I found several recipes for regular creme brulee, so I combined them and added my own spice - a lot of the time I go through the kitchen cupboards & the fridge to see what’s around to add - I added a pinch of chai tea latte mix I found to add to the spice!
Ingredients
- 1 pot of double cream
- 1/4 cup of milk
- 2 egg yolks
- 4 tbsp white sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
- 2 tsp orange zest
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- pinch of ground nutmeg
- 4-6 tbsp light brown sugar to top
Method
- Preheat oven to 120C.
- Combine the milk & cream in a saucepan, & boil.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk the egg yolks, white sugar, vanilla, orange rind, cinnamon, nutmeg & salt so it mixes.
- Add a little bit of the hot cream mixture to bowl and whisk, slowly add the rest of the hot cream mixture whilst continually mixing.
- Make sure there are no bubbles in the mixture then add them to ramekins - I had enough mixture for 3 ramekins.
- Place the ramekins on to a baking dish that is deep.
- Fill the baking dish with boiling water so it reaches halfway up the side of the ramekins & bake for 25 minutes until the custard is set
- Once the custard is set, leave the ramekins to cool to room temperature.
- Cover each ramekin with a layer of light brown sugar.
- Place ramekins on a baking dish (without boiling water this time) and grill until the sugar has caramelised - again take the ramekins out & leave to cool until the sugar hardens.
Butternut squash paired with cheese = comfort food. I decided to make this when my friend came over to spend the day watching TV & eating mass amounts of food. I don’t think she had any dinner that night.
Ingredients
- 1 butternut squash - halved with the stringy core taken out
- 2 garlic cloves - crushed
- 1 tbsp chopped thyme
- 4 tsp olive oil
- pinch of red chilli powder
- 120g emental cheese
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp brandy/white wine
- 1 small pot of crème fraîche (you won’t use the whole pot)
Method
- Preheat oven to 190C.
- Half the butternut squash like in the picture.
- Remove the stringy membranes & seeds from the core at the bottom.
- Make diagonal scores along the body of the squash.
- In a small bowl combine the olive oil, chilli powder, 1 crushed garlic clove & the thyme.
- Rub this into the scores of the squash and cover the rest of the squash in this too.
- In another bowl, combine the corn starch, wine, butter, cheese, rest of the crushed garlic & 3 tbsp of crème fraîche until it forms a paste.
- Add salt & pepper. Taste the mixture and add extra quantities of the ingredients according to your taste.
- Fill the hollowed cores so they are half full.
- Heat in the oven for 40 minutes or until the squash is nice and soft (test using a knife).
- Serve with bread or you can just dip the squash from the body into the fondue.
Alright, so one night I came home a little late from uni, and I was looking forward to dinner because lobster was on the menu. Once I arrived home, my Dad joked saying they left my lobster in the freezer because they thought I was eating out.
They weren’t joking, there was no dinner for me. So instead, I made my own lobster a few days later.
Now when I made it, I didn’t exactly have set quantities of the ingredients I used, it was very much experimental and whatever I felt like according to taste - apologies if this makes it harder.
Ingredients
- lobster tail raw
- butter (just enough to spread on the tail)
- 1 chilli
- 1 clove of grated/crushed garlic
- splash of orange juice
- splash of lime juice
- small pinch of ground ginger
- lime zest
Method
- Boil the lobster tail in water for about 5 minutes.
- In a small bowl, add 1 chopped chilli, the crushed/grated garlic, the orange juice, the lime juice & the ginger. Mix well.
- Once the lobster is done, half it so you are splitting the tail down the centre.
- Lightly spread some butter on the flesh side of the tails & then brush the sauce over them.
- Put them in the oven to grill for about 4 minutes or until cooked (don’t over cook or else the lobster will be rubbery).
- Take it out and add lime zest.
It turns out you can make this very simple cake in a few minutes which is great because I’m always on the hunt for cake!
Ingredients
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
A splash of vanilla essence
1 large mug
Optionals
You can add some chocolate pieces (white, dark, plain etc)
I used chocolate orange and added some orange zest and cinnamon too. Its pretty much cake batter so you can add extras depending on what you feel like.
Method
- Add all the dry ingredients to the mug and mix.
- Then add the oil and the milk and mix.
- Add any the optional ingredients or anything you want.
- Add the vanilla essence and mix well.
- Place the mug in the microwave and heat for 2.5 minutes on 8000w.
- Take out the microwave and add some cream of ice cream.
So last week I went through the lazy comfort food phase.
Ingredients
- 1 large baking potato
- butter
- salt
- pepper
- grated cheese
- 4 mushrooms
- 1 spring onion
- 2 cloves of crushed garlic
- red chilli flakes
Method
- Pierce the potato and put it in the microwave for 10 minutes. Skin on or off - your choice.
- Finely chop the spring onion and mushrooms and fry.
- Once the potato is cooked, mash it using a potato masher.
- Spread the mashed potato evenly across the whole plate.
- Spread butter over the potato.
- Add salt and pepper.
- Grate cheese over the potato, I use a lot of cheese for this.
- Add the mushrooms, spring onions and garlic.
- Top with red chilli flakes and microwave until all the cheese is melted.
So filling.
