Fruit Pizza?!

I’ve just spotted this great recipe idea over at the Make Life Delicious blog.  It’s a refreshing alternative to plain old fruit salad!  Sunshine has named her delightful dessert Fruit Pizza but thankfully the base is made from cookie dough!

The picture reminds me of a colourful mosaic pattern… it’s so pleasing on the eye that you might think it’s too good to eat.  Well, almost!

Click here for the recipe.

posted by Emily

Did anyone say cheese?

You’d be forgiven for thinking that this is stracciatella ice cream – I thought so myself, but in fact it’s not, would you believe it, it’s balls of goat’s cheese with olives!!! What a gorgeous and novel starter, right?

Image via fotobank.ru

I personally don’t like eating goat’s cheese “raw” so I’m not sure I would totally enjoy this to be honest, but I do use goat’s cheese quite a bit in my cooking as it gives a really delicious, strong flavour to the food.

So here is one of my favourite tried and tested recipes with goat’s cheese and one of the most delicious soups ever – the Pumpkin soup!!!

Ingredients

1 finely chopped onion
3 garlic cloves
4 small pumpkins
2 chicken stock cubes
500ml water
1/4 cup goat’s cheese
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup brown sugar
250ml double cream
1tsp thyme

1. Cut the pumpkins in half, scoop out the seeds and place them on a baking sheet. Bake in the oven for about an hour until you can pierce the skin easily with a fork.
2. Scrape the flesh into a food processor and blend until smooth.
3. In the meantime, heat some olive oil in a large saucepan, then gently cook the onions and garlic.
   
4. Add the pumpkin paste to the pan, along with the stock and sugar, bring to the boil, then simmer for about 15 mins.
5. Then you can either blend in small amounts of the goat’s cheese whilst cooking, or you can mix the cheese with fresh cream and thyme, and top each bowl with a dollop of the mixture at the end.

Recipe adapted from iledefrancecheese.com.

The trick is to use just a small piece of the cheese in either case, otherwise it will make the soup too salty… and if you’re feeling particularly creative, you can also serve it in a pumpkin!!!

Posted by Katie.

The perfect caramel apple

Directions for coating six apples…

Mix 2 cups sugar, 1/4 cup light corn syrup and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan.

Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring just until the sugar dissolves.

Cook, swirling the pan (do not stir), until the mixture is light amber and a candy thermometer registers 320 degrees, 8 to 10 minutes.

Remove from the heat; slowly whisk in 1/2 cup heavy cream, then 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and a pinch of salt.

Return to low heat and whisk until smooth.

Let cool until the caramel is thick enough to coat a spoon.

Insert sticks into the stem ends of 6 apples and dip the apples into the caramel, letting the excess drip off.

Roll in toppings (see previous blog for inspiration), then let cool on a parchment-lined baking sheet coated with cooking spray.

with thanks to www.foodnetwork.com

by resident blogger, Emily

Strawberries + Balsamic = a match made in hell?

This pretty much says it all – I love my strawberries!

So when I found a most interesting recipe for roasted strawberries and balsamic vinegar (I’d heard of watermelon and feta before, but never this!), I thought I’d share it with you… but please do not hold me responsible if it tastes terrible as I have yet to try it!!!

I found the recipe in a Toronto- based blog called Closet Cooking. I really have no idea how I ended up on this blog, as I had originally googled London- based interior stylists, but that’s the web for you…!

Roasted Strawberry Balsamic Ice Cream 
Ingredients:
2 cups strawberries (cleaned and hulled)
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup sugar (I used vanilla sugar)

Directions:
1. Toss the strawberries in the balsamic vinegar and sugar and let sit for 20 minutes.
2. Pour mixture into a baking pan covered in foil folded up on the sides to capture the juices.
3. Roast the strawberries in a preheated oven until they start to caramelize, about 20 minutes.
4. Place the strawberries & juices into a container, chill in the fridge, then pour over ice-cream.

This is Kevin’s (the blog author) explanation of why he created the recipe…”Roasting the strawberries seems to concentrate and intensify their flavour and when they roast they release their juices which gets all nice and syrupy and good. While I was thinking about the concentrated strawberry flavour the strawberry and balsamic vinegar combo came to mind as a splash of balsamic vinegar also helps to bring out the natural strawberry flavour”.

As Joey (from Friends) once said for Rachel’s infamous trifle: “What’s not to like? Strawberries? Good. Ice-cream? Good. Vinegar? Good.” I’ll definitely be giving it a try and you never know, it might taste so good, it could be introduced in Wimbledon next year!

Or maybe you prefer a taste of these chocolate covered strawberries?