Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye
Food Writer
I’m excited to tell you soon all about the evening we spent at Leiths School of Food and Wine, trying out the ASDA Extra Special Easter range, but in the meantime, I’m pleased to announce that the winner of the Extra Special Hamper packed to the brim with goodies is Deborah Davies in Wales.
Congratulations Deborah – I hope you have a great Easter.
Look out for my current Easter Giveaway for your chance to win a Hotel Chocolat Your Eggscellency Extra Thick Easter Egg.
I’m very excited about this giveaway. Firstly, because this Extra Special Hamper by ASDA is packed full of goodies that will more than keep one lucky winner happy over the Easter holidays. Secondly, because next week I am going to get to cook with some of this range with the chefs at Leiths School of Food and Wine, so I’m looking forward to reporting back on that, too. A team of chefs at Leiths have been working very closely with ASDA in order to taste and develop new lines for the Extra Special range, which is great because it means that chefs at Leiths get experience of product and food development and can go on into careers using those skills, whilst ASDA gets the expertise and Leiths input into quality – making the Extra Special range extra special!
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My childhood was punctuated by banana splits. I can remember the exact café, with its white painted walls and sandy floors at the Warren Beach in North Wales. It was always sunny, we were always hot, and we always ordered a banana split. Fast-forward a number of years (ahem) and when challenged to re-create a favourite childhood ice cream flavour or experience, the memories instantly came flooding back. We still go to the same part of Wales now, though the café is no longer there and I can’t remember the last time I ordered a banana split, or even one for the kids. These days its all about the milkshakes or the Twisters or the Mr Whippy drizzled with bright red raspberry syrup. Although I also remember Slushpuppies and the Screwballs and Funny Feet and the sound of the ice cream van as it came down my grandmother’s street…
One spoonful of this one reminded me why there are so good. The glacé cherries in Maraschino syrup on top, the soft ice-cream, the lightly whipped, or even better, squirty cream and plenty of chocolate sauce. There’s no recipe as such here, this one is pure nostalgia and a bit of an assembly job. Although the malted milk ice-cream I made for Kavey’s first challenge was delicious here, drizzled with that quick-to-make, sweet and caramelly Mars Bar sauce.
What was your favourite childhood ice-cream or flavour? Maybe you have time to join in with Kavey’s challenge too!
Another lovely month of family friendly recipes here. Thank you so much to everyone who linked up. There were a few favourites for me this month, bookmarked to make soon. Scroll down to see who won!
Here’s the February round up:
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Thank you to everyone who entered the Hello Fresh UK Giveaway for a week’s worth of fresh suppers!
I’m pleased to announce that the winner is Lucy Zelazowski.
Well done Lucy, I hope you enjoy cooking!
Congratulations to the recent winners on Fabulicious Food –
Sarah Cooper winner – Kit Kat Chunky Super-Stash
Vicky Haddock winner – William Curely Chocolate Book
Your prizes are on their way.
Thank you to everyone who entered.
There’s a new foodie-inspired business in London-town, called Hello Fresh, setting out to make life easier for those living in the capital and within the M25. As I’m just outside the M25, I haven’t been able to try Hello Fresh myself yet. However, I am able to offer a giveaway of a one-week trial (worth £49.00) for one lucky winner in the London area.
HelloFresh is essentially a food delivery business. They send you healthy recipes (recipe card shown below with step-by-step photos) and all the ingredients you need to prepare your dinner for a week. So, they take care of your meal planning, do the shopping for you and deliver it all ready-to-go.
It is home-cooking, with some of the leg-work already done for you – all you have to do is choose how many meals a week you want and cook!
So, for example, your household size can be 2, 4, or 6 people and you can select 3 meals per week or five meals per week.
Here are some example recipes:
My Thai Green Curry with Chicken Sweet Potato and Basmati Rice (shown on recipe card below)
The Emperor’s Chocolate Chili con Carne
The Princess and the Pea, Mint and Goat’s Cheese Risotto
Neck of Lamb, Thyme, Mushrooms and Cannellini Beans
I have one £49 package to offer to one lucky reader in London/M25 (equivalent to 5 meals for 2 people) to be delivered on a Monday evening.
