Tag: recipes

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Odlums: Keep the kids busy with this quick and easy Queen Cakes recipe. Decorating them is the really fun part!

odlums queen cakes for kids

Queen Cakes, Fairy Cakes or Buns

CategoryBaking with Kids

Cook Time15 mins

What you need:

  • 175g/6oz Odlums Self Raising Flour
  • 125g/4oz Shamrock Golden Caster Sugar
  • 125g/4oz Butter or Margarine (half a block)
  • 2 Eggs
  • 2 tablespoons Cold Water

To decorate

  • Glacé Icing or Chocolate Spread
  • Hundreds and Thousands
  • Glacé Cherries
  • Sweets

How to:

  1. Ensure oven is fully preheated to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6.
  2. Next, put bun paper cases into bun tins.
  3. Put the flour, sugar, butter/margarine, eggs and water into a bowl. Beat all the ingredients together with an electric mixer or wooden spoon until the mixture is smooth.
  4. Put heaped teaspoons of the mixture into each bun case.
  5. Place in the oven on the top shelf and bake for about 15 minutes until golden brown.
  6. Cool on a wire tray. When cold, decorate as liked with your favourite toppings.

https://www.odlums.ie/recipes/queen-cakes-fairy-cakes-or-bun

 

Posted on

Darina Allen’s Sea Spinach Soup

 

darina allen sea spinach soup

Sea Spinach Soup

Sea spinach is at its sweetest and most delicious at present…. I absolutely love it and really want you to know about it so if you live near a rocky strand, look out for it – the shiny green leaves are unmistakable. It is, in fact, the ancestor to most cultivated varieties of beet, from beetroot to spinach beet. It can be cooked exactly like garden spinach and used in the same way, for example, try serving it in Middle Eastern style with raisins and pine kernels and a touch of cinnamon. Not surprisingly, because sea spinach is washed by the tides, it is full of iodine, minerals and other trace elements and it has an addictive salty tang. Sea spinach is tougher and slightly stronger in flavour than garden spinach, so it takes a little longer to cook.

The trick with these green soups is not to add the greens until the last minute, otherwise they will overcook and the soup will lose its fresh taste and bright green colour.

50g (2oz/1/2 stick) butter

110g (4oz/1 cup) onion, chopped

150g (5oz/1 cup) potatoes, chopped

600ml (1 pint/2 1/2 cups) homemade chicken stock, vegetable stock or water

425-600ml (3/4-1 pint/2 – 2 1/2 cups) creamy milk (1/4 cream and 3/4 milk)

salt and freshly ground pepper

225-350g (8-12oz/3 cups) sea spinach, destalked and chopped

Freshly ground nutmeg

‍

Garnish

2 tablespoons (2 American tablespoons + 2 teaspoons) whipped cream (optional

Freshly chopped parsley

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. When it foams add the onions and potatoes and turn them until well coated. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper. Cover and sweat on a gentle heat for 10 minutes. Add the boiling stock and milk, bring back to the boil and simmer until the potatoes and onions are fully cooked. Add the sea spinach and boil with the lid off for about 3-5 minutes, until the sea spinach is tender. Do not overcook or the soup will lose its fresh green colour.

Liquidise and taste and add some freshly grated nutmeg.  Serve in warm bowls garnished with a blob of whipped cream and some chopped parsley

Ballymaloe Cookery
@BallymaloeCS