Counting down to Mexico with clean, spicy beef nachos

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It’s less than two weeks until we go on holiday to Playa del Carmen in Mexico and we thought we’d make ourselves even more excited by indulging in some homemade nachos! We tried to make these as clean as possible, remembering the upcoming need to be in a bikini / trunks, but we had to do it properly too!

Ingredients (for 2 v large portions!)
Large packet of plain tortilla crisps
1 handful of grated cheddar cheese
1 ripe avocado
2 chillis, sliced (and deseeded if you wish!)
1 jalapeño, sliced (and deseeded if you wish!)
1 red pepper, sliced
1 packet of lean beef mince (400g)
150g of cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tbsp chilli powder, cumin and paprika

Recipe
Fry off the mince meat until it’s browned, then add the spices and seasoning.

Add the pepper, chilli, jalapeños and tomatoes to the mix, then let it summer for about 20 minutes.

Make your avocado purée by blending the inside of a ripe avocado with a splash of lemon juice and olive oil, then put a side until you’re ready to serve.

Grate a handful of cheese!

Once your beef is done, it’s time to start preparing the nacho dish! Get a medium sized baking tray and make a layer of tortilla crisps (about half the packet). Pile on the meat, add cheese and repeat.

Place in the oven for about 5 minutes, until the cheese has melted!

Before you tuck in, add dollops of your avocado and soured cream! Enjoy!

Chilli Prawns with Avocado Purée

Prawns are a light starter and one of my favourites, but too often this starter is overpowered with garlic, not something you or your guests want at a dinner party.

This starter combines chilli and lemon prawns with an avocado purée and some small slices of French bread.

Ingredients (Serves 6)
2 avocados
Olive oil
24 large raw king prawns
Handful of coriander
2 red chillis, sliced
4 tbsp lemon juice
2 small white baguettes

Recipe

About 30 minutes to an hour ahead of serving, make the avocado purée. Deseed and skin both of the avocados and put them into the blender along with 2 tbsp lemon juice, a dash of olive oil, seasoning and 1/4 cup of water.

Blend on a slow speed until it’s a smooth consistency, adding extra water if necessary.

Set aside the avocado purée until ready to plate up.

10 minutes before you want to serve your starter, pan fry the prawns, chilli and coriander with a tbsp of olive oil and rest of the lemon juice.

To plate up, I added 4 small slices of bread and 4 heaped tablespoons of avocado purée to each plate – with the prawns in the middle. Drizzle olive oil over the dish.

Looks great and tastes great – enjoy!

Caramel Frappucino Cupcakes

It was my mummy’s birthday this weekend, which of course means cupcakes! But not just any cupcakes, I had to go that extra mile.

So, who doesn’t love a Starbuck’s Caramel Frappucino? It’s a lot of people’s favourite drink for the summer (non-alcoholic anyway!) and especially in our family.

Therefore, I merged these flavours with my tried and tested cupcake recipe!

Ingredients (makes 12)

Cupcakes
100g margarine
100g caster sugar
100g self raising flour
2 eggs
2 tbsp espresso powder
Vanilla pod seeds

Topping
1 packet of cream cheese (250g)
25g butter
50g caster sugar
50g icing sugar
500ml whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
Bottle of squeezey caramel sauce
3 green Starbucks straws!!

Recipe

Mix together the butter and caster sugar until creamy and fluffy.

Add the flour and eggs, a little bit at a time, and then the espresso powder and vanilla seeds. Continue to mix until the mixture is a light yellow colour.

Put a heaped tablespoon of the mixture into each cupcake case, then cook for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Once cooked, place on a cooling rack and let them cool for about 10-15 minutes.

Using a teaspoon, take out some of the centre of the cupcake and place to the side. Fill the hole with caramel sauce.

Place the removed piece of cake back into the hole.

To make the whipped cream frosting, simply use an electric whisk or hand blender to blend all of the ingredients together. Continue to whisk/blend until soft peaks can be made in the mixture.

Dollop the frosting on top of the cupcake, letting it peak where possible.

Drizzle the caramel sauce onto the top of the frosting using a teaspoon and add a quarter of a Starbucks straw for decoration!!

And there you have it – my new favourite cupcakes!! Make sure you try these, you won’t be disappointed 🙂

Vanilla, white chocolate and raspberry profiteroles

The best desserts are those which you can make ahead of time and assemble them minutes before serving. This is even more useful when you have an open kitchen, I don’t want the world to know that I’m a slightly messy cook at times!!

I therefore decided to make vanilla, white chocolate and raspberry profiteroles.