To be in with a chance of winning –
1. Follows HelloFreshUK on Twitter and leave me a comment to tell me you are doing so, with your Twitter username
2. Copy and Tweet: “I have entered to win healthy food bags from @HelloFreshUK via #FabuliciousFood”
3. Follow me @RenBehan on Twitter and/or “Like” Fabulicious Food on Facebook – leave a comment here to tell me that you have done so
4. Follow Fabulicious Food! on Networked Blogs for a final bonus entry, just let me know you are doing so.
You can enter this competition via any of the four ways described above but please leave me a separate comment for each time you have entered to make it easier to count your individual entries. No details of any of the entrants will be passed onto anyone else (apart from the winner’s address.)
YOU MUST LIVE WITHIN THE M25 in LONDON
The winner will be chosen by an online randomiser. I will be able to see your email and contact you if you have won, but your email will not be visible to the public and will NOT be passed on.
Closing date: Tuesday 28th February (for delivery on Monday 5th March 2012 between 5pm and 9pm)
Thank you to Hello Fresh UK for offering this prize.
Thank you for all your entries to the recent Hotel Chocolat giveaway to win the Open Your Heart to Me selection.
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WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT : Sarah Cooper @SarahJLCooper
Here’s a little bit of fun for a Sunday evening. I’ve been busy sampling the four new Kit Kat Chunky Limited Edition flavours to help me chose my favourite so I can vote for my Kit Kat Chunky Champion!
The four new flavours in the range are – Chunky Orange, Chunky White Choc, Chunky Peanut Butter and Chunky Double Choc.
The good news – you could win your own super-stash too! Warning: You will need to clear some space out in one of your kitchen cupboards!
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As you may have already realised by now, I am a little bit partial to a nice bit of chocolate. It is the one thing I couldn’t live without and it would certainly be something I’d request if I was stranded on a desert island. Although if I was really lucky, I’d get stranded on the island of St Lucia and would go and seek out Hotel Chocolat’s Cocoa Plantation on The Rabot Estate. I’m dreaming again…
Anyway, as you might have also noticed, it’s that time of year again when we get to think about Valentine’s Day gifts and so I’ve been busy sampling some of Hotel Chocolat’s collection, in particular the Open Your Heart To Me dreamy chocolate heart filled with a selection of milk, dark and white chocolate mini hearts. It’s priced at £25.00 RRP, which for Valentine’s Day, I think is reasonable.
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Welcome to the first round-up of Family Friendly Fridays! There was a fairly even amount of entries between Simple and in Season and our new Family Friendly Fridays event here on Fabulicious Food! All in all, plenty of inspiration for seasonal as well as quick and easy cooking across the two events. Thank you so much to everyone for linking up. I’ve really enjoyed reading the posts and recipes and even discovering a few new blogs.
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Thank you so much to everyone who entered the latest Giveaway on Fabulicious Food! to win aMasala Dabba Authentic Indian Cookery Set by The Three Sisters. There must be some really keen cooks out there as there was a great response!
I’m very pleased to announce that the winner is:
Solange I have contacted you via Twitter to let you know.
Congratulations! The Spice Kit will be on its way to you.
Look out for more giveaways on Fabulicious Food! coming soon.
I am easing myself gently into the new blogging year, cooking comforting food and not getting too stressed about health kicks or the latest fad diet on offer. I’ve also been enjoying dipping into a couple of the new books gracing my shelves, including Hugh’s River Cottage Veg Everyday and Tasting India by Christine Manfield, which I’ll be reviewing shortly. Just before Christmas, following a crash-course in how to cook a Lamb Keema with my friend Harjit, I also treated myself to my very own Masala Spice Tin, which you’ll find in every authentic Indian kitchen and beyond. It really is a wonderful way to store your spices and the fact that my tin is out on the counter means that I am more encouraged to use spices in every day meals.
As a nice way to welcome 2012, I’d like to offer one of my readers the chance to win a spice set, complete with a variety of spices as well an easy-to-use Indian recipe book by The Three Sisters. Whether you are a keen cook, love curries or just want to add a few twists here and there to everyday recipes, I’m sure you’ll love this set as much as I do. The spice tin, spices and cook book are worth £49.99 RRP.
