Gino D'acampo's Balls... Yes, really!

This weekend, I made a recipe from my favourite chef ever - Mr Gino D'acampo.

These risotto balls are one of my best dishes to make and, of course, eat. The recipe may look like they're complicated to make, but believe me, they're really not.
I'm a bit of a risotto fiend and make it whenever possible, so I'm not scared of it, which is the most important thing with cooking in general, but especially with something like risotto.

The bread-crumbed balls are a lovely twist on on of my favourite dishes, and instead of having them as a snack, I made them as part of my dinner, along with a grilled chicken escalope. I simply flattened a chicken breast between cling film, with a rolling pin, seasoned with paprika and grilled it in a pan.

With the balls below, you'll see you're meant to deep fry them, but I find them just as good, if you bake them in the oven (at 200 on a fan assisted). I also used grated mozzarella, as I don't like Parmesan, and bought mozzarella pearl balls instead of cubing a big ball. (Sorry, Gino - I've tweaked your recipe!)

The result is gorgeous... Trust me!

Here's how you can have Gino's balls on a plate of your own(!):

INGREDIENTS:

5 tbsp Olive Oil

1 Onion, finely chopped

500g Arborio or Carnaroli rice

1 litre warm vegetable stock

100ml passata

100 peas

150g freshly grated Parmesan cheese

3 medium eggs, separated

200g toasted fine breadcrumbs

200g Mozzarella cheese, drained and cubed

2 slices of prosciutto

1 litre vegetable oil, for deep frying

Salt and pepper

For the sauce:

5 tbsp olive oil

1 garlic clove, finely sliced

1 large hot chilli, deseeded and sliced

300g fresh plum tomatoes, chopped,  skin and seeds included

Salt

METHOD

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, and gently fry the onion until golden. Add the rice and continue to fry for about three minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.

2. Add the vegetable stock a little at a time, allowing the rice to absorb before adding more (if you need extra, use warm water) and cook for about 20 minutes, stirring constantly. Season with salt and pepper and add the passata, peas, Parmesan and the egg yolks. Mix well then spread the risotto on a tray and leave to cool.

3. Lightly beat the egg whites and spread the breadcrumbs on a plate.

4. Once the risotto is cooled, place about three large tablespoons of rice in the centre of your hand (wet your hands in cold water so the rice doesn't stick to them) and roll the rice into a ball about the size of a snooker ball.

5. Slice the prosciutto into strips and wrap around the mozzarella then press it into the centre and form the rice into a ball again. Dip in the egg whites and cover with breadcrumbs. Repeat with the remaining risotto and mozzarella. Put the rice balls on to a tray and leave in the fridge for about one hour.

6. While the rice balls are resting, prepare the sauce. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and fry the garlic and chilli until golden. Add the tomatoes, season with salt and cook over a medium heat for about ten minutes.

7. Heat enough vegetable oil in a heavy based saucepan to ensure that the rice balls can be completely submerged. Roll the rice balls in the breadcrumbs for a second time.

8. Deep fry the balls for about two minutes or until golden (work in batches, if necessary), then transfer to kitchen paper to allow any excess oil to drain.

TO SERVE

Pour all the sauce onto the centre of a large serving plate and place the balls on top, ready o share with your friends.

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Laura Geller - Life in Rose

I woke up early on Sunday morning, and put a bit of QVC on the TV. 

Much to my delight they had Laura Geller on, and this, Life in Rose collection, as Sunday's 'Today's Special Value'. 

I've been using Laura's products for years now, and this new set came with two of my make-up staples (the Spackle primer and Foundation) along with some extra treats, an eyeliner, eye-shadow and lip colour. 

If any of you have never heard of or used Laura Geller make up before, then you've certainly been missing out!
The special thing about her products are that the foundations, blushers and eye-shadows are all baked! It makes them glide on to your skin and they really do have staying power. Even more so if you first smooth on a thin layer of her Spackle primer, which is gorgeously light textured and smells divine. 

