Fork and Pixel

Halloumi, Carrot and Rocket Salad with Sticky Honey Mustard Glaze

I would like to claim this salad as my own creation however many moons ago when I first moved to London my German housemate Sandra used to make this salad a lot. I would come along and pick at the left overs with glee and right before I moved out, managed to get her to write down what loosely qualifies as a recipe. This halloumi, carrot and rocket salad is a great side dish for a BBQ and the sticky honey and mustard glaze is to die for when combined with the halloumi.

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Food photography workshop with Roger Stowell

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending a one day workshop with food photographer Roger Stowell, ably assisted by his comedy sidekick, son and fellow food photographer Sam Stowell. Roger usually runs courses in France where he has retired but has taken up residence in Sam’s commercial studio in south west London for two weekends to impart his knowledge and acecdotes of working in the food photography industry. Roger and Sam’s styles and editing processes are quite different so it was great to get advice and tips from both of them. The food was beautifully styled by Cara Hobday.

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Chocolate & Peanut Butter Creme Cupcakes

This last week Fork and Pixel turned one so to celebrate, I thought I would share my ‘signature bake’ chocolate and peanut butter creme cupcakes which I usually bake as a big 8″ cake for friends birthdays. The recipe is an amalgamation of a Reece’s chocolate cake recipe that is my favourite chocolate sponge as it’s not too rich or heavy and an adapted icing that I have changed over the years after stumbling across the original via blog SugarLaws.

Double the cake mixture to make two 8″ or 20cm round sandwich sponges, bases lined with parchment circles and bake in tight fitting pans (as the mix will leak otherwise) for 35-45 mins.

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Carrot and Caraway Dog Biscuits

In a desperate attempt to do some baking without having something irresistible in the house afterwards to scupper my pre holiday healthy eating, I have turned to canine baking! This recipe for carrot and caraway dog biscuits is from River Cottage: Cakes and the biscuits have been well received by my friends dogs. My workmates weren’t so sure and thought they were a bit dry but 50 mins in the oven will do that!

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Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies

These are my go to store cupboard cookies and I found the recipe for these Peanut Butter Cookies in Jo Wheatley’s A Passion for Baking. The trick to getting the perfect texture seems to be a swift bang on the worktop half way through the cooking time. These cookies are fabulously crisp and chewy…the holy grail of cookies and with the addition of Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips are elevated to dream cookie levels in my opinion.

Unfortunately, the chips are not easy to find in the UK and I was lucky that I had a friend visiting Chicago at the end of last year so she bought me a few bags back. I have heard Selfridges, Panzers and Partridges stock a good range of Reece’s stuff though the recipe works just as well with milk or white chocolate chips or peanuts.

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Malteser Blondies

Hoorah! Cake! I hear you cry…..I’ve been missing baking and couldn’t resist these Maltesers Blondies by Jo Wheatley when I saw them in the March edition of Sainsbury’s Magazine. All but two were quickly dispatched to my housemates office and out of temptation. They were definitely better the day after baking as they became more chewy and can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days or frozen without the topping.

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Roasted Roots Frittata

I’m still not feeling 100% and the surprise cold spell this week prompted me to cook something comforting and decidedly autumnal so apologies, it’s not entirely in keeping with the season but it’s what I needed this week. I found this oven roasted roots frittata recipe whilst thumbing through my colleagues copy of River Cottage Veg.

I am also trying to be more inventive with left overs/lunches and this is great for using up leftover bits of veg. The original recipe suggests a combination any of the following but to definitely include some sort of onion:
shallots/onions, squash/pumpkin, carrots, parsnips, celeriac, beetroot, potatoes. I ended up using carrots, parsnip, sweet potato and red onion.

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Chunky Bacon, Butterbean and Tomato Soup

Not entirely in keeping with the wonderful weather we had at the weekend but I made this bacon, butterbean and tomato soup last week as part of my money saving/pre wedding/pre holiday regime of not buying lunch out, thus saving cash and knowing what’s actually in my lunch.

It was extracted from an ancient issue of Zest magazine and has to be my favourite chunky soup. It is so quick and easy to make and also very low fat but satisfyingly filling. If you prefer a smoother soup, use a blender to purée it to a smooth consistency.

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Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

Having recently invested in a slow cooker I have been trying out this new way of cooking with various recipes but so far the tastiest and most photogenic thing to come out of it is this amazing slow cooker pulled pork which I found on the Chow website. Its so easy as you just coat you hunk of pork shoulder with the spice rub and sit it on a bed of onion with some stock and wait for the slow cooker to work its magic. I found the pork already tasted so good so I didn’t want to cover it all in BBQ sauce but opted to add some on the side.

If you don’t have a slow cooker you can cook it in the oven as follows: preheat the oven to 220c or gas mark 7. Line a roasting tin with sheets of foil big enough to fold over the top of the pork. Put the pork into the hot oven for about 40 minutes until well browned, then take out and turn down the heat to 125c or gas mark ½. Fold the foil over the top to make a sealed parcel of pork. Return to the oven and cook for about 6-7 hours, then turn the heat back up to 220c or gas mark 7 and cook the pork, uncovered, for 10 minutes to crisp up.

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Plaited Spelt Milk Loaf

Regular followers will know bread is not my baking strong point. I decided to give a milk loaf a go as I have consistently failed at spelt sourdough.

I found this plaited spelt milk loaf recipe on the Doves Farm website and the reviews were favourable so thought it was worth giving a try. All I can say is it’s the easiest and best looking loaf ever to come out of my oven so I will definitely be baking this one again. Anyone daunted or frustrated by bread making should give this a go…. you might just give Paul Hollywood a run for his money with this one!

*I didn’t have enough white spelt flour so ended up using a mix of roughly 300g white and 200g whole grain spelt flour.

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