The Spice Set includes –
- An authentic, custom made stainless steel Masala Dabba Spice Box, with a transparent lid, a spice spoon, 8 canisters and one large central container with four sections.
- The individual spice cannisters also have individual transparent lids to keep the spices in the best condition, the spice tin is also air tight.
- All the canisters are also individually engraved, in total including 13 spices
- All the recipes in the cook book can be prepared using the spices provided in the set, just buy the fresh ingredients
- The starter spices inside the kit include coriander, cumin, chillli, fennel, garam masala, ginger, turmeric, bay leaves, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, cumin seeds and mustard seeds.
You have three chances:
- Follow me @RenBehan on Twitter and leave me a comment to tell me you have done so or are already doing so with your Twitter handle so I can follow you back
- Pop over to the Fabulicious Food! Facebook page and leave me a comment here to tell me you have done so or already do
- Re-Tweet this sentence “I’ve entered to win a Masla Dabba Spice Set by The Three Sisters via @RenBehan at Fabulicious Food!”
You can enter this competition via any or all of the three ways described above, but please leave me a separate comment for each time you have entered. No details of any of the entrants will be passed onto anyone else.
This giveaway is open to all UK readers.
Good Luck!
NB This prize is sponsored by Fabulicious Food! although a small discount was offered as I purchased two sets. One for me, one for one of you!
The very fact that I am sitting here on Christmas Eve morning blogging means that everything is ready, packed, wrapped and prepared for Christmas. Except that it isn’t. I’m just about to go and help set the table ready in preparation for our huge Polish Christmas Eve celebration meal later on today and in between all of that there are still presents to exchange and people to see!
But just before things really get going, I wanted to share my last post of the season, mainly to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, full of tasty treats, good health and happiness. I would also like to thank you all for reading and supporting Fabulicious Food! this year and for being here to share all of my foodie adventures with me.
Here are a couple of very quick ideas for some of my favourite cocktails and canapés, in case you are hosting or entertaining over the holidays. Over the festive period, we’ll be having smoked salmon blinis and sticky sausages, washed down with a Polish Martini and a Cherry Brandy and Babycham or two.
Sneaking in a quick post also means that I can join in with the tenth Forever Nigella over at Maison Cupcake. It does, of course, have a festive feel to it as the challenge is called Christmas Presence. As Nigella says, “A party just isn’t a party without a sticky sausage or three” and I agree! 
Scottish Birch and Juniper Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Blinis
Ingredients:
1 packet of Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Responsibly Sourced Scottish Birch and Juniper Smoked Salmon
1 x packet canapé blinis
1/2 packet cream cheese
A few sprigs of fresh dill
Method:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Place the blinis on a baking tray and cook them for 4 minutes.
2. Leave them to cool a touch and then spread a small amount of cream cheese on each one. Lay a piece of smoked salmon across the top and garnish with a sprig of dill.
Polish Martini Cocktail
I first had one of these at the bar of my favourite restaurant Baltic in Blackfriars. The original calls for Krupnik, which is a Polish Honey Vodka. As it is very difficult to get in the UK, instead I add half a teaspoon of runny honey, but you have to shake the cocktail well in order for the honey to dissolve. Both vodkas are available at larger supermarkets.
1 part Polish vodka, such as Wyborowa or Luksusowa
2 parts Żubrówka, Polish Bison Grass Vodka
1/2 teaspoon runny honey
4 parts apple juice, cloudy, such as Copella or Innocent
A few cubes of ice
1 star anise to decorate
Add the vodka, honey, apple juice and ice to a cocktail shaker. Shake really well, strain into a martini glass and place a star anise in each glass to decorate.
Nigella’s Cranberry and Soy Glazed Cocktail Sausages
(Adapted from Nigella’s Christmas – Entry for Forever Nigella
Ingredients:
120g cranberry sauce
60ml soy sauce
Juice of half an orange
50 cocktails sausages
The original recipe calls for the addition of Thai chilli sauce, but I prefer to just double the quantity of cranberry sauce. I made my own this year, so I just used that. I didn’t have any limes or clementines to hand so I just used the juice of half an orange.
