under pressure

This Pudding is the bomb! If your idea of 'comfort' is a cashmere blanket then this is the dessert equivalent. The best! It's as easy as a cobbler but it beats the crap out of it. I have called it Almond Storm Cloud Pudding because it is chucking it down outside and because it is a kind of cross between a steamed pudding and a cobbler with a soft light almond cloud topping on a storm of fruit.

This would be great to feed friends as it is a bit more special than a crumble or cobbler and looks like you went to much more effort. It can also be made ahead of time and just left out until you are ready to bake it. I made mine and put the topping on at about 4. It went in the oven at 6.30. As long as you are careful putting it in the oven and don't knock any air out of it, it will be fine.

This is completely my own recipe. I just made it up. I am finally at the point where I know roughly how things will work in terms of chemistry with baking so can get by without a recipe. You basically make a soft sponge biscuit mixture and let it steam over bubbling fruit. Biscuit isn't really the right description, the topping is fluffy and soft like a less rich version of a sponge pudding with a very light crisp shell. A bit like a macaroon.

Jon and I are without the kids for the weekend so celebrated with a slap up dinner. Steak with brandy and cream sauce, caramelised onions and thrice cooked chips. This was the dessert. Jon was speechless. He loved it.

Almond storm cloud pudding.

Serves 2 greedy fatties or 4 normal people. (if you want to cover yourself quantity wise double the recipe and use 1 medium egg and an egg yolk)

50g butter
50g sugar
1 small egg
1/2 tsp almond essence
70g self raising flour
50g ground almonds
A handful of flaked almonds

(I imagine this would work with any fruit combo, just do similar quantities)
3 apples
A small punnet of blueberries
1 tsp Cornflour mixed with a little water.

Pre heat your oven to 170 fan 180 normal

Cook apples and blueberries with a little sugar (to taste) until apples are starting to soften. Add a tsp of cornflour mixed with water to thicken the juices slightly put in a small pie dish. (mine is about 3 inches by 4 inches)

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy then add the almond essence and the egg (lose a bit of the white if you only have a medium one) stir until fully combined, add the flour and almonds and mix until just incorporated. The mixture should have the consistency of mashed potato.

Spread or pipe over your fruit evenly and sprinkle over the flaked almonds. Bake for about 20 minutes until risen, springy and golden brown on top. Serve steaming hot with cool smooth pouring cream. Then have second helpings!!

I was in the mood for something simple, tasty and hearty this evening. My choice of recipe was dictated to by the fact that I made a giant loaf of soda bread this afternoon and I couldn't get my head round what we should have with it. I couldnt find any recipes online that I liked so just botched one together. It was superb. Make it. It's delicious, filling and super low calorie.

Serves 4

300g sweet potato diced
1 carrot finely chopped
1/2 a stick of celery finely chopped
1.1/2 onions finely chopped
Half an onion studded with a clove and a bay leaf
Parsley stalks roughly chopped
A bunch of parsley leaves finely chopped
150g pollock
150g smoked mackerel
1 clove of garlic crushed
400ml milk
1litre stock (chicken is fine)
1 small can of sweetcorn, drained
1 tsp fennel seeds crushed
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
2tbsp cornflour mixed with a little water.
15g butter

Put the milk, the bay studded onion and the pollock in a saucepan and heat until the fish is cooked. Take off the heat and leave to infuse. Put the butter in a large deep pan and melt on a medium heat. Add the fennel and parsely stalks. Heat until fizzing. Add the garlic, stir, add the onion and carrot and celery. Lower the heat and cook until translucent and softened. Take the skin off your mackerel and add it to your jug of stock. Let it infuse for five minutes or so. Remove the fish from the milk and discard the onion.

Add the milk to your carrot mixture, add the stock poured through a sieve to get rid of the skin. Add the cornflour and the sweet potato. Bring the soup to a simmer until it has thickened slightly. Flake in all of the fish and add the sweetcorn. Simmer until the sweet potato is cooked. Add your parsely and nutmeg.

Serve with a drizzle of cream and some great big hunks of home made soda bread. Delicious.

This makes about 1.7kg of soup. A 400g serving is 314cal and as long as you don't go mental with the cream and soda bread you are laughing.

We are feeling the effects of over-eating at Xmas and have conveniently buried our heads in the sand until now.

I refuse to diet so have made it my mission to have one super healthy meal once a week.

This recipe is utterly delicious. A cross between something I saw in the Guardian by Yotam and something I remember my old boss cooking for me once. These were massively bigged up by all the boys in my house so I will make them again. At only 60 cals a burger you can eat crap loads of them with no guilt.

I hate turkey but it is slightly lower in calories than chicken and if you cook it my way you can't tell the difference.

Serves 2-3 (2 hungry adults and 2 tots)

Turkey Burgers

Turkey or chicken 400g
A bunch of fresh coriander
2 spring onions
1 large carrot (peeled and coarsly grated)
3 garlic cloves
2cm ginger
Juice of half a lemon
1/2 tsp Turmeric
1/2 tsp Salt
1 medium egg

 

Use a food processor as life is too short. Finely chop (in the processor) the coriander, ginger and garlic. Add the spring onions and pulse once or twice until roughly sliced. Put in a mixing bowl.

Pulse the turkey in the food processor until lightly chopped. Don't over chop, you want some texture not pate. Add your turkey to the bowl with the rest of the ingredients. Mix well and form into 9 small patties. The mixture will be quite wet.

Put the burgers on a plate in the fridge for half an hour.

Preheat your oven to 170. Cook in a hot non stick frying pan (I used 1 cal cooking spray) until golden on each side then place on a baking sheet and finish off in the oven at about 170 for 10-15 minutes.

To serve mix some sweet chilli dipping sauce 30/30/30 with low cal mayonnaise and/or low fat cream cheese. The sweet chilli halves the calories again and makes the minging slop that is low calorie mayo palletable. This works out about 20 cals per tablespoon.

I also made a hot salsa to give it some kick.

3 chopped tomatoes

1/2 chopped yellow pepper

1/2 finely chopped onion

1 finely chopped green chilli

Squeeze some lemon over it and some salt to take the fire out of the onions. Serve with toasted (or oven heated- I chuck mine in 5 mins before I take the burgers out) wholemeal pitta bread.