I have always gone for the 'medium' shade on the foundations and concealers (Laura's Real Deal concealer is amazing! Really does live up to its name!) but lately, maybe it's my skin changing?, I've found it to be a bit too dark, so I bit the bullet and went for 'light' with this TSV - and I'm glad I did. It makes my make up look effortless.

My favourite thing in this collection is the new blusher. The Rose pattern on it is so pretty, and it's the perfect shade for me. It really is lovely. 

The lip colour is gorgeous, too. It's the kind of collection you could wear for a day out, or really dress up in the evening. 

QVC did still have some in stock, but no longer for the Special Value price, but it's still such a good deal at £55, Check it out here. 

Another great look from Laura!

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Carrot Cake Birthday Cake!

My Carrot Cake

It was my mums birthday yesterday and as I was off work, I decided to bake her birthday cake. 

She chose a Carrot Cake, to make a bit of a change from the usual vanilla sponge, jam and icing!

Whisking the ingredients took about two minutes... Easy!

Now, if I had a choice of cakes, Carrot wouldn't be in my top three. That was until now! The sponge was deliciously soft, the vanilla icing was just sweet enough and it made the house smell like Christmas during baking. What more could a girl want on a Wednesday afternoon...

I'm going to add a few crushed walnuts next time for extra texture and taste, so feel free to add some if you fancy giving this a go. 

Ingredients: 

For the cake:

250 ml sunflower oil
4 large eggs
225 g light muscovado sugar
200 g carrots, coarsly grated
300 g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground ginger

For the icing:

50 g butter, at room temperature
25 g icing sugar
250 g full-fat cream cheese
a few drops of vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Grease a deep 20cm round spring-back cake tin and line the base with baking paper.

2. Put the oil, eggs, and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Whisk until the mixture is well combined, lighter, and thickened. Then fold the carrot into the mixture, stir in the flour, baking powder, mixed spice, ginger, and continue folding until evenly blended.

3. Pour the mixture into the tin. Put the cake mix into the oven and bake for about 50 minutes, or until golden brown and risen. Once out of the oven, wait 20 mins and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

4. For the icing: Put the butter, icing sugar, cream cheese and vanilla extract in a bowl and whisk until smooth and thoroughly blended.

5. Spread the icing on top of the cake and decorate as you wish. (I used some cute chocolate carrots!)

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Easter Cake!

I hope you all had a fab Easter weekend!

To celebrate the chocolatey craze, I decided to make a chocolate cake fit for a King - and it was delish.

The finished product!

Because I wanted a massive 'cartoon' looking cake (and I suddenly realised that I didn't have two cake tins the same size!) instead of halving the cake mixture, I made it twice, so doubled the ingredients.

You can see why I doubled up the ingredients!

As you can see, my plan worked, and the cake was gigantic and gorgeous:

Massive cake slices are a must!

For the middle I made a sweet buttercream, with icing sugar, butter and caster sugar and on the top I meted some milk chocolate and added some festive mini-eggs. But I think it would also be lovely with jam in the middle, and a buttercream topping, which I might try next time.

When cutting into the cake, we sliced rather large pieces, because it was Easter after all! But when finishing it off yesterday, I cut it into thinner slices, and it was much more enjoyable that way, because the tallness of it wasn't so overwhelming. (I also hadn't just eaten a roast lamb dinner, which probably helped!)
The sponge was light and fluffy, not at all dry, and the buttercream melted into your taste-buds. The cake should serve 8-10 people, but if you doubled up the recipe to make a massive cake like me, you'll need thinner slices, so it may serve more.

It was a winner all round, so definitely give it a go - Easter or not!

Here's the method and what you'll need to make it:

For the cake:

175g unsalted butter, softened (and extra for greasing)

175g self raising flour

175g caster sugar

3 large eggs

2 tbsp drinking chocolate

1 tbsp warm water

Filling:

125g icing sugar

1 1/2 oz unsalted butter, softened

1 tbsp whole milk

Topping:

250 melted chocolate

(or anything of your choice - be imaginative!)

