Elf's Kitchen | Festive Gingerbread Cookies

Happy Christmas Eve!

Here's a yummy Gingerbread Cookie recipe to give a go if your stuck for something to do!

Ingredients 

350g Plain Flour

1tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

2tsp Ground Ginger

1tsp Ground Cinnamon

125g Butter

175g Light Soft Brown Sugar

1 Egg

4tbsp Golden Syrup

~ Start by sifting the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon together in a big bowl. Add in the butter and mix together with your finger tips until you get a crumbly consistency. Then stir in the sugar.

~ Lightly beat the egg and golden syrup together then add to the mixture and combine until a dough begins to form. Wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. The longer the better as this helps the dough keep together when you roll it out later.

~ Line some trays with grease proof paper and pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4. Next up cover the side with flour and roll out the dough with your rolling pin. Use cookie cutters to cut out your cookie shapes and place on to your lined tray leave a little gab in between as they will expand while cooking. Place in the oven and bake till golden. Remove and allow to cool.

~ You can decorate them with a dusting of icing sugar or make an icing using sifted icing sugar and water. I chose to leave mine naked as I find the icing can be a bit too sweet for me and my family. And this made about a bazillion cookies (40)! 

Hope you try and enjoy! And have a very Merry Christmas! 

Jeni x

Elf's Kitchen | Chocolate Raw Bars

I go through healthy eating phases. Where I try to be as good as possible, cut out crisps and sweets and try to fill my belly with healthier fruits and vegetables. But as much as I love a handful of blueberries I still crave chocolate. Hands up all chocoholics out there!
So today I'm sharing with you a tasty recipe for Chocolate Raw Bars that are completely guilt free and taste just like chocolate brownies, yummo!

So here are your ingredients:

1 Cup    | Pitted Dates (approx: 128g)

1/2 Cup | Ground Almonds (approx: 64g)

1/3 Cup | Dried Cranberries (approx: 43g)

1/4 Cup | Cocoa Powder (approx: 32g)

1/2 tbsp | Coconut Oil

1/2 tsp   | Vanilla Flavouring

1/4 tsp   | Sea Salt

additional ingredient Almond Milk.

Start by blending your dates up in a food processor. This is the trickiest bit as the dates are super sticky. I blend them up a few at a time.

Once the dates are as blended as you can get them add in the coconut oil and vanilla flavouring. Blend a bit more then add in the remaining ingredients except for the cranberries. As you go you will need to add in a splash here and a splash there of almond milk to loosen up the mixture. 

Transfer you mixture into a bowl. You may need to stab at it with a spoon and combine the ingredients a bit more, if you have a good blender, you probably won't have to but I have a pants one so I have to.

 Then add in the cranberries and combine. Transfer the mixture into a Tupperware box lined with grease proof paper and using your fingers (trust me on this) pat down your mixture. Pop your box in the fridge and allow to set for half hour.

Once chilled you want to remove from the fridge and slice up. Its up to you how you cut them I like to do long bar like bars! Then simply wrap in cling film and store in the fridge. 

They are so yummy and its good to know there is no added sugar! 

The cocoa is much better for you than milk chocolate, the dates give you that stickyness and the cranberries add a nice sweetness. The almond milk acts as an extra glue and as its almond milk not cows milk it won't go off in your bag.

Hope you give this ago, I normally get about 7-8 bars, enough for a week.

Ciao Bella's!

Jen x

Elf's Kitchen | Chicken Katsu Curry

Hi guys! Welcome back to Elf's Kitchen! Today I'm going to be sharing with you this CHANNEL 4 recipe for Chicken Katsu Curry. You of course can just click on the link and go straight to the website from here, but I have pictures :) pictures make everything better!

This yummy curry has been made super popular by restaurants such as Wasabi and Wagamama's. With its fried chickeny goodness and mild curry sauce its an ever popular dish here in the UK. And better yet its so easy to make at home!

If you can't read my scrawl here is what your are going to need:

• 1 TBSP of Vegetable Oil
• 1 Onion, peeled and chopped
• 5 whole Garlic gloves, peeled
• 2 Carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 TBSP of Plain Flour
• 1 TBSP of Medium Curry Powder
• 600ml of Chicken Stock
• 2 TSP of Honey
• 1 TBSP of Soy Sauce
• 1 Bay Leaf
• 1/2 TSP of Garam Masala
• Salt and Pepper
• 4 Chicken Breasts
• 100g of Flour seasoned well
• 1 Egg, beaten
• 120g of Cornflakes, crushed
• Vegetable Oil to shallow fry

Start by peeling and chopping up your onion. Then peel your garlic. Heat your oil in a pan, then add in your onions and garlic, and saute for a few minutes. 

Then peel and chop up your carrots and add them in. Place the lid on top of your pan and allow to sweat for 10 minutes. You want your vegetables to begin to soften.

Measure out your flour and curry powder then add those in to the vegetables and stir in, allowing to cook for a minute.

Slowly add in your chicken stock, be sure to stir as you go to combine it with the flour and curry powder. Next add in your honey, soy and bay leaf and give it a little stir. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and allow to simmer and thicken for about 20 minutes.

Now you want to add in your salt & pepper and Garam Masala powder. Give it a good stir.

Then take it off the heat, remove the bay leaf and using a stick blender if you have one, blend everything together to get rid of all of the lumps. You'll end up with a nice soup like consistency. Place it back on a low heat just to keep warm .

Next up, preparing the chicken. You want to lay out on a plate, your seasoned flour, then in separate bowls the crushed cornflakes and whisked egg.

