recipe. chicken noodles

I just made a quick, from scratch, lunch and it was so nice and because I made it up on the spot. I thought I shall probably just record it somewhere. So i'm recording it here. 

The ingredients for one person, although there was a bit left over :

One chicken breast, 

one pack of straight to wok noodles, some vegetables, approximately two handfuls, 

chinese five spice, 

soy sauce, 

oil, 

honey, 

crunchy chilli oil

Method

Slice the chicken, sprinkle it with a teaspoon or two of Chinese five spice. Add about a tablespoon full of soy sauce and stir it up.

Fry the chicken for about 10 minutes, turning it frequently. Then add the vegetables. Continue cooking, add a dessert, spoonful of honey. I used hot chilli honey, but you can use any kind. Sprinkle a little bit more soy sauce carry on stirring when the veg and the meat are cooked, add the noodles. Stir a bit more. Add a good heaped teaspoonful of crispy. chilli oil. 

Serve. 

Delicious.  

Cookie recipe - no life story

I made cookies. You can too. Here is the recipe and method.

Ingredients

• 100g/4oz butter, softened
• 100g/4oz light muscovado sugar
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml - though my antique ones are twice that!) golden syrup
• 150g/6oz self raising flour
• chocolate chips/ chocolate buttons

Method

Heat the oven. 180 degrees C, Gas 4, 160 degrees C for a fan oven

Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until light and creamy.

Add the syrup and beat that in.

Work in half the flour.

Stir in the choc chips and the rest of the flour.

Work into a dough with your fingers, form the dough into 14 balls.

Places the balls on a baking tray, spaced well apart, do not flatten them!

Bake for 12 - 14 minutes until flat and the edges are a pale gold.

Cool on a wire rack.

Apparently you can store them for 4 days, you won't want to! 

Sweet potato and lentil (vegan) soup

Here is a nice warming soup for the whole family to enjoy. It's vegan but feel free to add bacon bits or cheese if you fancy.

It's cheap and cheerful, healthy, colourful and tasty.

All you need are some sweet potatoes, an onion, vegetable stock (a stock cube is fine), green lentils and some oil.

First chop the onion, I add some garlic too, then fry that until soft in the oil (I used coconut oil)
then pop half a cup of green lentils into another pan to boil in about 2 cups of water.

Peel and dice the sweet potato, add it to the softened onion, add a pint and a half of vegetable stock and let it simmer in a lidded pan.

Once the potato is soft, blend it until it's smooth (a cheap stick blender is perfect for this)  then add the lentils.

I like to serve mine with cheese, because while my daughter is a vegan, I'm not - I think crispy bacon would be good with this too. Otherwise, sprinkle with chilli flakes and serve. Yum.

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A Carnivore's Guide to Living with a Vegan

Remember how cool I was when my daughter came out as gay? Well, after all, what changes? Nothing much, different choices in Valentine's day card purchases, but that's about it.  But when Raffy came out as vegan..well that's a whole new ball game!

When I, a confirmed omnivore favouring bacon and steak above almost any other food except cheese, was told by my daughter that her moving toward vegetarianism, and her lifelong loathing of cheese had taken the dark turn into the land of the vegan, I was stunned.

Raffy is 18 but she still lives with us, I'm still her mum, and I still have to ensure she eats well and we buy foods she likes (did I mention teens are as fussy as toddlers?)

So I set her the task of finding foods that

• are cheap
• are easy to make
• are easy to find in shops
• she liked

This was no mean task as it turned out. But here we are a few weeks in and she remains alive. I am still relatively sane and we all seem to be eating a bit more healthily (I'm still eating bacon and cheese sandwiches, fear not)

Our larder now carries a few extra 'staples' along with bread and baked beans. We are no longer restocking up on tuna, tinned chilli and most biscuits, even some crisps have had to be refused larder entry. But on the plus side we now have lentils (red and green) tins of chick peas, tins of mixed beans, tins of butter beans and lots of rice. We also have vegan gnocchi, pasta and peanut butter.

I found several websites listing 'accidentally vegan' foods, one even specialising in vegan snacks, perfect for a teen that constantly raids the larder bewteen meals. So far a favourite savoury snack is Yushoi pea snacks, and on the sweet menu Aldi Paleo bars and several other fruit bars in their Wholefoods range

Maybe if you are a stickler you would eschew foods that say "may contain ..." but we haven't gone quite that far, if it's not in the ingredients, it's good to go.

