Stuffed Mushrooms

Looking for a job is hard… Therefore my time to cook and, specially, write about it has been limited…

Here is a recipe I cooked some weeks ago for the first time and will be repeating today! It is great as a starter or as a main dish if served with some rice.

 

Stuffed Mushrooms (serves 4)

• 4 large flat mushrooms
• 1 garlic clove
• fresh rosemary
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• 125 g of cream cheese
• 75 g of grated cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper

1. Pre-heat the oven at 180ºC.
2. Wash the mushrooms well. Remove the steam of the mushroom and chop them into pieces. With a spoon, remove the interior of the mushroom, including the black part, and reserve. Save the mushrooms’ hats for later.
3. Slice the garlic thinly. In a frying pan cook the garlic with the olive oil and the rosemary leaves until the garlic gets golden. Add the interior of the mushrooms and let it cook until the mushrooms are soft and cooked.
4. Add the cream cheese and 4 tbsp of grated cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Stir well until the cheese melts and turn off the fire.
5. Place the mushroom hats, with the opening facing up, on an oven tray. Fill the mushrooms hats with     the cooked mixture. Top them with the remaining grated cheese and season with pepper.
6. Cook in the oven for approximately 10 minutes, until the cheese melts and the mushrooms wrinkle. Note that the mushrooms will release some water and, therefore, you will get a liquid on the bottom of the tray.

Carrot Spice Cake

Some weeks ago we went to Borough Market and had this amazing Carrot Spice Cake with coconut. Decided to give it a go and, last weekend, baked my own! It wasn’t exactly as the one from the market but it was really good and moist inside.

I baked a cake with some cream cheese frosting and some plain cupcakes. Both were delicious! The recipe under is solely for one cake.

Carrot Spice Cake

• 150 g of flour
• 1 tea spoon of baking powder
• 3/4 tea spoon of baking soda
• 1 tea spoons of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tea spoon of ground nutmeg
• 225 g of sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup of vegetable oil
• 275 g of carrots
• 1/3 tin of crushed pineapple (total used: 144 g net)
• 100 g of chopped walnuts (reserve some to decorate)
• 40 g of flaked coconut

1. Pre-heat the oven at 170ºC.
2. In a bowl mix the flour, the baking powder, the baking soda, the cinnamon and the nutmeg.
3. In a large bowl mix the sugar with the eggs and the oil. Add the flour mix, stirring well.
4. Peel the carrots and grate them thinly. Add it to the batter.
5. Add the pineapple, the walnuts and the coconut and mix well.
6. Grease a cake tin (20 cm / 8”) with butter and sprinkle with flour. Pour the cake dough into the tin and cook in the oven for approximately 35 minutes. Note that the cake will be quite moist inside and will gain some additional consistency after cooling down. 
7. Serve simple or with some cream cheese frosting (recipe under).

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 9 tbsp of cream cheese
• 3 tbsp of butter at room temperature
• 12 tbsp of icing sugar
• 1 tea spoon of vanilla essence
• crushed walnut and flaked coconut to decorate

1. In a bowl mix the cream cheese, the butter, the sugar and the vanilla. Whisk well until you get a smooth and glowing frosting.
2. When the cake has completely cooled down, using a spatula, cover the top of the cake with the frosting. You can be creative here!
3. Sprinkle the frosting with some crushed walnuts and flaked coconut.

Red Berries Cheesecake

Leaving the UK in one day for my wedding in Portugal! Quite excited!!!

Before traveling I always empty the fridge and try to cook everything in it to avoid wasting food. What do I see? Clotted cream, cream cheese and some red berries… a cheesecake is in order!

It was my first cheesecake but it looked nice enough and it tasted amazingly!

Red Berries Cheesecake (serves 8)

• 1 cup of crushed plain biscuits (Malted milk or Digestive for example)
• 5 full tbsp of melted butter
• 2 full tbsp of brown sugar
• 500g of cream cheese (Philadelphia for example)
• 300g of clotted cream (can be replaced by thick whisked cream)
• 8 full tbsp of icing sugar
• 100 g of blackberries
• 150 g of raspberries
• 5 tbsp of sugar
• Strawberries to decorate

 

1. In a bowl mix the crushed biscuits with the melted butter and the bown sugar. You should bet a sandy mixture. Depending on the type of biscuits you use you might need to add a bit more of melted butter.
2. Cover the base of a 20cm (8”) springform cake tin with the biscuits mixture. Press the mixture into the bottom of the tin. You can use a tart pan or even do individual doses into small bowls.
3. In a bowl mix the cream cheese with the clotted cream and add the icing sugar.
4. Lay this cream on top of the crushed biscuits. Smooth over with a spatula. The total height of the sweet should be around 4cm (1.5”) now.
5. Cover the cake tin with some cling film and put it in the fridge.
6. In a small pan heat the berries with the sugar. Stir and, as the berries soften up, mash them. In case this mixture gets too thick add a bit of water. Wait for it to cool completely. I always prefer to do my own jams but you can also use some bought bottled jam.
7. After the jam is completely cool, gently put it on top of the cream and reserve in the fridge for at least 5 hours before serving.
8. Before taking out of the bake tin, pass a knife through the boarders of the tin in order to guarantee that the cheesecake will separate easily from it. Decorate with fanned strawberries.