My moment of Baking fame!

Karen's Rococo chocolate cake

I apologize for my absence on this blog for the last couple of weeks, i've had a lot going on lately and quite a few things to think about, but that is no reason to neglect my beloved blog so i'm back : ). On one particular day, my dear friend Matt made my day when he put my chocolate Rococo cake on his restaurant menu as a weekend special, his chef re-created it and in the picture it looks exactly like mine. I was even more delighted when i heard people were asking for seconds! I am one very proud baker! Thank you Matt and the rest of your team : )

Happy new year!

Happy new Year to all my readers!!

It's been a few weeks since i updated this blog, i mostly spent my time back home in London with friends and family. There wasn't a whole lot of cooking going on either, not as much as i would have liked anyway, two weeks just seemed to rush by and in the madness of Christmas and New year's there just wasn't enough hours in the day.

I did enjoy my Christmas with family, i loved catching up with everyone, sitting around eating chocolates, watching bad Christmas television with a few good Christmas movies, shopping for and wrapping presents, and the food! It's like a week long food marathon, but it was all wonderful. New year's eve was a family gathering at my parents home, it was very relaxed and joyful, i couldn't have asked for a better holiday season, for me it really is about the people who make it special, when everyone i love is around me i know it's going to be amazing.

I did get round to making some dark chocolate and orange brownies, almond biscotti, gingerbread, apple berry crumble and the best bread i've ever made, Chorizo and thyme fougasse.

Unfortunately there aren't any photographs for this post, after months of struggling on my camera has finally died on me, so i'm looking into getting another one very soon! It's a shame because i was really proud of my fougasse and it's shape and i wanted to show it off...maybe next time.

For the gingerbread i used the recipe from Emma of  http://www.poiresauchocolat.net/, this is such a fantastic blog, Emma's recipes are beautiful as is her writing do take a look when you have a moment.
The gingerbread was moist, sticky and spicy, it was a hit with everyone.

I hope you are all having a good start to the year, the first few days of January are exciting but also a little scary ( in my case) all the things that may unfold this year, the lessons that will be learned and the success achieved, most importantly i will love my loved ones even more and i will continue to thank God for all my blessings.

Karen

My cook book Christmas Wish list

My top ten eye candy in the Baking department this Christmas....

1. Making cupcakes with Lola

2. Vegan cupcakes take over the world

3. Miette bakery cookbook

4.  Laduree : sucre: the recipes

5. The cupcake diaries

6. Make, bake, love

7. Desserts from the famous loveless cafe

8. Tea with Bea

9. Baking from my home to yours

10 . The boy who bakes

Spicy spaghetti with merguez sausage

My new food find is Merguez sausage, it's a skinny lamb sausage with a mix of hot peppery spices, a north African speciality. When i bought half a kilo from the local meat market i went about discovering different ways to cook and eat these delicious sausages. One of the dishes i made was chicken legs, potatoes, merguez sausage, red onion seasoned with sea salt, black pepper, oregano, and a little orange zest sprinkled on top, all baked in the oven in one dish for 1 hour 15 mins, simple and delicious and full of flavour and juices  just waiting to be mopped up with some crusty bread.
Another dish was fried red onion, red pepper and sausage eaten all wrapped up in a warm soft tortilla, add a nice green salad and you've got an easy lunch!
On the third day ( you'd think by now i'd be sick of them but i really wasn't, when i find new food i literally eat it everyday until my next find!) i decided i wanted pasta with my sausage, so this is the recipe that was putting it self together in my mind and it turned out just as i hoped, hot and fiery.

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Spicy spaghetti with merguez sausage

1 large red pepper cut into strips

1 medium red onion, finely chopped  

1 tomatoe, peeled and diced

2 cloves of garlic,crushed

2-3 merguez sausage per person

2 tbsp passata/tomatoe puree

2 tbsp olive oil

salt

pepper

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp chilli powder

1/3 cup of water

Spaghetti

1. Mix 1 tbsp of the olive oil into the sliced red peppers, place on a baking sheet and bake on 200f for 25 mins until the peppers are charred.

2. Add the remaining olive oil to a large cooking pan and cook the finely chopped red onions for 5 minutes on a medium heat, until softened.

3. Add the crushed garlc to the onions and continue cooking until both have turned a light golden colour. 

4. Use 2-3 merguez sausage per person and chop into bite size pieces, mix into the onions and garlic and cook until the sausage has browned. 

5. Add the passata/puree into the pan with the tomatoe and 1/cup of water with all the spices,salt and lots of pepper. Give it all a gentle stir and cover and cook on low for 30 mins.

6.After 30 minutes add the roasted red peppers ( with charred skin removed) Turn off the heat. Cook your spaghetti in slightly salted water, according to instructions.