Start by rolling around your chicken breasts in the flour until well coated. Then dip them in to your bowl of egg making sure it is all well covered. Finally you want to place them in to your corn flakes and cover up the chicken as much as you can with the cornflakes.

Then in a frying pan you want to heat up your vegetable oil. I put in enough to completely cover the bottom and then a little extra.

What I like to do, as this helps to cook the chicken through thoroughly, is slice through it, but not all the way through, so that as it is cooking you can see whether it is still pink or not. Through out cooking you want to flip your chicken to cook both sides.

Once cooked slice all the way through and serve on a bed of sticky rice and cover with your curry sauce.

Bon Appetite!

Hope you enjoy this recipe and definitely give it ago. The cornflakes give the chicken a really nice crunch but if you prefer you can use bread crumbs instead!

Have a great day guys!

Jen x

Elf's Kitchen | BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches...yum!

So yesterday I shared a recipe for homemade BBQ sauce that goes perfectly with today's recipe! I always get so excited about making this dish. Its sooo tasty and good for the soul! This again is another FOOD NETWORK recipe and I've made it 3 times now...this is the 4th. Its seriously delish!

Lets start out with the pork rub:

In a bowl combine the following: 

~ 1 tbsp of freshly ground black pepper    

~ 1 tbsp of cayenne pepper                          

~ 1 tbsp of paprika                                  

~ 1 tbsp of ground cumin                         

~ 1 tbsp of salt                                        

~ 2 tbsp of essence (recipe to follow)      

~ 3 tbsp of soft dark brown sugar           

Recipe for the essence:

~ 2 1/2 tbsp of paprika                          

~ 2 tbsp of salt                                       

~ 2 tbsp of garlic powder/granules         

~ 1 tbsp of black pepper                       

~ 1 tbsp of onion powder                      

~ 1 tbsp of cayenne pepper                   

Pork Rub

The cut of meat that you want is pork shoulder. This is just a Sainsbury's Basic cut, 1.456kg that cost all of £4.79. But I would definitely recommend a decent cut of meat.

So once we have our pork rub made up and our pork shoulder we want to place our pork in a bowl and rub all of the rub all over the pork, into every nook and cranny.

Cover it with clingfilm....

...and place in to your fridge for a minimum of 4 hours. I like to keep it in the fridge over night, this particular piece is being kept in for 2 nights to draw in extra tasty flavour!

The next important step is the wet mop basting sauce that we will be basting our pork in during its cooking time. 

In a bowl combine in order and mixing well after each addition:

~ 1 cup of vinegar

~ 1 cup of apple cider vinegar

~ 1 tbsp of soft brown sugar

~ 1 tbsp of  Schwartz black and red pepper

~ 1 tbsp of crushed black pepper corns

~ 1 tbsp of salt

Cover up and place in the fridge until ready to use.

Method

Before we are ready to cook our meat we need to bring it up to room temperature. So take it out of the fridge and over night the meat would have released it juices and turned the pork rub in to a liquid.

Preheat the oven to 140 degrees C or gas mark 1. We are going to be slow cooking this over 7 hours.

Place your meat in a backing tray and cover with tin foil.

Every 45 minutes we will be basting the meat with the wet mop sauce. I leave it in the bowl on the side and spoon in the wet mop sauce as and when I need it.

After first basting

Continue this for your 7 hour cooking time.

Once cooking time is up remove from the oven and allow to rest for 20 to 30 minutes.

Pull the meat apart and place in a bowl. Any juices left over in your baking tray pour all over the meat. Serve up with bread rolls ( to make your sandwiches ) chips/wedges, coleslaw, corn on the cob and your homemade BBQ sauce and enjoy your meaty feast!

Next time I do this I'm going to have a go with a brisket. If you try this let me know! I was also told repeatedly by my boyfriend that it was spicy, I didn't think it really was but if you have milder tastes like him be warned!

Enjoy!

Jeni x

Elf's Kitchen | Homemade BBQ Sauce

Hi guys,

I thought I'd share something a little bit different today! I'm going to share a homemade BBQ sauce recipe that I got from THE FOOD NETWORK (I have edited it slightly). It goes perfectly with pulled pork which I'm going to share with you tomorrow!

I got this fancy pants Kilner storage jar from Sainsbury's for £3

So lets get started, here's what your going to need:

• 1 small onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 & 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
• 3 x 1/4 cups of soft dark brown sugar

• 60ml vinegar (in hindsight it would probably be better to use Apple Cider Vinegar, maybe next time!)
• 680g Tomato Ketchup which is a whole one of these bottles
• 250ml Apple Juice

Start by slicing up your onion into relatively small cubes

Roughly chop up your 3 cloves of garlic

Place your onions, garlic, chilli flakes, salt, pepper and cumin into a large saucepan and cook until soft

Like so...

Add in your 3 1/4 cups of soft dark brown sugar and mix together

Add in all of your tommy K and give it a really good stir

Pour in your apple juice and again give it a good mix together

Next up add in the vinegar...

...1 & 1/2 teaspoons of mustard powder...

...And then I added in some of my favourite Schwartz Black and Red pepper for an extra kick!

Once all mixed together, bring to the boil and then let it simmer for 20-30 minutes. Either use straight away or allow to cool and then transfer into a container and pop in the fridge. 

A Voila!

BBQ sauce!

Keep stored in your fridge for 2 weeks, I guarantee it will be gone by then!

Hope you enjoyed this post!

Jeni x