Method:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
2. Mix the cranberry sauce with the soy sauce and orange juice. Pour over the sausages making sure they are all well coated.
3. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, giving them a little mix half way through. Serve and enjoy!
Cherry Brandy and Babycham Cocktail
I also found all the ingredients at Sainsbury’s. If you can’t find any Babycham, use sparkling wine or Prosecco instead.
2 parts Cherry Brandy
2 parts Babycham Sparkling Perry
1 cocktail cherry on a stick
No method really, pour it all in a glass and use your cherry on a stick to mix!
For festive sweet treats pop along and read some of my previous posts –
Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cupcakes
Thank you to everyone who entered the Maxim All Purpose measuring Jug Giveaway by FindMeaGift.co.uk
The winner is Dorothee – @Dorothee77
Please contact me with your postal address so that your prize can be sent out to you.
If you enjoy baking and cooking then a good set of measuring scales is an important piece of kit in the kitchen. Before I started blogging, I had a much more relaxed approach to cooking, usually I’d throw things in and measure by eye. But since I now write recipes down as well as test them, accuracy is important. The one thing I have also realised, is that it is handy to have a back-up set of scales. Example in question, a few weeks ago I began the process of making macaroons for the first time (precision weighing required) and the battery on my scales died. Annoying, to say the least.
Anyway, I now have a stock of the correct sized batteries and a new digital weighing/measuring jug, which I am happy with, particularly as it is multi-purpose and doesn’t take up too much extra room.
The Good Points of the All Purpose Measuring Jug
- You can weigh your flour, sugar and dry ingredients as well as measure out liquids in one jug
- Weight meaurement: It weighs in grams, ounces and pounds
- Volume Measurement: It measures in ml, cups and fluid ounces
- Mixing: When a recipe calls for several ingredients (as they often do) it allows you to use a tare function (the ingredients stay in the jug but the display goes back to zero)
The Less Good Points of the All Purpose Measuring Jug
- It is not dishwasher safe (it is only a matter of time before it gets automatically thrown in)
- You have to be ultra careful when washing it to ensure no water gets into the battery or mechanics (this is the case with all electronic kitchen gadgets)
Things to keep in mind: the jug has to be completely flat and stable before it will work properly. If it is not completely flat, or you switch it on whilst waving it around in your hand, the display will read ‘UnSt’ meaning Unstable.
Since I have more and more American and Australian cookery books, this jug is a useful piece of equipment to have to hand. I have found it to be more accurante than using measuring cups. It would also be a good gift for someone who has limited space in their kitchen.
******************GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED******************
This giveaway is open to all UK readers.
Note: This is a commissioned review. The measuring jug was sent to me by Find-me-a-Gift.co.uk A second jug has been offered to one of my readers as a giveaway prize. The jug is worth £19.99.
Thank you so much to everyone for entering the recent giveaways on Fabulicious Food! I’ve just returned from an amazing trip to France, for a stay at the home of Martell in Cognac where we had an amazing gourmet adventure. I just wanted to announce the latest winners, before takling the back-log and writing up my trip.
The winners are:
1. Hotel Chocolat Christmas Basket – Phyllis Ellett, Great Yarmouth
I hope you enjoy this selection.
2. Knorr and Forman and Field Christmas Hamper – Aga Girls, Edinburgh
Thank you to everybody who entered, particularly for all your creative comments and ideas for what to do with the box – there were some really amazing ideas!
Well done to the winners. Keep a look out for another great recipe tomorrow for Family Friendly Fridays, lots more about my adventures in Cognac (and with cognac!) and more next week…
This weekend I have another great Christmas giveaway for you, this time for The Classic Christmas Basket from the Hotel Chocolat Christmas gift range, which I was also sent to try. I have to say, that I always consider Hotel Chocolat to be ‘special occasion chocolate’ and Christmas is the perfect time of year to pop something a little bit classy under the tree. It’s fair to say that The Classic Christmas Basket isn’t cheap, but then again, Hotel Chocolate have placed themselves in the ‘luxury chocolate gifts’ end of the spectrum and have built up a reputation of producing chocolate of exceptional quality, grown and sourced ethically.
