Best Pasta Ever | Book of Elsa

 Put a large pan of water to boil.  

A little olive oil in a pan large enough to take everything later with a lid, add the chopped onion, garlic a little salt and cook on lowish heat with lid on for 10 minutes or until soft.  

Turn up heat add balls of sausage meat and season, go easy on the salt though supermarket sausages tend to be salty, you’re trying to get colour on all sides do not cook through.  

Once the sausages are all golden add a glass of wine, let it bubble until syrupy then around 200ml of stock. Turn heat down, cover and cook for 5 minutes.  

Now cook the pasta according to packet instructions adding 250g of frozen peas for the final 5 minutes. 

Taste sausage and sauce for seasoning, adjust if necessary. Pour in the cream, sprinkle the dried parsley drain the pasta and peas and toss into the sauce. Eat. 

so good, i ate it too fast to take a picture

No-Touch Bread | Book of Elsa

 No-Touch Bread 

Makes: 1 loaf 

• 400 grams strong white bread flour plus more for dusting 
• 1g fast-action dried yeast 
• 8g table salt 
• 350 millilitres water 

Method: 

Put all the ingredients in a bowl big enough to take everything with room to spare, this baby grows. Stir to combine using a the handle of a wooden spoon, then cover and leave in a draught free place for 18 hours, it’ll be fine up to 24 hours in winter.  

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 245°C. Place an enamel or cast iron pan with a lid in the oven for 30 minutes. 

Whilst you wait roughly shape the dough but leave it inside the bowl, cover again until 30 minutes are up. 

Take the pan out of the oven; be careful it will be scorching. Place on a heat safe surface, sprinkle flour at the bottom of the pan and turn your dough out inside. Sprinkle more flour on top, pop the lid on and bake for 30 minutes. 

Take the lid off, then bake uncovered for a further 15-30 minutes until golden brown. 

Immediately remove from pan and let cool on a rack for 30 minutes at least before you slice it. 

Ultimate Hot Chocolate | Book of Elsa

 Ultimate Hot Chocolate 

Serves 2  

500ml whole milk (or alternative just don’t me about it) 

100g dark chocolate minimum 50% 

2 tablespoons golden syrup 

Vanilla to taste 

1 tablespoon custard powder 

Rum (optional) 

Method: 

On low(ish) heat warm the milk, add the chocolate breaking it up as it goes in. Pour in the syrup and vanilla. Once combined whisk in the custard powder until thick and hot. If you have rum to hand a glug or two wouldn’t hurt. 

Spinach and Ricotta Baked Pasta | Book of Elsa

WHITE TIRAMISU | BOOK OF ELSA

This was borne from a love of tiramisu and wanting to spread this love far and wide. To those who currently don’t like the espresso boozy concoction I suggest this will convert you. I call it ‘white’ simply because there is no chocolate and/or coffee and I realise the addition of cream means it stops technically being a ‘tiramisu’, however it is delicious.  

WHITE TIRAMISU 

Ingredients 

• 2 egg yolks 
• 1 egg white, whisked until foamy 

• 90g caster sugar 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 250g room temperature mascarpone 
• 300ml double cream, softly whipped  
• 2 shop bought madeira cake loaves 

• 160ml rum 
• 200ml milk 
• 2 punnets of strawberries 
• Juice of half a lemon 

Method 

1. Hull and halve strawberries, squeeze the lemon juice on top and cover with cling film.  

2. Place the egg yolks and caster sugar in a bowl big enough to take everything later and whisk until pale yellow and sugar has more or less dissolved.  

3. Add the vanilla extract, mascarpone, foamy egg white and whipped cream. Stir to combine, cover and set aside. 

4. In a jug combine the milk and rum 

5. Slice the cake loaves to 1cm thickness and arrange some at the bottom of a glass bowl. Your layer will depend on the shape of the bowl.  

6. Cover the cake slices with spiked milk, half the strawberries and half of the cream. 

7. Layer more cake, pour spiked milk on top add the rest of strawberries and the last of the cream. 

8. Cover with cling film and refrigerate overnight or at least 6 hours before serving.  

Sourdough Pancakes | Book of Elsa

These sourdough pancakes aren’t sweet in the traditional sense, think slightly sweeter crumpet. They are no more difficult to make than my regular weekend pancakes which I can make half asleep without breaking a sweat. Make the batter the day before, fry as required. I serve this with a compote of some kind. But cream, jam or indeed nothing would be fine too. 

Prawn Balls | Book of Elsa

I’m not going to pretend this is work of mere moments, however with some planning and music playing it really isn’t hard. 

Ingredients

800 g raw peeled king prawns

4 garlic cloves, peeled

4 cm piece fresh root ginger, peeled

4 spring onions, trimmed and roughly chopped

4 tsp. soy sauce

2 large eggs

150 g fresh white breadcrumbs

50 g plain flour

100 g sesame seeds

Vegetable oil, to fry

Turmeric & Lemon Loaf | Chetna Makan

Ingredients:

150g room temperature unsalted butter in cubes

150g caster sugar

150g plain flour 

3 large eggs

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp turmeric powder

zest of a lemon

1 tbsp lemon juice

pinch of salt

2 tbsp black poppyseed <optional>

Icing:

50g icing sugar

2 tbsp lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 180℃. Grease and line a 900g loaf tin having said that: I use a disposable liner.

Put the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl fitted with a paddle attachement and mix until it resembles softened ice cream. 

Add all other cake ingredients and  mix for 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix for a futher minute.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer/uncooked spaghetti/knife comes out clean. 

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 5 mintues before removing it.

Combine the icing sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl and pour onto the cake whilst it is still warm.

Serve warm or cold.

Near Instant Lentil and Franks Soup | Book of Elsa

Apple and Berry Pie | Book of Elsa

This is a weekender recipe, I don't apologise for it either. There is no way I would make this unless I had time to seriously devote to it. I give a recipe for sweet shortcrust pastry because it's worth making your own in this case. But, if you don't feel that way inclined for any reason then good all buter shop bought is fine. I would say to make the pastry dough the day before.

Lemonade | Sort of | Book of Elsa

This recipe originated from the great Nigella Lawson, as always I've fiddled and here it is.

If you're lucky enough to have an almost grand-father in law with a garden full of mint, this is for you.

large bunch of mint 

100g caster sugar

1 lemon

2 easy peelers <or any other citrus>

625ml ≅water

In a small saucepan, put 125ml of water with the sugar, mint and and zest from the fruit. I use a potato peeler to keep the zest in large pieces. 

Place on high heat, once it's boiling turn then heat down to the lowest it can go and simmer for 5 minutes, take off the heat and let cool completely.

In the meantime, juice the fruit to give about 100ml then make up to 500ml with water.

Once the syrup is cool, strain both the diluted juice and syrup into a jug. Serve over ice.

It occurs to me that a glug or two of rum/vodka wouldn't be a bad thing....