Ingredients (serves 6 / 18 profiteroles)

For the choux pastry
200ml cold water
4 tsp caster sugar
75g unsalted butter
100g plain flour
3 medium free-range eggs, beaten

For the filling
500g crème fraîche
1 vanilla pod, split in half lengthways and seeds removed
25g caster sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
Half a punnet raspberries

For the topping
Half a punnet raspberries
200g white chocolate

Recipe

In terms of timings, I made the profiterole pastry on Friday night and kept these in an air-tight container until Sunday evening. I made the filling and filled the profiteroles before my guests arrived for dinner and then assembled the dish before serving.

For the choux pastry

Preheat the oven to 200c, I also placed a small roasting tin in the bottom of the oven to heat, ready for the cooking process.

Add the water, sugar and butter into a saucepan and heat gently until the butter has melted.

Once the butter has melted, pour in the flour and beat until the mixture is a smooth paste. Keep on beating until the mixture comes away from the side of the pan.

Transfer to a large bowl and leave to cool for 10-15 minutes.

Beat in the eggs, a little at a time, until the mixture is smooth and glossy and has a soft dropping consistency – stop adding eggs if it is beginning to get too runny.

Lightly grease a large baking sheet and put 18 heaped teaspoons of mixture across the baking sheet.

Place the baking sheet into the oven. Before closing the oven door, pour a cup of water into the roasting tin at the bottom of the oven, then quickly shut the door. This helps to create more steam in the oven and make the pastry rise better (a trick I read about!) Bake for 25 minutes, checking that the profiteroles are golden-brown.

Once done, remove from the oven and turn the oven off. Prick the base of each profiterole with a skewer and then back onto the baking sheet with the hole in the base facing upwards and return to the oven for about ten minutes. This should help to dry out the middle of the profiteroles.

Mine were not as round and crispy as I would have hoped – but don’t be disheartened, it will all work out in the end!

Once cooled, place the profiteroles into a large container and ensure it is sealed.

Filling

Firstly, create a simple raspberry purée by pressing and squeezing your raspberries with the back of a fork.

Add the creme fraiche, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla seeds, then mix in a large bowl.

To fill the profiteroles, cut down the side of the pastry and create a hole big enough to fill the profiterole with the filling. Using a teaspoon, fill the profiterole with the filling, getting it as close to the centre as possible!

Repeat for all 18 profiteroles (this takes a while!) and then place back in the fridge ready for the night!

Save any filling until later!

Topping and Assemble

Ok, so you’re guests are now ready for dessert! Put three profiteroles in each large bowl, then add an extra dollop of filling on top and some raspberries.

Break up the white chocolate and melt it in the microwave. Drizzle over the profiteroles and make sure you are generous, this adds a lot of flavour!!

Enjoy – and don’t be afraid to let your guests lick the bowl if they really insist!!

Berries for Breakfast

You all know how much I love brunch, a sucker for eggs, bacon, tomatoes and avocado – but this weekend I tried something a little bit sweeter, Berries on Brioche.

Ingredients (serves 2)

500g of strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. (Use at least two fruits, I didn’t use raspberries this time!)
4 slices of brioche loaf
Tsp cinnamon sugar
4 tbsp of maple syrup
Tsp of lemon juice
250ml vanilla 0% fat yoghurt

Recipe

Halve your strawberries and mix together with raspberries and blueberries, gently crushing with the back of a fork.

Add the cinnamon sugar, lemon juice and half of your maple syrup and let this stand for about 10 minutes.

In the meantime, cut your brioche loaf into thick slices (that will fit in the toaster!) I got a whole loaf and then froze the rest, but you can also buy brioche buns that can be halved and toasted.

Once the fruit has soaked for about 10 minutes, lightly toast your brioche and serve two slices for each person.

Mix in your yoghurt to the fruit and spoon it over the brioche. The heat from the toast makes the mixture even more juicy!!

Finally, drizzle the remaining maple syrup on top and serve!

When Beef Wellington met Risotto

Risotto is a wholesome and tasty Italian dish that has the ability to represent a number of tastes without being too overwhelming. However, it is perhaps not a dish that screams luxury, unless filled with various seafood delights such as lobster and crab! So, I decided that I was going to merge mine with the tastes of beef Wellington.

Ingredients (serves two):
100g risotto rice
2 lean beef steaks
3 slices of Parma ham (roughly torn)
100g of mushrooms, roughly chopped
1 tsp of dijon mustard
1 litre of beef stock
1/4 cup of port
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Recipe:
Heat up a drop of olive oil in a heavy-based pan and quickly coat the risotto rice.

Add 1/4 litre of beef stock, port, mustard and the mushrooms, as well as black pepper.

Slowly and continuously stir the risotto, adding the extra liquid if it starts to stick. This should take about 20-30 minutes.

Once the risotto looks nearly done, there’s two more things you need to do.

Firstly, pan fry your steak. This should take about 3-4 minutes on each side. Depending on the thickness of your steaks and how you like it cooked.

Finally with a few minutes to go, add the Parma ham and the Parmesan cheese, stirring this to create the final mixture.

To serve, create a some of risotto and balance the steak to the side.