So we are still enjoying Jus-Roll croissants, Party Ring biscuits and Biscoff Lotus biscuits and spread. Food is being cooked in vegetable oil or coconut oil and many a chili falafel wrap is being consumed. I'm hoping to add a few vegan family recipes to the blog soon, because many are really nice, I mean, not bacon nice, but nice...and I guess you could always add cheese or bacon. I often add grated cheese to my vegan pasta after serving. (did you know you can get vegan pesto? I was far too excited about that)

The main pain in the butt is that we have to buy separate milk (Raffy favours the Koko coconut milk, original) and an egg substitute for recipes. Luckily Raffy has never been a huge fan of yoghurts and custards although there are soya versions. And she already preferred vegan ice cream to the real deal (weirdo). Veganism is definitely a developing trend among the young. Is it a trendy fad or will farm animals become a thing of the past by the time Raffy has kids? Or is eating animals and the products of animals still the best use of some land types? (I'm thinking of waterlogged meadows and steep hills...) I guess only time will tell. 

Look out on the blog for 'vegan recipes for the carnivore' in the near future. I will get Raffy to bake some more vegan cakes so I can blog that - they are very tasty. And if you have any vegan comments (good and bad) or vegan recipes, pop them in the comments below. Thanks.

Sweet Potato Soup Recipe

I bought a stick blender recently and it is quite simply brilliant. If you have kids that moan about 'lumpy bits' or homemade soup that 'isn't like the shop one' it's a must have.

As it's September I decided to make a soup for Saturday lunch and it's a nice quick one, sweet potato is such a soft root vegetable which makes it great for soup.

So I grabbed

• two onions
• 3 sweet potatoes
• 2 garlic cloves
• tablespoon oil
• vegetable stock cube

and I set to work, peeled and chopped the vegetables to about 2 cm cubes. Lightly fried the onion and garlic in the oil while I dissolved the stock cube in just over a pint of boiling water, and set the potato to simmer in a lidded saucepan.

After the onion was softened I added it to the saucepan and waited. 30 minutes was about long enough to ensure the sweet potato was soft enough to squash with a spoon, so I removed the pan from the heat and used the stick blender to blend down the vegetables into a super thick and tasty soup.

There was enough to serve 2 (or 3 not so hungry people) and served with thickly buttered crusty bread it was delicious. I love a simple soup.

First soup image with title Copyright: somegirl / 123RF Stock Photo all other photos my own

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How to Bake Rainbow Unicorn Cookies, with Deadpool

Having a gay teen daughter, loving Deadpool and having bought high intensity food colourings a while ago it seemed natural that this weekend I decided to combine everything into a baking extravaganza. So my loyal blog readers, may I present:

Baking Rainbow Unicorn Cookies with Deadpool.

The recipe is simple and the cookie dough requires no chilling. And I can guarantee the cookies won't spread, so no fat unicorns either! We bought a unicorn cutter from Amazon and as you will see the legs on it are pretty thin! For this reason we didn't make solely unicorn cookies, the stress of what to do with a unicorn with a broken leg was just too much (shoot it? eat it?) So there were hearts and Easter eggs too.

Cookie Recipe

420g self raising flour
200g sugar
220g butter, cut into chunks (we used margarine this time and I can testify that butter is better! use butter)
1 egg
A few drops of vanilla essence
Wilton Food colouring

Method

• Cream together the sugar and butter, add the egg and vanilla and mix. 
• Gradually add the flour and stir in until combined. 
• Divide the cookie dough into 6. Use the food colouring to dye each piece a separate colour. Add a few drops of the colour and knead the dough to mix it. 

• Break tiny pieces of each coloured dough and lay them together on a piece of baking parchment or silicone sheet. 

• Using another piece of baking parchment on top of the pieces, roll them into a mosaic of dough. I did this in small amounts.(Don't roll direct onto a work top or you'll need extra flour and then the colours won't stick together)

• Cut out the cookie shapes.

• Continue to do this, and reroll the left over dough until it's all used up (or looks like hideous mixed purple/brown playdough whichever comes first)
• Bake the cookies at gas 4 ( 180C )  for 10-12 minutes.