What to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), gas mark 4 and grease two 20 cm (8 inch) shallow cake tins. (This is where I used my one massive cake tin and made the cake twice, one for the top, one for the bottom!)

2. Mix all of the cake ingredients into a large bowl until everything has mixed together, then pour into your cake tin/s and shake gently to level the surface.

3. Bake the cakes for 20 minutes (if using the two shallow tins) or 40 minutes each time, if making one big cake at a time. (Hence you'll be baking one cake for 40mins and the second one again, for another 40mins)

4. Once baked, check that the cake springs back when you push with your finger, and poke with a knife, to check it comes out clear. Put the cakes on a cooling rack.

5. Now, make your filling! Mix the ingredients together, until they form a lovely soft buttery texture. When the cakes are cool, add the filling to the bottom half, then top with the top half.

6. Over a bowl of simmering water, melt you chocolate, and immediately pour over the top of your cake. You can then decorate it accordingly.

'The Perfect Dunker'

It was a biscuit making one this weekend. And the first recipe I tried out from Lisa Faulkner's Tea and Cake book. 

I bought Lisa's book after having tried out her gorgeous Orange and Almond Cake, with Passionfruit Icing (Ah the Passionfruit Icing!) when I saw her bake it on This Morning. 

I'm having a bit of an Easter bake next weekend so I thought I'd do something nice and simple this one, and biscuits are always easy to do. 

Scrambled Egg, anyone?!

My ones seemed to be a tad chocolatier than Lisa's, but I'm not sure whether that's because I substituted the cocoa powder for Cadbury's hot chocolate powder, but it's all relative, right?! Any how, chocolates always a good thing so the more the merrier! 

I also used both white and milk chocolate chips, and found that even though I used the exact measurements, ended up with around 40 biscuits, when the recipe should only make 30. Bonus number two! 

Coming together...

The end result was a lovely soft chocolate middle and a crunch on the outside - a real chocoholics treat! 

I'm not much of a tea drinker, so didn't dunk mine, but I can see why these are called The Perfect Dunker...

The Perfect Dunker!

If you should fancy having a go yourself - here's the bits you'll need to know:

Ingredients

Makes 30

225 g (8 oz) unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
330 g (111⁄2 oz) caster sugar 2 eggs
300 g (101⁄2 oz) plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
70 g (23⁄4 oz) cocoa powder
150 g (5 oz) chocolate chips

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), gas mark 4. Grease a baking tray with butter (or two if you don’t have one large enough for 30 cookies) and line with greaseproof paper.

Beat the butter with an electric (hand) whisk until light and fluffy then beat in the sugar.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding 1 tablespoon of the flour after each egg to prevent the mixture from splitting.

Sift together the remaining flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa powder, then mix with the chocolate chips.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Scrape the bowl down again so that the ingredients are evenly mixed, then give one final stir to ensure everything is combined.

The mixture will be quite dry; this is exactly what you want as you have to take heaped teaspoons and roll them into balls.

Once all your balls are rolled, pop them on the baking tray, spaced a few inches apart, as they will spread. Pat the cookie balls to flatten slightly and bake for 12 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

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Fudging Brilliant

Earlier this week I got cracking on a home made fudge making kit, from Fudge Kitchen, that my boyfriend bought me as part of my Christmas pressie.

It was actually really simple to make, and those of you who enjoy seeing a bunch of ingredients come together to make something that looks completely different to what went in will enjoy it. I can also imagine it be something fun to get children involved in too.

The kit comes with the option to make three different flavours of fudge. Chocolate, Plain and Toffee.

The full kit

Izzie wanted in on the action!

I decided to make the toffee this time, so as you can imagine, the caramel made it all the more gooey to put together.

The boyfriend was also present when I made it, and he loved the science behind the fact that the syrupy ingredients had to be exactly 23.6° (the kit comes with its own thermometer). As he's also a chef, I think he enjoyed making confectionery again, as this is something he doesn't usually get to do in his day job.