7. Drain the spaghetti and mix into the sauce for 1 minute on a low heat.

8. Serve immediately, with an extra sprinkling of  fresh black pepper.

You can omit the chilli powder and pepper if your looking for a milder dish, or add more to spice it up as you like. I used lots of pepper and the sauce was packed with heat, perfect on a cold night.

Sunshine makes it all better

What started out as a chilly morning soon turned into a gloriously sunny summer-esque afternoon, that's a rare sight for me in winter. Of course i've seen the winter sun shining in London through teary eyes as the icy cold wind hits your face and numbs every part of you, but this was different. The air was warm, when the sun touched your skin it felt just like a summer day in July, everything sparkled and looked so alive.

It was also the day of another failed recipe attempt, something that's become quite common in the past few days and got me a little down. I always feel comfortable in the kitchen and confident that i know what i'm doing with the ingredient in front of me, and then the end result is the complete opposite i've what i was expecting and i wonder...how did i get it SO wrong?!

I know this sounds like i'm just feeling sorry for myself or having my own pity party, but i just get so down when something i've spent time creating with high hopes just utterly fails, it's happened two days in a row, one time on a recipe that i make literally every other week, even the sous-chef asked me if everything was ok. Maybe i'm just trying too hard and complicating something that is best left simple and in it's original form or perhaps i have too high expectations in my mind of what something should look and taste like...or i could just be bad at it? What ever the reason it's certainly got me thinking as you can see, why am i not like one of these people who can laugh it off and then later at a dinner party bring it up much to everyone's amusement? am i being too sensitive?

Mistakes and failures ( what ever you want to call them) happen, i'm sure everyone out there as had more than one disaster in the kitchen in their time, i'm sure their able to laugh about it, maybe they feel a little of what i'm feeling inside them but they don't show it...

So here's me facing the failure and the countless ones made in the past and to come in the future, putting it behind me, sitting in the sunshine eating a bowl of sweet and juicy clementines.

And everything is alright.

Cold comforts

My trip to London didn't quite go according to plan ( of course ), not as much cooking, photographing and baking taking place as i had hoped. I felt so short of time and had so many friends and family i wanted to catch up with, birthdays were celebrated which meant a whole lot of cake! And then i caught a cold, that cold that you get once a year, usually in this time, the one that really knocks it out of you and lingers for days and days, i'm sure you all know that feeling.

Since arriving back in Marrakech it's just been me and my bed, i wanted to make soup for myself but i didn't have the equipment to make it which brings me to the recipe for this post. As i was flicking through my few books i remembered to bring from London i found the recipe for Ratatouille in 'French women don't get fat' by Mireille Guiliano. I've talked about this book here before, it really is very good and not really a diet book at all but more of a new way of eating and enjoying the pleasures of food. The book includes simple French recipes that are nutrionally balanced, low in calories and very easy to put together.

When i  made the Ratatouille from this book before it turned out just as the book said it would, more of a soup with the juices coming from the vegetables. To achieve this result it's all about slow cooking, having remembered this recipe and how easy it was to prepare i went about making it yesterday. The recipe can give you 3 meals, if you wish you can half it too but i think it's just as tasty the next day, all you need to complete your meal is warm crusty bread and a drizzling of olive oil. ( Sorry no pictures for this post :( )

Ratatouille

1.5kg tomatoes

1.5kg courgettes

1.5kg aubergines

12 garlic cloves

1 bunch of basil

salt and pepper

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1. Use an equal amount of tomatoes,courgettes and aubergine. Wash and cut into thick slices.

2.Using a large pot, make layers starting with the aubergine, then the tomatoes and finally the courgettes, in between each layer and garlic cloves and the basil. Repeat until the pot is filled, season with salt and pepper. 

3. cover and cook over a very low heat for 2 hours.

4. Serve after 20 minutes ( at room temperature) at this stage the ratatouille is more of a soup with  the liquid coming from the vegetables. Season with salt and pepper and olive oil.

And off to London i go..

So i arrived back in London last night, to see my family and friends for a few days, Birthdays to celebrate and lots of eating and cooking to be done! I can't describe how nice it is to be surrounded by those familiar old comforts, to be back in my old room, be pampered and enjoy mum's cooking, it's such a warm feeling, especially now with the Christmas lights up, London looks so beautifully lit up and festive. After a slightly stressful few days, ( my laptop breaking down on me, my plane ticket being delayed and a few other problems i won't bore you with the details of) this is a welcome break and a chance to just enjoy some quality time with the people i love. That doesn't mean i'm not missing Marrakech, i always feel sad leaving even if it's just for a few days, but i think that happens to us all at some point, that feeling of being so connected to two different places that are a huge part of you.

Hopefully i'll be showing off the new dishes i have learned to cook in Marrakech, if my days go according to plan, which they very rarely do, and making some old favourites like cakes and crumbles and pies that i haven't had the advantage to bake in Marrakech, oh and a nice cup of tea!