• Allow them to cool before decorating. 

 Summary:

Perfect Cheese on Toast

A quick recipe for cheese on toast.
You might think that cheese on toast is the most simple thing in the world, some bread and a couple of slices of cheese and Bob is your proverbial uncle. However I am here to tell you that with only a couple of extra steps you could turn this simple dish into a culinary delight.

Always use a good cheese, this recipe does lift a boring cheese a bit, but for proper perfect cheese on toast use a good cheddar. I am using some Wyke Farms Mature but creamy cheddar because Wyke Farms sent me some cheeses to try. It is lovely and creamy too, not crumbly but still with a nice mature bite, so it's easy to grate.

This is handy because grating the cheese is where we begin.

Rainbow Cake

DD has always fancied making a rainbow cake. We have tried in the past and found that either the cake was pale and barely looked like a rainbow, or we had to use so much colouring that the cake tasted horrible!

As DD just came out as gay it seemed the perfect time to do this thing properly!

So I asked twitter who told me about gel colouring, specifically Wilton, when our local Hobbycraft let us down we turned to next day delivery from Amazon and on Sunday we grabbed our Mary Berry cook book and DD began her Great British Bake Off style fun. She decided that the recipe for a 4 layered cake was not good enough, so she doubled the quantities and made a 6 layer cake... it was HUGE!

No Spread, no chill, simple, quick, biscuit recipe

This is an American recipe so maybe I should say cookie, but to me a cookie is a slightly soft affair, thick and full of chocolate chips. These biscuits are as crisp and delicious as their French "twice baked" namesake but much easier to make. They don't spread out, so your cute cutters will work like a charm with them, great for making with the children and perfect for the children to decorate.

I have Anglicized and tweaked the recipe a bit but the American version can be found here. I have made these several times now and the flexibility with the flavouring, along with the ability to keep a shape, has swiftly made them my 'go to' recipe.

You will need:
420g self raising flour (you can substitute a little of the flour with cocoa powder for a chocolate biscuit)
200g sugar
220g butter, cut into chunks
1 egg
A few drops of vanilla essence

 Cream together the sugar and butter, add the egg and vanilla and mix. Gradually add the flour and stir in until combined. You can add chocolate chips at this stage, a handful or two to add some fun to your biscuits.

The dough will be crumbly, and you will need to knead it together with your hands and then scoop it out of the bowl for rolling out, treat it gently or your biscuits will be tough.

Roll the biscuit dough on a floured surface to about half a cm thick, and cut into shapes. (I do this in several goes as there is a lot of dough! You could also chill some of the dough to use the next day)

Place on parchment or silicone lined baking sheets and bake at 180C for 10-12 minutes until slightly browned. Let sit a few minutes on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack.

When cool decorate with icing, sweets or sprinkles. Ready made tubes of coloured icing are great for children to use! No mixing mess and small tubes are handy for little hands.

Other options include adding dried fruit to make a sort of Shrewsbury biscuit, some dessicated coconut works too, or adding spices and ginger for a tasty bite. Experiment, have fun with flavours!

Baking Rock Cakes with children

I have a trusty old recipe book, it was the first cook book that Mr TM bought, and I've inherited it. It is by Marguerite Patten and just covers everything you could ever need to know about cooking, oven temperatures, cake tin sizes, what 'dropping consistency' actually is...and everything else. I use it a lot. One of the recipes that Mr TM loves is the one for rock cakes, so called for their look and shape not their texture!

They are simple to make and a good choice to make with children (inserts joke about how I usually use dried fruit) as it's a real 'bung it all in a bowl and mix' type recipe.

If you are baking with small children as helpers I suggest, clear surfaces, pre weighed and measured ingredients in plastic bowls like on a cooking show - maybe leave one thing to weigh like the dried fruit. And invest in some anti slip mat stuff to put under the bowls as they mix.

For the cakes you will need:
8oz self raising flour
4oz margarine or butter
4oz castor sugar (I sometimes only use 3oz as Mr TM isn't keen on over sweet cakes)
4oz dried fruit
1 egg (beaten)
some spice if you like that sort of thing
2 tablespoonfuls of milk.

