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Gizzi Erskine may be a new name to you, she was for me, but her book, "Gizzi's Kitchen Magic" cover totally caught my eye while I was browsing through the amazon cookery section the other day. This is possibly one the coolest cookbook covers I have seen for a while and it's even cooler when you get your hands on it as it's embossed in gold! Now not being one to judge a book by it's cover I took my copy with me on my travels to have a good nose through it and get a good feel for Gizzi's writing. To give you a brief bit of back ground Gizzi is one of the "Cook Yourself Thin" girls and was orignally a food stylist before she got into the tv side of things, so has a huge knowledge of food! The one thing I do have to point out is that the book is quite girly, and I know quite a few potential domestic goddesses who could definitely be encouraged into the kitchen with a present of "Gizzi's Kitchen Magic" wrapped up in a bow! The book is absolutely jam packed with really fantastic tips on everything from what meat cuts to buy to choosing the best pastry to make. The lovely folks at Virgin books have provided me with a few recipes from the book to share with you this week and on Friday there will be 3 copies up for grabs, so stick around for that. Gizzi will also be stopping in for a quick interview aswell so if there are any questions you want answered, leave a comment below.

Gizzi Erskine's Creamy Smoked Salmon
& Pea Spaghetti
Spaghetti carbonara is a classic for a reason, but it is laden with cream and, therefore, also very guilt-inducing. So I decided to halve the cream content and replace the rest with Greek yoghurt. Having done this, it seemed natural to replace the smokiness of the bacon with smoked salmon. I then decided to add some green colour with the summery addition of broad beans and green peas, my favourite veggies, and fi nished with a hint of lemon to lift the dish.

Serves 4
Preparation time 15 minutes
Cooking time 10 minutes
350g dried spaghetti
150g podded and shelled broad beans
150g fresh or frozen garden peas
200ml double cream
200ml Greek yoghurt
2 large free-range egg yolks
35g Parmesan cheese
zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
180g smoked salmon (about 8 slices), sliced into short ribbons
A small bunch of fresh chives, snipped

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the spaghetti according to the instructions on the packet. For the last 3 minutes of the cooking time add the broad beans and peas.
Meanwhile mix together the cream, yoghurt, egg yolks, Parmesan, lemon zest, salt and pepper.
Drain the cooked pasta, beans and peas, leaving a few tablespoons of water in the bottom of the pan. Return the pan to a low heat and pour in the sauce.
Toss the pasta in the sauce, then add the smoked salmon and chives, giving it all a good mix round until it’s evenly incorporated and the salmon has cooked through. Serve piping hot.

(Taken from Gizzi’s Kitchen Magic by Gizzi Erskine published by Virgin Books, price £20)

Blackberry picking always reminds me of my childhood. Quiet late summer evenings were spent grazing the edges of golden fields, slowly wandering down the sides of little lane ways in search of overgrown brambles full and heavy with blackberries ripe for the picking. Time was spent in comfortable silences with my mom, as we focused on finding the biggest, plumpest fruits on offer, quickly passing over the bushes which had already been scoured by fellow, free, berry hunters. With a warm smile she would bend down the brambles of the higher bushes, so I could reach them and squeeze the little black pearls off into my red bucket, being extraordinarily careful so not to get pricked by the giant thorns.

By the end of a long evening out in the open, with pink stained fingers, we would bring the buckets, heavy with our bounty, back through the dusk light to the kitchen. I would be occupied with stirring the pot, standing on a stool, while she got on with making fresh scones. All the while the comforting smells of hot blackberries wafted around the room. Cold butter melting rapidly on a freshly baked warm scone, served with a little runny blackberry jam was always the best way to end those evenings.

Homemade Blackberry and Apple Tart

(Adapted from FoodandWine.com)
I absolutely love the look of this pie, it is the epitome of everything home baking should be- local ingredients, homemade pastry and little bit of love and care thrown in for good measure! If you can't get your hands on cooking apples, pears also work nicely in this tart.