Christmas really did arrive early for me this week when I received a seasonal hamper from Knorr UK and British online gourmet food company Forman and Field. The box was huge and was filled to the brim with seasonal and Christmas treats for me to cook with, including a 5KG Kelly Bronze Turkey worth £73.95 and all the trimmings as well as some truly luxurious items such as London cure Scottish smoked salmon and Keta caviar. This is the fourth box that I’ve received this year, all tied into our meeting with Marco Pierre White back in May during which he showed us how to cook easy and tasty food using Knorr products and fresh seasonal produce. Thank you so much to Knorr for sending me this wonderful seasonal produce.
I have an exclusive recipe to share from Marco for a fruity left-over Christmas Turkey Curry (Get your Bridget Jones and Mr Darcy Christmas jumpers at the ready!) I’ll be posting separately about this as well as sharing some of Marco’s top tips for the festive period in the run up to Christmas. There are also plenty of other recipes and videos on the Knorr website and top tips, including this great post about cooking with seasonal squash.
In the meantime, Knorr and Foreman and Field have very kindly offered me a second goodie box to giveaway to one of my readers – so one of you will be as lucky as me!
Here’s what came in my box , the winning box will be similar but the exact contents are not guaranteed:
Knorr UK and Forman & Field Gourmet Seasonal Box
London Cured Sliced Salmon 200g
Keta Caviar 100g
Kelly Bronze 4-5KG Turkey (serves 8-10)
Trimmings Pack (serves 6)
Colston Bassett Stilton 500g
Assorted Seasonal Vegetables
2 Knorr Chicken Stock Pots and the fresh ingredients for Marco’s Turkey Curry
(Buttter, Double Cream, Fruit (pineapple, apples, banana) an Onion, Curry powder and coconut)
1. Tell me what you’d cook with the contents of your box and leave me a comment to tell me you’ve done so.
2. Follow Forman and Field on Twitter and let me know you have done so.
3. Follow Fabulicious Food! either on Twitter, Facebook or via Google Friend Connect (receive a bonus entry for each follow) Just leave me a comment to say you are doing so.
4. Copy and paste this line into a Tweet “I would love to win the Knorr and Forman and Field Gourmet Hamper on Fabulicious Food #MPWKnorr”
IMPORTANT INFO:
Knorr UK will be responsible for sending the prize out to the winner who will be chosen by an online randomiser.
The competiton closes on Wednesday 30th November at midnight UK time. The winner will be contacted by email and must respond by 1st December 2011. An announcement post will be published on the same day.
The winner must have a UK address and BE AT HOME to sign for this parcel on Wednesday 7th December 2011
GOOD LUCK!
Thank you to everyone who entered The Moro Cookery Book Collection giveaway.
I’m pleased to announce that the winner of the collection is Janice – @Serialcrafter.
I have contacted you via Twitter.
I am delighted to announce that the winner of the Crock-Pot Slow Cooker is Alex Hamilton. I have emailed you to let you know!
Thank you to everyone who entered.
There’s still time to win the amazing Moro cookery book collection…
It’s always exciting to start the day with a fantastic giveaway and I think this one is perfect for a cold and rainy winter morning! My slow cooker is on already and this evening we’ll be tucking into a wonderful leek, lamb and pearl barley stew – one of our favourites.
Winter cooking speaks to me most of warming of soups and stews, with warming curries and chillis, padded out with beans, pulses or lentils, being very high on my comfort list. This is the time of year that my Crock-Pot Slow Cooker gets used the most, although really, this piece of kitchen kit is extremely handy at any time of the year for anyone who wants to let something else do all the hard work for you. With our time becomming increasingly pinched, the slow cooker has made something of a comeback. Although there are other makes, Crock-Pot are one of the leading brands in this arena, offering now a whole range of slow cookers to meet our needs, including manual cookers with clip on lids, programmable cookers with timers and some that can be used on direct heat, such as the Sauté slow cooker.
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We’ve reached the last day in October and today is All Hallows’ Eve so Happy Halloween to all! I can’t quite believe how quickly October has flown by, I almost needed a bit longer as I don’t think I’m quite ready for it to be November yet! The clocks went back an hour this weekend and we’ve officially waved good bye to ‘British Summer Time’ and are now firmly into winter!
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