Sieve the flour into a bowl, then rub in the margarine until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. Kids love helping with this bit, but ensure that hands are washed first! The odd nibbled crumb won't do anyone any harm. Next add the sugar and the fruit, give it a stir, add the spice if you are going to use it, then add the beaten egg to pull it all together. The mix should be sticky, but not runny, add milk if needed..

Plop small 'lumps' of mixture onto a greased (I use silicone baking parchment to save myself the bother) baking tray, they will spread a bit, so space them!

Bake in a hot oven for 12-15 minutes. Eat when cool. (it's always cool to eat cake)

Orange and Almond cake - so easy a 16 year old can make it

Last weekend I was bored. It was raining (again) and DD was bored too. I suggested we do some baking. I fancied making some bread rolls to go with the soup I had previously made, and then DH suggested that he fancied some rock cakes...DD wanted to make something more fancy and worthy of 'Bake Off'. In the end all our wishes can true, I made the rolls (recipe and method etc here) then I rustled up some rock cakes and DD decided to try a BBC cake recipe from our little GoodFood magazine 101 Cakes & Bakes

She chose the orange and almond cake, fascinating as it uses an entire orange, skin and all, in the recipe. It was moist and delicious, and I heartily recommend it - easy too, she made it all without help - and from start to eating in less than 2 hours (the book says 50 minutes - more of that later)

Ingredients:

• 1 medium orange
• 6 oz softened butter
• 6oz light muscovado sugar (we used caster sugar as it's all we had)
• 3 eggs (ours were large...)
• 6oz self raising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• 2oz ground almonds
• icing sugar for decoration

 You also need a 9inch round deep cake tin - ours has a movable bottom(!) , and a blender or smoothie maker.

First roughly chop the orange, peel and all, and whizz it up in a blender (remove any pips first) to a puree.
Then add the butter, sugar, eggs, flour and bicarb to the blender and whizz until smooth...our blender isn't big enough for all this so we did some in stages and then just mixed it all in a bowl, it was very runny so it wasn't difficult to mix.
Pour it all into the greased tin and bung it in the oven (Gas 5/190C/fan 170C) the recipe says 30 minutes but I think our cake need at least 50 minutes, maybe a little longer as the middle was still runny after half an hour, in true Bake Off style DD turned down the gas for last 15 minutes to ensure it cooked without burning.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for a while before turning it out and dredging the top with icing sugar.

The cake was delicious, really orangey (surprise) and with a crisp outside and moist middle. The recipe book claims it freezes well, but ours didn't get a chance. We all really enjoyed it and will be making it again.

Serves 12 (ie gives 12 slices, we had 4 each obviously)
Per slice 266 calories

Parsnip and Ginger Soup - A Meat Free Monday Recipe

I think I might have blogged this before but it's so good I'll blog it twice.

One of my favourite vegetarian cook books is the 'Veg Everyday' one by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Not only is it full of great photos, and recipes that would tempt even the most devoted meat eater to try a vege meal, but also the recipes are actually do-able. I am the living proof this is true!

My favourite recipe is the simple lentil dahl. But a little more time and preparation and I can have a bowl of a soup that Hugh calls 'Parsnip and Ginger Soup' but which I call 'Better than sex soup'. I know you all think I need to get more sex based on that - but don't judge until you've tried it.

The soup is relatively easy to make though there are a few steps to take. It is time consuming rather than complicated and you need a food mixer or hand blender to make it properly. It is all worth it though, for its smooth warming and spicy goodness.

The ingredients are fairly simple and while you might not have fresh ginger to hand it's easy to get.

You'll need

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 15g butter
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• a 4-5cm piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and finely chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 500g parsnips, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes
• 800ml vegetable stock (Hugh makes his own, I use a vege stock cube)
• 200ml whole milk

You simply fry the onion in the oil and butter for 10 minutes or so, don't crisp it! add in the garlic, ginger and spices, stir it then bung in the parsnips, stir them up to get them coated in the tasty oily goodness, then pour in the stock and simmer it all until the parsnips are soft, about 15-25 minutes.

Leave the soup to cool for a bit, then puree it in a food blender until smooth. Return it to the pan, add the milk and warm it through, add water to thin the soup if you like.

The soup stores well, can be frozen and is lovely served with a sprinkling of toasted nuts and a swirl of thick cream. Maybe even a homemade bread roll.

You can buy Hugh's book all over the place, but here's a link to Amazon.
Enjoy.

