Cranberry and Cream Cheese Muffins

My freezer is full of cranberries (and other frozen fruit), and I had some cream cheese in the fridge so I thought I'd try this recipe for cranberry and cream cheese muffins, with a couple of tweaks.

Ingredients:
175g frozen cranberries
250g caster sugar
100g soft cheese
200g self-raising flour
Pinch salt
2 eggs
75ml sunflower oil (it's got to be flavourless! i.e. not olive oil)

Makes 12

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 180 deg C
2) Put the cranberries in a saucepan with 25g of the sugar, and heat until they are soft. Mash them then put them aside to cool
3) Mix the cream cheese with another 25g of the sugar in small bowl and put it aside
4) Put the flour, rest of the sugar, salt, eggs and oil in a large bowl and mix
5) Stir the cranberry mash into the large bowl with the other ingredients
6) Spoon the mixture into 12 paper cases, and cook for 20-25 mins
7) Leave to cool

Budget:
Cranberries = 30p
Sugar = 40p
Soft cheese = 25p
Flour = 30p
Eggs = 40p
Oil = 15p
Total = £1.80, 15p/ muffin

Apple Crumble

I'm really struggling with switching from cooking for five to cooking for one...this is my mini version of apple crumble (which tastes great hot or cold).

Ingredients:

Apple sauce (1 cooking apple, splash of water, sprinkle of sugar)

25g margarine

25g plain flour

25g sugar

Serves 2

Method:

1) Make the apple sauce - peel and chop the apple into chunks, and tip it into a saucepan with a splash of water. Simmer gently until it looks like sauce, then add sugar to taste. Preheat the oven to 180 deg C

2) Make the topping - mix the margarine, plain flour and sugar together until fine

3) Pour the sauce into a small ovenproof container, then tip the topping over the apple

4) Cook for 30mins in the oven (until golden on top)

Budget:

1 apple = 40p

Sugar = 10p

Flour = 5p

Margarine = 10p

Total = 65p, 33p/ person

Raspberry Yoghurt Cake

I saw this cake in the newspaper over the weekend and thought it looked delicious. Plus I had some excess raspberries in the freezer that needed to make way for ice cream so a happy ending all round really!

My version is adapted from a recipe in the Telegraph here. It's a very soft, moist cake that cooks for a relatively long time without rising much.

Ingredients:
300g plain flour
3tsp baking powder
125g soft margarine
225g caster sugar
1tbsp lemon juice
2 eggs
120g plain natural yoghurt
200g raspberries

150g icing sugar
3tbsp lemon juice (in total, 1+3tbsp = approx. 1 lemon)
5 raspberries (optional)

Serves 10

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 160 deg C
2) Takes 2tbsp of the flour and tip it over the raspberries
3) Mix the rest of the flour, the baking powder, margarine, caster sugar, lemon juice, eggs and yoghurt together
4) Spoon 1/3 of the mixture into a loaf tin
5) Scatter 1/2 the raspberries over the top of the mixture
6) Add the next 1/3 of the mixture
7) Add the rest of the raspberries to the top
8) Spoon the rest of the mixture into the tin (it doesn't matter if you can see some of the raspberries peeping through)
9) Cook for 1h15
10) Make the icing: mix the icing sugar and lemon juice. Wait for the cake to cool down for about 30mins, then drizzle the icing over the top
11) Optional: squish the raspberries a bit, and scatter over the top. If you omit them, you can freeze the rest of the cake

Budget:
Flour = 20p
Baking powder = 10p
Butter = 25p
Sugar = 20p
Lemon = 40p
Eggs = 30p
Yoghurt = 15p
Raspberries = £2
Icing sugar = 15p
Total = £3.75, 38p/ person

Curry #1: Chicken and Mango

A couple of weeks ago, I said I'd never tried to make curry before and probably wouldn't because it had so many ingredients. A bit of a defeatist attitude - and the scientist in me loves an experiment. So here's my first attempt at making curry, from a recipe on BBC Good Food with a couple of tweaks.

 And yes, it was delicious (sorry to ruin the ending)! As a novice I made it look harder work than it really was - not substantially more difficult than spaghetti bolognese.

