cheese into a large bowl and mix in the lemon juice and basil. Carefully mix in the cranberries. Spoon the mixture into each of the 24 pie shells.
5. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the pastry is lightly golden and the filling is slightly springy.

Christmas Turkey and Sausage Stuffing Pie

Print-friendly recipe

As you may (or may not) be able to tell, this is a kind of sandwich style pie – a layer of sausage stuffing, a turkey mixture 'filling' and then topped with another layer of sausage stuffing. All encased in mighty shortcrust pastry of course. What more do you want?

Veggie Party Puff Pastries

Print-friendly recipe

The story behind these wee pastries is pretty ridiculous, but the outcome when you dis-count that is party pastry awesomeness. These cute pastry stamps have a topping of sweet potato, chickpeas, parsnip and spinach. Fiddly yes, but well worth the effort.

Turkey Stuffing Puffs

Print-friendly recipe

Finally, something that actually looks the festive part, hurrah! These need some careful attention paid to them to get them looking as pretty as possible. But you can play around with how you want to present them, depending on how much filling and pastry you have – little ribbons of cranberry tinsel anyone?

And so there you have it – four festive savoury pies to light your Christmas fire. Get your apron and jingle hat on, and start baking!

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures.

The Most Yummiest Chocolate Cake Ever...

2012-12-04T17:34:00.000Z

Well, the yummiest chocolate cake that you can expect to come out from my oven anyway! It's been absolutely sodding ages that I've baked something that I've been so pleased with that it's resulted me doing a dance of joy in my kitchen. Yes, really!

Erm, yeh excuse the overly yellow lighting, sorry - I just wanted to get on with ~~eating the entire~~ sharing the damn thing.

This may have been to do with a recent cake-up I had with a butter and sugar free experiment that I tried out. (I've yet to share that with you because I still haven't managed to work out what went wrong there)

So hey, perhaps it was a case of tasting something half decent after something that went so horribly wrong. But I remain upbeat. This, in my Hungry Jenny opinion, is the most yummiest chocolate cake EVER! Spongy and fluffy, with the right amount of chocolatey goodness without being too sickly sweet. Go and make it now.

Yummiest Chocolate Cake

Print-friendly recipe

For a 7 x 10” traybake (24 bars):

200g self raising flour
75g brown sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g dark chocolate, broken into small chunks
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 tbsp olive oil
200g double cream
1 underripe banana, mushed

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, sift in the flour and mix with the sugar, cocoa power, bicarbonate of soda and chocolate chunks.
2. In another bowl, beat the egg with the olive oil and double cream. Mash in the underripe banana. Tip this into the flour mixture and fold until just mixed.
3. Transfer to a lined traybake, and level out with a knife. Bake for 25-30 minutes until springy to the touch.

Prepare to have your socks knocked off when you eat it!

More Hungry Jenny cakes here.

Other chocolatey recipes you might enjoy.

Dark Cherry and Almond Muffins (butter free)

2012-11-26T17:49:00.000Z

Oop, it seems I have been neglecting my blogging duties again...

Quick, throw some muffins out!

Given their name, these were meant to look like mysterious and indulgent, a temptress of desire to draw you in.

But for some reason, they came out a bit, well, insipid really.

I don't know why they came out so pale - well, in the pics they do look slightly brown I expect. Maybe they just needed to go in the oven longer, though there were perfectly baked inside, so it's not like they were under-baked.

Perhaps all it needs is a simple substitution of white sugar with brown sugar. Would that help to tan these up? Maybe. I dunno. I'm no cake expert, so I'm just wondering out loud here. Well, it just looks like I'll have to bake these again to find out - oh, the bother..!

Dark Cherry and Almond Muffins (butter free)

Print-friendly recipe

Makes 6:

100g plain flour
50g ground almonds
50g white sugar
1 / 2 tbsp baking powder
100g dark cherries, halved
1 egg
100ml milk
50ml rice bran oil
3 tbsp flaked almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl with the ground almonds, sugar and baking powder. Fold in the cherries.
2. In another bowl, gently beat the egg with the milk and oil. Transfer this mixture into the flour bowl and carefully fold in until just mixed.
3. Spoon the mixture into 6 lined holes of a muffin tray. Add flaked almonds on top, then bake for about 20 minutes until risen and lightly golden.

More Hungry Jenny cakes here.

Other butter free baking recipes that might take your fancy.

A Completely Satayfied Pork Dinner

2012-11-15T18:02:00.003Z

Sometimes the yummiest meals come through by accident.

In this case, it was more out of laziness (and a bit of greed) on my part. The good news for you is that this means it's an easy-peasy one for you to try as well :-)

I'm not a big fan of dishes that are completely saturated with sauce. When it looks like a gloopy slop, it's just doesn't look too appealing does it? Whenever I make a meat, veg and rice dish, I usually marinate the meat in something, but cook it separately to the rice and veg. It's nice to have the freshly steamed untainted rice there when you're eating the other parts of your dinner.