Making Bread Rolls from Scratch

On Saturday I made bread rolls from scratch. I love to make bread at home when I have time, it smells great while it's cooking, tastes better than shop bought, isn't full of additives and is fun!

Let's face it - making bread rolls is adult Playdoh, as we shall see.

I like to make the bread dough in my bread maker because it's less messy, and it makes sure I leave the dough for the full proving time, I'm too impatient if I do it myself. So I bung the ingredients into the bread maker, set the 'dough' setting and amuse myself for an hour and a half (if anyone is thinking rude thoughts now you should go and have a cold shower). I don't bake the bread in the bread machine though as I don't like the shape, and I prefer to be able to adjust the oven temperature and cooking time too, and of course I like to make bread rolls as well as loaves.

The ingredients I use for basic bread rolls:

• 1 and 1/3 cups water
• 4 cups unbleached strong bread flour
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• a knob of butter
• approx 1 teaspoon of easy bake dry yeast (I use some of a sachet)

I add the water first then all the dry ingredients. It would be just as easy to make in a bowl, mix it all up, knead it, leave it 30 minutes, knead it again, leave for an hour...(in my house Mr Bread Maker is doing that bit)

Then take the dough and divide it into two, divide each half again and divide each resulting piece into 3. Don't ask why, I just like 12 rolls, those keen can make 13 for a 'baker's dozen'.

And here's the playdoh bit. I make the rolls into fun shapes because I can, and because life is too short to eat boring bread. I like to knead and roll and pull the soft dough, I favour knots and plaits and mini cottage loaf styles, (DD said they looked like anuses), and I admit I was worried about the hedgehogs..

Roll and tie for the knot, and for the cottage loaf use two balls and poke a finger hard into the middle!

Cut the dough so it looks like it has three tails and plait, at one end the plait stays joined, fold the other end under

Use a pair of clean scissors to 'snip' in the hedgehog spines.

The rolls were cooked in the oven at gas 6 for 20 minutes. (Don't forget to tap their bottoms when they look done, they should sound hollow)

And even the hedgehogs turned out OK - you'll be pleased to know they all tasted good too.

Eat Well for Less

I watched ‘Eat well for less’ last night. Leaving aside the grammar issue, and the fact that I don’t usually watch ‘reality TV’ because the directors always portray the people as thick as planks and thus hateful or snobby know-alls and thus hateful, here are my thoughts.

Pizzettas, ham and peach, made by DD from scratch (including base)

The Scott family was (of course) shown as lazy and stupid in turns, the mother shopping and buying not only almost every meal ‘ready made and oven-cookable’ but worse, she bought food ready sliced, diced and grated. When shown a cheese grater she either had never used one or pretended she hadn’t. (useful advice, buy a modern cheese grater like this one, and cut the cheese into manageable chunks before grating)  She saw slicing a potato as a challenge worth celebration and placing a slice of (pre cut) fruit loaf into a toaster as ‘preparation’.

But I think much of that was rubbish. She microwaved ready made pancakes (!) but didn’t moan that that was preparation for example. I think her ‘lazy stupidity’ was enhanced for the camera and mightily played up by the director. If you haven’t watched it you can probably catch it here.

I don’t believe the mum in this episode was really lazy either. Her children and her house were spotless and the children well behaved and polite, that doesn’t happen by chance, and both parents worked too. I think she didn’t know how to cook, and laughed it off as she was embarrassed.They were a really nice family, and despite the initial desire to slap Kate I did warm to her, her husband and their three children.

I was more interested in what Gregg Wallace didn’t say or show the family. The meals they were shown how to cook were all variations on what they were eating already so not especially healthy, mainly just cheaper and nicer. That makes sense though as you need to change eating habits gradually, there is no point in saying ‘bin the chips, eat quinoa’ that just won’t work. But I do wish he’d talked more about nutritional balance, vegetables, starches, fats etc and which foods contained which things.

There was also much talk of saving money on the food bill, but no discussion as to the fuel bill. Would 45 minutes for cheap potato chips in the oven impact more than the original plan of oven chips that take 15 minutes for example? The same for the pizzas shown later. I don’t know the answer, maybe it would make little impact but I would have liked it to have been considered.