Serves 6-8
Pastry:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
170g cold butter, cut into cubes
2 large egg yolks mixed with 3 tablespoons water

Filling:
750g blackberries
750g cooking apples, peeled cored and sliced into small chunks
100g cup granulated sugar
35g flour
1 large egg yolk, mixed with 1 tablespoon water
A little extra sprinkle of sugar on top

In a mixing bowl, using your fingertips, combine the dry ingredients with the butter, until it resembles coarse bread crumbs. It takes a few minutes but it will eventually come together.
Add the egg yolk mixture and combine until you get large clumps. Turn the pastry out onto a work surface and form it into a disc. Wrap the pastry in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes. Make sure to take the pastry out and let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes before rolling.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out two-thirds of the pastry to an 11 1/2-inch round. Gently lift the pastry with a tray or the rolling pin and transfer it to a 9-inch tart pan 1 inch deep. Press into the pan, folding in the overhanging dough to reinforce the sides. Trim the overhang and knead the scraps into the remaining dough.
Dust the work surface with flour again and roll out the remaining pastry to a 9 1/2-inch round. Using a pastry wheel, cut the round into 3/4-inch-wide strips.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. In a bowl, toss the blackberries, apples, sugar and flour; spoon into the tart shell. Scatter the butter on top. Arrange the strips over the berries in a lattice pattern, pressing the ends onto the pastry rim. (Just think over under and start from one corner of the pie) Trim any excess pastry. Brush the lattice with the egg yolk mixture and sprinkle with a little extra sugar.

Bake the tart for about 45 minutes to an hour, or until the pastry is golden and the juices are bubbling. Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool.

All this week I will be out and about promoting the book, and this morning I am on Limerick's Live95FM. They asked me to pick out my favourite breakfast recipe from the book for their breakfast show so I had to go with my all time favourtie breakfast muffins! But these aren't any regular light and empty muffins, these babies packed full of chunky oats, bursting blueberries and bananas to keep you on the move!

Blueberry and Banana Breakfast Muffins

Healthy muffins are perfect for a quick breakfast on the go. These blueberry and banana muffins are packed
with healthy ingredients, which will keep you going for any busy morning. I normally make them the night before I have them and grab one or two just before I leave the house.

Makes 12 muffins
125g/4½oz blueberries
2 bananas, mashed
125g/4½oz plain flour
75g/3oz wholemeal flour
200g/7oz rolled oats
75g/3oz brown sugar
250ml/8½fl oz milk
2 large eggs, separated
3 tablespoons of sunflower oil
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of salt

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, rolled oats, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and sugar.
Create a well in the dry ingredients and add the banana, egg yolks, milk and oil.
Mix everything gently until a wet batter forms.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks.
Fold the egg whites and blueberries into the muffin batter until everything is mixed evenly.
Divide the muffin mix into individual paper cases and place in an oven for 25 minutes at 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6.
The muffins should be fine to eat for 4–5 days and can easily be frozen in zip lock bags.

I have mentioned here before that I like to have my finger in all the pies of life, and staying true to that statement I have a really tasty steak and mushroom pie recipe to share here. Not only that but I thought it was time to tell you that, I’ll be playing Peter Pan this year in the Tivoli theatre Panto in Dublin (For international visitors, panto is like a kids Christmas show). Will I have any self respect left after donning a pair of green tights while being suspended in mid air? Time will tell! We had our first day of rehearsals today and last week we all got flying lessons, which was so much fun! Check out this video, I think I still have a bit more practice to go until this looks perfect!

If you’re in Dublin at all over the next two months make sure to come to the show, there’s a really great cast, lots of laughs, and sure the kids will love it! Tickets can be bought here.

On to more pressing issues, I recently bought a huge quantity of stew steak from the butcher, so I have been trying to come up with ways to get through it. This is a really simple recipe, which makes a really tasty winter warmer. The process is fairly easy, for convenience I use ready to roll puff pastry and just place it over the top of the pie dish, but you can easily make your own and add it here. The steak and mushroom mix is really tasty and can even be eaten by itself with rice. So if the thoughts of pastry are all too much for you, don’t count it out just yet!

Steak and Mushroom Pie

These look great served in individual little pie dishes, but if you don’t have any to hand, simply use one large pie dish. You can cook the pie mix ahead of time, freeze and defrost when you want to use it.