Kyle couldn't contain his excitement!!!

Once the mixture is at the right temp, the good bit begins, as you pour the (very hot) runny fudge onto a tray and score with the plastic tool provided, Once the score mark stays apart for a few seconds, it's time to fold the fudge with the plastic tools.

At first it felt like the mixture would never get thick enough to become its fudge destiny, but all of a sudden it soon comes together!

You get an apron - it's all very professional!

Obligatory fudge selfie!

The end result was a gorgeous toffee fudge, which went down a treat, especially when I bought some into work.

The only thing I would do different next time is to make the whipping cream needed, more 'whippy', to get a smoother result.

You can also get inspiration from the booklet, to add cherries or almonds to the fudge and make your own recipes, so you can really get creative.

Check out the different kits on offer from Fudge Kitchen, here.

Have you ever made your own home made fudge?

One for the girls...

Okay, so it's not a 'beauty' post as such, but it's a very important one for us ladies.

Smear tests.

The word embarrasses some, and puts the light of fear in others, but I thought I'd share a little word about my experience over the last couple of years.

When I turned 25 four years ago, I received a letter inviting me to my first cervical screening. I ignored the letter, not on purpose, but just because it wasn't something I was looking forward to going to and as the days went on I just forgot all about it, as I imagine many other girls have done.

Fast forward a year later and I ended up popping along to the Docs for a totally different reason, to see the nurse.
It was then she informed me that I was overdue my cervical screening. I didn't have time, I told her. I would come back another day.
The nurse laughed, and said she had heard this all before, and I may as well have it done now, as it would only take five minutes.

So; before I knew it, I was on the couch, having the test.

Afterwards, I was surprised at what a little deal it actually was. and although it was slightly uncomfortable, it didn't hurt and was over in a flash.

Then the results arrived, and it said that I had an abnormal result and would need to go for a further test at the Colposcopy clinic.

Now I know what that entails, I'm a lot more relaxed about it and can't really remember how I felt at the time, but I'm sure it was a lot more panicked and scared than I feel about it all now.

A few weeks later I went to the Colp clinic and found it to be a little more uncomfortable as the generic screening, as it lasts a little longer (about 5-10mins). If you want to know more about what happens at Colposcopy clinics, Jo's Trust has great advice, here.
The nurse at my first Colp also took a biopsy to check my cells and that was the most painful bit. I say painful in a loose term, as it was literally a pin-prick. Afterwards, later in the day, you can feel a little sore, but it's nothing too bad. Or at least wasn't for me.

Thankfully, my results showed nothing dangerous, my actual cervical cells were normal, but I had 'dodgy skin' as I like to call it on my cervix. The nurse said she could only best describe it as like eczema but on my cervix!

I had to go back to the Colp clinic a year later, which I did, and the nurse also took a routine test, but said that my cervix looked healthy, which made me more relaxed about the results coming through.
This test came back normal, but I had to go back a year later, again.
Last year was my last Colp appointment. The nurse, Joyce, who had seen me each year over the past two, said that  I would be discharged if this test also came back normal.

Again, thankfully, it did.

So a few weeks ago, I went along to my Drs for a routine screening. The nurse actually said that I wasn't due for one for another two years, but as I was there, she would do it for me, if I so wished.

I decided to go ahead, to be on the safe side. Having the screening done routinely was nothing on what I was used to at the Colp clinic! So easy and over in seconds!

This morning, I received another 'normal' result, so I'm not due for another for three more years, which is great.

I just wanted to write this piece to urge girls to go for their screenings, when called. As it's really nothing to be worried about and really could save your life.
I put mine off on that first year, and had an abnormal result, I know it turned out to be nothing serious, but I'm also aware that it could have been the start of something more serious developing.

I always imagine having a screening test done a piece of cake, compared to what some girls are going through in their fight of cervical cancer.

We're lucky to have the opportunity to be screened. So, lets make the most of it.

#NoFearGoSmear