Biscuits made at home

Gregg did briefly mention using a butcher but only to buy the ham, there was no discussion of independent butchers – ours is often cheaper than the supermarket, the meat comes with little packaging and best of all – no sell by dates! – something the mum on the show was shown as being terrified of. (see my take on that here) Not only can local butchers be cheaper, but even if the meat is slightly more expensive it can be better value, the chops we buy there shrink much less in cooking than the ones we buy at the supermarket and taste better too.

Oddly there seemed to be no discussion of buying fruit or veg at a greengrocer’s (very odd as Chris Bavin is a greengrocer). We use a local one when we can, all the food is, again, packaging free, and has no use by dates, it’s a lesson in what fruit and veg should look like. Also fruit and veg bought in season can still be cheaper than trying to stick to the same fruit and vegetables all year round, a local farm shop can be cheaper for the vegetables that are in season if you are lucky enough to have a farm nearby.

Some ideas for recipes in using things that are about to go out of date would have been good too – the old stand-by of banana cake for example for those suddenly black bananas, the idea that you can cook and freeze a meal or blanche and freeze vegetables.

The oven where the magic happens

Gregg briefly mentioned freezing sandwiches, though didn’t discuss the best fillings for freezing, and the suggestion seemed to just be laughed off) for reference, ham, cheese and tuna mayonnaise all freeze well (Though DD says to remind you that on a cold day they may not thaw by lunchtime if taken out of the freezer at breakfast time – I think I’ve lost mummy points!) Adding salad to a sandwich though makes it a soggy mess, so leave the lettuce, tomato and cucumber to add separately to the lunch box!

One thing the mum, Kate, said at the end was that she planned cooking on Sunday and freezing meals for the week. Good on her! And I admired their proposal for meal planning. I think she could also save money, have fun and improve her kitchen skills by baking biscuits with the children, perfect for lunch boxes and a great winter afternoon pastime.

I won’t be watching the programme again, I don’t feel I learned any thing, the presenters took a long time to really say nothing much as the advice on butter vs margarine wasn’t even particularly current. (new research which looked at 50 studies involving more than one million people found there was no evidence that saturated fat was bad for health. ) But for anyone that is out there thinking the a Findus Crispy Pancake is the height of sophistication and that a poached egg on toast is a ‘meal that need a lot of cooking’ then I think this show could help them to branch out a little.

My favourite cook book

I would suggest that ‘looking for cheaper versions of what you normally buy and trying them’ is a good idea, maybe one item a week from a supermarkets cheap basic range? After all, it might be OK and if not you can go back to your usual. We like basic pasta and rice for example but I prefer branded bagels and cream cheese. ‘Blind’ taste tests can be fun too, as the programme showed when they tasted the unmarked coffee…

And the simplest option of all? Buy a simple cookery book.

Did you watch the show? What did you think? And will it make you change your eating or shopping habits?

Apple Pancakes - Just scrumptious

Recently at a festival I encountered a pancake stall, well crepes if you want to be pedantic, and they had many flavours from savoury tuna melts with cheese and spinach to the super sweet Nutella and banana (I know most people love that but I hate it!)

Anyway, one of the options was 'Apple Pie Crepe' so I went for it, and it was the business! Best pancake ever, simple enough to rustle up for breakfast and also easy to glam up for a dinner party dessert (I can see myself on Come Dine With Me serving this up...)

I paid careful attention so that I can share the recipe with you. If you are in a mood to be fast, you could use pancake mix and/or apple sauce. If you are feeling more 'Nigella' go for the batter made from scratch and your own stewed apples.

So either mix 2 heaped tablespoons of flour, eggs (2) and just over half a pint of milk with a dash of olive oil to create a batter .... or mix up a batter mix.

Have to hand either home stewed apples (diced cooking apples, a tiny bit of water, boil for 20 minutes or until soft, add sugar to taste)  .... or some apple sauce, the sort they sell in jars to have with pork works fine. (I used a jar this time as our apples aren't ripe yet)

You will also need some oil, some brown sugar and cinnamon.

Add some oil to the frying pan and start cooking the pancake, turn it once and spread apple across one half of the pancake, sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon.

Fold the pancake in half, covering the apple. Fry slightly to warm the apple then fold again. serve with marscapone cheese (my favourite!) or icecream, or fresh cream.

Delicious! Why not add some brandy to the apple for a decadent after dinner treat!