2 tablespoons of sunflower oil.
1 ½ lb of stew steak or diced beef.
250g of mushrooms.
500ml of beef stock.
250g of puff pastry.
2 red onions, finely chopped.
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped.
A generous pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper.
2 egg yolks.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan, and brown the meat on all sides. You may need to fry the meat in batches in order to get a nice colour. Remove from the pan and set aside. Add the rest of the oil to the pan and fry the garlic and onions until soft. Add the beef stock, meat pieces, salt and pepper and combine. Lower the heat, cover and cook over gentle heat for approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes. Make sure to give the mix a stir every now and then to prevent it sticking at the bottom. The aim is to get the meat as tender as possible, so you may need to add a longer cooking time depending on the meat you buy.
10 minutes before the mix is finished add the finely sliced mushrooms and stir through to combine. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
Preheat the oven to 220˚C/ 430˚F/ Gas 7.
Dust your work surface with a little flour and roll out the pastry to about ½ a centimetre in thickness. Empty the steak and mushroom filling into your chosen pie dish or dishes and drape over the pastry. Leave about 1cm of pastry over the side of the dish and then push the pastry in to the dish so you end up with a nice crust the whole way round. Using a pastry brush, coat the pastry with the egg yolk, this will produce a delicious golden coloured crust.
Place in the oven for approximately 15-20 minutes or until the pastry puffs up and turns a nice golden brown.
Serve straight away with a tasty salad and enjoy!

I am still playing catch up with all the photos from the last few weeks, so you will have to excuse me if my timeline is slightly skewed! We were in Sweden to celebrate Sofie's grandad's 80th and on the day of his birthday, we all rented snow mobiles and went on a guided snow mobile safari through an amazing snow covered forest. We drove to this little cabin in the woods which had a blazing fire going and we were given sticks to cook hot dogs on!

I had made a chocolate fudge birthday cake and after everyone had had a slice and we had sung happy birthday in both English and Swedish we were ushered into a changing room to get ready for an outdoor hot bath. Everyone sat in a massive indoor sauna to get really hot and then when I was adequately cooked I was sent out to tip toe across the freezing wooden floor to jump into a massive wooden bath filled with water at 42 degrees! Not being used to any of this my weak Irish body was ready for a serious lie down after but when were done, I was hoisting myself back up on the snow mobile for the journey back!

One of Sweden's big things in my experience is that they love their dairy products, and cheese is served at breakfast on a daily basis, so it can get a little heavy going. Plus I'm more a porridge with honey and cinnamon type of guy when it comes to breakfast, so I did bake these little muffins to keep myself going. They went down well with the Swedes too! :)

Big Boy Apple Breakfast Muffins
I made these lovely muffins when we were in Sweden skiing. They are like a whole breakfast in one muffin, with everything you could need, porridge oats, raisins, apple and yoghurt oh my! To make the cool paper cases in the photos, cut squares of parchment paper, wrap them around a tumbler glass and tie them tightly with some kitchen string. Then simply remove the glass and your left with really cool homemade paper cases!

Makes 12-16 muffins
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
150g of flour
150g of rolled oats
4 eggs
125ml of natural yoghurt
240g of honey
4 apples, cored, peeled and chopped in small chunks
110g of raisins
A few slices of apple and a sprinkle of brown sugar to top the muffins

Preheat the oven to 190oC/Gas Mark 5. Place baking cases on a baking tray.
Sift the flour, baking powder, ginger and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl and stir through the rolled oats.
Mix the natural yoghurt and honey in a large measuring jug until combined. Separate the eggs, placing the whites in a large steel bowl and the yolks in with the yoghurt and honey.
Make a well in to the oats and flour bowl and pour the yoghurt, honey and egg mix and raisin and apple chunks in. Using a wooden spoon mix gently until everything is combined.
Using a whisk, beat the egg whites until soft white peaks form, then gently tip this in to the muffin mix and fold through gently until it is evenly incorporated.
Spoon heaped tablespoons of the mix into the paper cases and place a slice of apple and a sprinkle of brown sugar on top. Place in the oven to bake for around 25 minutes.