With this particular dinner though, I was feeling in a bit of a saucy mood. I wanted satayfied pork chops and didn't want to even bother having any veg at all with it. I still had my rice on the go though, steaming away in the corner.

As the pork chops sizzled away in the pan, I got bored of waiting and looked in the fridge for something to eat (yes the chops had only been in the pan for a couple of minutes). My brain told me not to be so greedy and so instead of grabbing a snack, I quickly chopped up some veg instead, and threw them into the pork chop pan.

The smell of the satay marinade was really ramping up now! My rice was almost done and I couldn't resist - I got the pan of satayfied pork and veg and just tipped the whole lot into the top of my rice pan. Left it there to steam for another 5 minutes, the satay goodness making its way through the grains.

Ah, one lovely happy satayfied family...

Satayfied Pork Dinner

Print-friendly recipe

Serves 2:

2 pork chops
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp veggie oil
100g Greek yogurt
75ml hot veggie stock
75g peanut butter
150g rice
250ml boiling water
75g red onion, chopped
100g green beans, top and tailed
1 bell pepper, sliced

1. Put the pork chops in a shallow bowl with the soy sauce, sesame oil and 1 tbsp of the veggie oil. Mix well and leave to marinade for 15 minutes.
2. In a small jug, mix the yogurt, veggie stock and peanut butter well. Set aside for later.
3. Meanwhile, rinse the rice well, then put in a pan with the boiling water. Bring to the boil, then turn down to the lowest heat. Cover and leave to steam for 20 minutes. Take off the heat.
4. Put a wok on the highest heat, then add the remaining tbsp of veggie oil. Cook the pork chops for 3-4 minutes on each side, then take out the pan.
5. With the wok still on, quickly stir fry up the onion, green beans and bell pepper for a few minutes. Return the pork chops to the pan on top of the veg.
6. Pour in the peanut butter mixture, then turn down to the lowest heat and cover Leave to simmer for about 4-5 minutes.
7. Carefully tip the pork chops, veg and all its sauce into the top of your rice pan, as it finishes steaming.
8. Dish up the pork chops and veg onto two plates, then give the rice a nice stir before serving up with the rest of the satayfied dish.

Other porky recipes you might enjoy.

Other peanut buttery recipes you might enjoy.

Restaurant to try: @busabaeathai Piccadily, London (and a lesson about leaf-eating)

2012-11-13T17:13:00.000Z

One of my best friends, Sam, is getting married next year. She is like a younger sister to me (although technically she is my Chinese auntie...long story).

Sam lives way up north and I'm on the south coast so we don't really get to meet up that often. We decided to meet up in London for the day to start planning her hen do and generally talk wedding stuff. It all started at Busaba Eathai, in Piccadily, London...

Sam had been to this London chain before and raved about the food, so suggested it for lunch. It was pretty empty when we turned up, even though it was half 12 on a Saturday, though I guess London city won't have woken up properly yet. There's an instant calming atmosphere as soon as you walk in, with the incense burning, low lit lighting and hushed tones.

The restaurant is huge with large square tables that seat up to about 10 people. As the place fills up, diners are seated with other diners in a friendly casual manner. So perhaps not the best place to go in the evening for an intimate date (unless you don't mind sharing it with a bunch of strangers). There is window seating around two walls of the restaurant though, which is where Sam and I were seated.

The menu is nicely varied with noodles, rice dishes, curries, stir-fries and salads and very decently priced too. Sam and I decided to share a couple of sides for starters, with a main (each of course) to follow.

We were surprised but secretly happy to see all 4 dishes arrive at once. It hadn't occurred to either of us to specify the sides to come first. It was probably a good thing though because this is a place that is very generous with their portions...

Thai Calamari

Pandan Chicken

Yes folks, these were just the sides. I think if Sam and I had just chomped our way through these first, there's no way we would have had room for mains as well. The Thai calamari was gorgeously soft and moreish, with a light ginger and peppery kick.

The Pandan chicken was er, a bit confusing for us both. Well, it was Sam who put a question mark over it, which completely threw me:

Sam: Are you supposed to eat the leaves as well?
Me: No, of course not!
Sam: Really, are you sure? It looks like you could eat them...
Me: Hmm, well...
Sam: (nibbles on a bit of leaf) Yeh, see, it tastes ok!
Me: (timidly nibbles a bit of leaf also) Hm, ok, I guess...try a bit with the chicken as well.
Sam: (bites right into a chicken parcel, leaf n all)...Eugh, um, yeh, no it doesn't work!