Ingredients:
6 boneless and skinless chicken thighs, chopped (I had to de-bone mine, started cooking it and then realised the skin was still attached and had to fish it off. D'oh!)
1tbsp oil
2tsp turmeric
2 brown onions
2 mangoes
6tbsp korma paste (will be quite dominant in the finished product so pick a good one)
Lump of ginger
2tsp cumin
200g coconut milk (half a can - and half what the recipe suggested it, but it's high in fat)
500ml chicken stock

200g rice

Serves 6

Method:
1) Fry the chicken in the oil and 1tsp of the turmeric until cooked (25 mins) in an enormous casserole dish
2) Whilst the chicken is cooking, chop one of the onions into quarters. Peel one of the mangoes, and hack off as much flesh from the stone as possible. Tip the mango and onion into a food processor, and whizz with the korma paste, cumin and the rest of the turmeric
3) Cut the brown outside off the ginger, slice, add to the food processor and blend
4) Chop the other onion finely, and add to the chicken. Fry until soft
5) Then add the mango/ginger/korma mixture to the dish and stir
6) Heat on medium for 5mins and boil the kettle for the stock. Start boiling the water in a new pan for the rice
7) Make up the stock. Stir in the coconut milk to the dish, then add the stock with stirring
8) Add the rice to the boiling water and heat on low
8) Cook the curry for 25 mins on low-medium heat
9) While it's cooking, peel the remaining mango and slice it (no. 5 on this website). Tip the slices in for the last 5 mins of cooking
10) Drain the rice and serve

*Great with naan bread and mango chutney

Budget:
Chicken = £4
Oil = 2p
Spices = 6p
Mangoes = £2
Onions = 30p
Korma paste = 70p
Ginger = 15p
Coconut milk = 75p
Stock = 7p
Rice = 25p
Total = £8.30, £1.38/ person (more than usual, but it was a treat)

Raspberry and Lemon Fairy Cakes

Slight departure from the budget theme - but these are very tasty and won't blow the bank. I wanted to combine lemon sponge and raspberries in the one cake.

Ingredients:
4oz soft marge
4oz caster sugar
4oz self-raising flour (plus a little extra)
1tsp baking powder
1 medium/ large egg
1 lemon

2oz soft marge
4oz icing sugar (plus a little extra)
About 10 raspberries

Makes about 12

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 160 deg C
2) Combine the marge and sugar and beat until pale and smooth
3) Add about half of the flour and baking powder, and fold in
4) Add the egg and beat in
5) Add the rest of the flour and baking powder
6) Add the juice of about 1/3 lemon, and add some extra flour to return to previous consistency
7) Spoon into baking cases and cook for about 12-15 mins
Meanwhile...
8) Puree the raspberries and then filter (sorry, sieve) them to remove the seeds to leave you with a bright red raspberry puree
9) Combine the marge and half the icing sugar, then add a couple of spoonfuls of the puree
10) Add the rest of the icing sugar, plus a little more to thicken it up. Return this to fridge to harden it up
11) Slice the rest of the lemon thinly for decoration
Then...
12) Let the cakes cool before icing

TIP: If you have leftover raspberry puree, you can use it up (like I did) in my frozen fruit fool recipe

Frozen Fruit Fool

Raspberry - I went to get a camera and someone tried it...
I froze it a bit too quickly (you can tell from the lumps), needed a bit more stirring

I invented this in the throes of what we in the UK like to call a 'heatwave' - it's been hotter than 25 deg C for a week so naturally the country is in meltdown! This refreshing dessert is a cross between frozen yoghurt and fruit fool. I've tried it with strawberries and raspberries, but I reckon it would work with blueberries, cherries, other red fruit, etc. too.

Ingredients:
100g soft fruit
1tbsp icing sugar
200g fat-free Greek yoghurt
2tbsp caster sugar

Serves 4-5

Method:
1) Blitz the fruit in a blender until it forms a puree
2) Transfer to a container that can be frozen, and stir in the icing sugar
3) Add the frozen yoghurt and caster sugar, and whisk until mixed
4) Freeze and stir approx. every 30 mins until frozen solid - or remove earlier if a more liquid consistency is desired

Serve with a shortbread biscuit and mint leaves for a more sophisticated dessert.

Budget:
Strawberries =  50p
Icing sugar = 3p
Yoghurt = 50p
Caster sugar = 5p
Total = £1.08, 22p/ person