Baking

Drinks & Snacks

Favourites

Drinks and quick snacks...

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Gazpacho Soup

One of our summer favourites, very quick and easy to make, although it does benefit from good quality tomatoes, and also it's important to leave it overnight for the flavours to combine and mellow. Serves 2 fairly generously.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Place the onions and the garlic into a small bowl with the sherry vinegar to pickle/marinade and season well.
  2. Place the cucumber, peppers, tomatoes, stale bread, herbs & tabasco into a food processor along with a good glug of olive oil. Blitz until roughly chopped.
  3. Add the onion/garlic/vinegar mixture, stir well, and leave to marinade in a fridge overnight.
  4. Before serving, blitz until smooth, season and adjusting the vinegar as necessary. Add more olive oil to loosen and add richness to the dish.
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Mushroom Pate

A quick and easy pate that can be made ahead of time. The trick is not to all too much tarragon, as the flavour develops significantly.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Clean and trim the mushrooms then chop finely
  2. In a large frying pan melt the butter then fry the mushrooms and garlic until all the moisture has evaporated - about 10 mins - then set aside to cool
  3. Once cool, transfer to a food processor and blend the mushrooms until smooth.
  4. Add the cream cheese, crème fraîche, and tarragon and blend again until well mixed and smooth
  5. Season to taste and then transfer to a bowl and chill, covered, in the fridge for at least an hour before serving.
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Smoked Mackerel Pate

The horseradish and lemon juice really help to bring out the flavour of the smoked mackerel in this quick and easy pate. The key thing is to taste the pate and adjust the seasoning as necessary.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Flake the fish into a small bowl
  2. Add the horseradish and lemon juice and mix in the creme fraiche
  3. Add the chives and season to taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
  4. Serve on crackers or thin white toast or with home-made soda bread.
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Flapjacks

Flapjacks are never exactly slimming, and these are no exception. I like to take these on outings, as they make a perfect afternoon snack for those days of strenuous exercise where you feel like you've earned them. I've stopped adding chocolate because I found it was making the flapjacks too sweet, and tends to melt if you take it on a hot day.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. If you're using cane sugar then melt the sugar in a heavy bottomed pan and heat until it begins to caramelise taking care not to burn it. If you're using demerara sugar then omit this step, and simply add the demerara to the pan placed on the heat and proceed to the next step.
  2. Add the honey, butter, oats, salt, vanilla paste and dried fruit and stir over heat until well mixed.
  3. Turn out into a greased, lined baking tray and spread out evenly.
  4. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 160°C (fan assisted).
  5. Turn out onto a rack to cool, and cut into 3 cm squares once cold.
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Ian's Real Lemonade

Ian's quick and easy recipe for a delicious, real, lemonade. Great served over ice, or as a mixer for Vodka or Rum... If the amount of sugar in the recipe scares you (as it does me) then this turns out fairly well using an artificial sweetener, but be careful not to add too much - I find the manufacturers equivalent measurements a little too generous.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Weigh the sugar in a 1 litre measuring jug
  2. Add the juice and zest from the lemons
  3. Make up to 1 litre with water, and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
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Scones & Jam

Classic scones, with a quick and easy jam - ones that keeps the fruit fresh and light. If using baking powder (rather than self-raising flour) then be sure to pre-heat the oven, and be prepared to move fairly quickly once the ingredients are mixed - the scones will start to rise as soon as the wet ingredients meet the baking powder. To make cheese scones, replace half the butter with 50g grated mature cheddar, and top with more finely grated cheese

Ingredients - Scones

Instructions - Scones

  1. Heat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
  2. Mix together the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder and rub in the butter.
  3. Add the egg and then the milk and mix to get a soft dough.
  4. Turn on to a floured work surface and knead very lightly. Pat out to a round 2 cm thick. Use a 5 cm cutter to stamp out rounds and place on a baking sheet.
  5. Lightly knead together the rest of the dough and stamp out more scones to use it all up.
  6. Brush the tops of the scones with the beaten egg. Bake for 12-15 minutes until well risen and golden.
  7. Cool on a wire rack and serve with butter and good jam (like the one below) and maybe some clotted cream.

Ingredients - Jam

Instructions - Jam

  1. Mix up the fruit, sugar and vanilla essence in a bowl, using your hands to scrunch the fruit a little, until the fruit has become shiny with the dissolved sugar
  2. Boil hard for about 4-5 minutes
  3. Remove from heat and spoon off any scum that has formed
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Iced Green Tea

Classic Iced Tea, made with green tea leaves instead of the usual black. I find this makes a more fragrant, lighter tea, with less tannin. The preparation time is pretty short, but it takes a while for the tea to cool down and chill. The recipe below is for a large tea-pot, with its own leaf strainer.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Boil a kettle and warm the tea pot
  2. Put the sugar in the pot, and the tea leaves in the strainer.
  3. Pour over the boiling water, cover with a tea cosy and leave to brew for 5 minutes.
  4. Remove the leaf strainer, add lemon juice, stir and taste - adjust sugar and lemon juice for a slightly too sweet, slightly too lemony tea (the flavours will be less strong when cold)
  5. Leave to cool to room temperature (ca. 2 hours)
  6. Place in the fridge until chilled (ca. 2 hours)
  7. Serve in a glass, over ice.