Luckily, the main was much more straightforward to eat. I love the way Thai noodle dishes are presented, with all the ingredients layered separately. You do well to eat with your eyes here.

Sen chan pad Thai

This pad Thai dish has prawns, peanuts, green mango and slivers of crabmeat. Once you've admired the beauty of the dish, you have to mix it all up to appreciate all these different flavours together. It's so good! I unwittingly managed to up my spice intake too, as I didn't realise it was going to be covered in chilli flakes (despite there being a 's' spicy symbol in the menu). Hurrah, I'm growing!

Sam and I felt like sleepy lions by the end of the meal – satisfied with full bellies, and musing over the idea of eating here again very soon.

Just don't eat the Pandan leaves ;-)

Busaba Eathai
35 Panton Street
London
SW1Y 4EA
020 7930 0088
www.busaba.com

Other restaurants you might be interested to try

Red Berry Cupcakes (butter free - and rather low in sugar too)

2012-11-08T17:11:00.000Z

Ugh, I'm not gonna lie, I'm struggling to adapt to the dark mornings and dark early evenings. Having to put my bike lights both when I cycle in and out of work is the final confirmation for me that Winter is a-coming.

As for Christmas though, that aint here yet because the Coca Cola lorry hasn't driven through, so that means there's still time to stay in denial and whip up some summery cupcakes.

Bake them and take them out on a picnic, have an afternoon tea party in your garden, anything to distract yourself from the darkness.*

*I accept no responsibility for any colds caused by those silly enough to follow the above suggestion.

Got your apron on? Let's a-go!

These cupcakes are light and fluffy as a cupcake should be – though not overly sweet. I never put in too much sugar into cakes (occasionally attempting to bake sugar-free) but always make sure there is something else there to compensate. Otherwise you'll just end up with a rather bitter cake. Which is just not what you want really, is it?

No, you want shiny red berries! Redcurrants, cranberries, raspberries...nice, bright and summery :-) Pop them in equally red cupcake cases and bounce along with a spring in your step as you hand them out from a handled wicker basket to your bemused friends :-)

Red Berry Cupcakes
(butter free - and rather low in sugar too)

Print-friendly recipe

Makes 12:

150g self raising flour
50g white sugar
100g red berries (eg redcurrants, cranberries, raspberries)
1 egg
100g Greek yogurt
50ml rice bran oil
1 tsp vanilla essence

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl with the sugar. Fold in the berries.
2. In another bowl, gently beat the egg with the yogurt and oil. Transfer this mixture into the flour bowl and carefully fold in until just mixed.
3. Spoon the mixture into a lined 12-hole cupcake tray. Bake for about 25 minutes until risen and lightly golden.

More Hungry Jenny cakes here.

Other butter free baking recipes that might take your fancy.

Friday Pie Day: Banana Cream Crumble Tart

2012-10-26T13:06:00.000+01:00

This Banana Cream Crumble Tart is kind of a cross between a cheesecake, banoffee tart and a crumble pie...

Sound good?

As you can see, the filling does look a bit funny – I didn't plan for it to come out looking up lumpy and bumpy like that honest. The filling is basically made up of Greek yogurt, cream cheese, and a healthy dose of sugar. So it wasn't destined to set as smoothly as how a whipped cream based pie would, for instance. But it still holds well together when you cut into it, just like a cheesecake.

The thing is, I had planned to squeeze some lemon juice into the filling for a bit of extra flavour. Now, I normally have an endless supply of fresh lemons, cos I just love 'em. But this happened to be the one day that I didn't have any at all *ahh…Lemon not-so-tart faux-pas flashback horror*

I had already baked my sweet pie crust, and lain banana slices over the base. It was already late in the evening and I'd planned to let it set overnight to serve the next day. So no time for last minute lemon buying.

So I erm, crushed up some Hobnob biscuits and mixed those into the filling instead.
And hey, it worked very well, thank you very much - like a random bit of crumble worked into the mix.

Ah, don't you just love it when a bosh of pies come together?

Banana Cream Crumble Tart

Print-friendly recipe

For a 7.5” fluted tin (6-8 slices):

125g plain flour
50g cold butter, diced
1 tbsp sugar
Some ice cold water
OR 300g sweet shortcrust pastry

200g cream cheese, at room temperature
75g Greek yogurt
1 tsp vanilla essence
50g white sugar
75g crushed Hobnob (or other oaty/digestive-type) biscuits
100g banana, sliced

If using premade pastry, go straight to step 3.

1. Mix the flour and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Rub in the butter to a breadcrumb mixture.
2. Gradually add a tablespoon of water at a time to knead the mixture into a dough. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Roll the pastry out onto a lightly floured surface to line the base and sides of a 7.5” fluted tin. Cover with foil or baking paper, and pour in baking beads. Blind bake for 12-15 minutes until the pastry is lightly golden. Allow to cool completely.
4. In a large bowl, gently mix the cream cheese, yogurt, vanilla essence and sugar. Carefully fold in the crushed biscuits.
5. Line the cooked pastry shell with banana slices, retaining 12-16 slices for the top (aim for 2 slices per pie slice!). Transfer the cream cheese mixture to the lined pie shell, using a knife to level it out.
6. Arrange the remaining pie slices around the outside of the pie, then chill for at least 4 hours before serving.

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures.

How to Make Hummus...

2012-10-22T17:31:00.000+01:00

...the Hungry Jenny Way!

I promise that this turns into something edible, I swear!

So, hummus is the stuff of easy dip - yes, it's something you can just buy from a shop, and all you need to do then is chop up some veg or rip up some pitta to go with it.

But it's also something you can whip up relatively quickly at home. Of course, it's much more satisfying and healthy this way, you have the Control of what goes in that hummus, and you can adjust it to taste.

With it being of a dip consistency though, the obvious tool you can have to hand for this purpose would be a food processor, or a blender, right? Bung all the ingredients in, whizz-whizz, and dip you go.

So what happens if you don't possess such a tool?

Grab a potato masher of course!

As you can see, I've only a fairly cheap, plastic potato masher at the mo (probably would have been better off with a fork, come to think of it...

Anyway, the main ingredient is chickpeas, and as lovely as they are, they are NOT easy to mash (and yes I do mean the ones out the tin, not the dried ones).

So you've got to soften them - but this must be done carefully. Heat them on the hob in a bit of water, and every now and again, attempt to mash them.

Coax the mashing of the chickpeas along - they won't accept right away. Some will be so stubborn that they'll just roll out from underneath the masher and snigger at you. Others will be deft enough to leap out the pan altogether.

But don't let them get to you. They will succumb.

Hummus (without a food processor/blender)

Print-friendly recipe

Makes about 300g:

200g chickpeas
Juice and zest of 2 lemons
2 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
A handful of fresh coriander, finely chopped (1 tbsp approx)

A mighty load of elbow grease
And don't forget your potato masher ;-)

1. Put the chickpeas in a non-stick pan with a little water on medium heat. Gently keep on the simmer, and after about 10 minutes, start to mash gently every few minutes. Keep adding a little water if needed. Continue to simmer and mash until it's all fairly soft.
2. Take off the heat and pour into a large bowl. Add in the lemon juice, zest, oil, chopped garlic and coriander.
3. Then get mashing!

You might be intrigued to learn how to do other random things the Hungry Jenny Way

Say NO to Takeaway (sort of): Whip Up a Sweet and Sour Pork Salad Instead!

2012-10-18T08:50:00.002+01:00

My name is Hungry Jenny and I've a confession to make – I've ordered a few takeaways recently.

*Big collective gasp*

I know, I know. I harp on about saying NO to takeaway on a regular basis, so it all seems a bit contradictory.
But hey, in my defence, the last couple of weeks have been filled with a lot of intense capoeira training due to two big events. And when you're with a group of people, staying together, travelling back late – exhausted and hungry – it's just not the time to argue with the takeaway demon.

Life is getting back to the normal level of busy though, which hopefully means I can get back into me blogging again. It was only a few weeks ago that I last posted here, but having regularly posted here at least 2 or 3 times a week since Hungry Jenny was first born, those 3 weeks of non-postage has felt like way too long.

Don't worry, I've still been cooking and eating away of course – I just didn't get around to sharing it with you sorry (and no, not because I was being greedy!)

I'm back on track now though with this sweet (and sour) offering...

Sweet and Sour Pork Salad

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Serves 2:

2 pork chops, sliced into strips (300g)
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp veggie oil + 1 tbsp
1/2 tbsp honey
125g cucumber, chopped into small sticks
125g beansprouts
100g pineapple (3 rings), chopped
6 cherry tomatoes, halved
75g spinach

25ml pineapple juice
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp grated ginger

1. Mix together the soy sauce, 1 tbsp white wine vinegar, 1 tbsp veggie oil and 1/2 tbsp honey in a bowl with the pork chop strips.
2. Add the remaining tbsp veggie oil into a hot wok. Stir fry the pork chop strips for a few minutes, then turn down the heat slightly and throw in the cucumber and beansprouts.
3. Turn the heat down a little more and add in the pineapple and cherry toms.
4. In a small bowl, mix together the pineapple juice, 2 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp white wine vinegar and the ginger. Add this into your wok of food and stir well. Turn down to the lowest heat, cover and leave to simmer for a few minutes.
5. Divide the spinach into two bowls, then use a slotted spoon to dish up the sweet and sour salad.

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