We Love Cooking! [Search results for lemon zest] 

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)

It's definitely a sign you had a fairly packed weekend when you only start to relax on a Monday morning! I was working on Friday, Saturday and Sunday but Saturday night was the big occasion, 25 family members, young and old packed into my parents front room to eat their way through a three course meal and celebrate my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary.

They are my grandparents on my moms side of the family, they married in 1950 and made a living as sculptors, all the while raising my mom and her 3 brothers and 3 sisters. My grandmother has a fantastic knowledge of food and I can talk with her for hours about her delicious rich recipes (if we can steal a moment away from my granddad's well trained 3rd degree questioning skills!) which always seem to transform some extremely unique off cut of meat into a melt in your mouth, one pot wonder. I love how she can tell me she had nothing in the house, yet then go into intricate detail of how she whipped up an old French recipe so delicious it would put the great Elizabeth David to shame. Needless to say that love of food has been passed down the line, so the food at gathering such as this are normally of a certain standard! Anything less of course and you can expect a full critique by the time the coffee and teas are served!

On the menu was a delicious crab salad with lemon zest, for mains we had hefty portions of slow roasted lamb shanks in red wine with a tomato and white bean stew, and to wrap things up we had the delicious mocha meringues with whiskey cream, chocolate sauce and toasted hazelnuts which we cooked for the event in Paris during the spring. All this was followed by an amazing cheeseboard from Sheridans Cheesemongers which despite the big helpings for dinner was devoured!
So things are back to normality this week thankfully so here's today's recipe, enjoy!

Whoohaa Chorizo Bean Pasta!
Pasta is definitely a super-cheap store cupboard ingredient which can easily be transformed into hundreds of delicious dishes. This is one of my favourite ways of making the most of it. When making a tomato sauce, the key to getting the best flavour out of it is to cook it slowly. I love to add a good glug of red wine while it reduces to bring out a really great richness. The chorizo gives the dish a kick of heat and will leave you feeling full.

Serves four
150g chorizo, sliced in thick discs
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tsp dried oregano
Sea salt and ground black pepper to season
400g tin cannellini beans
250g penne pasta
Parmesan cheese, to serve

Heat a large frying pan over a high heat and throw in the sliced chorizo. Fry on both sides until roaring red and sizzling. Remove from the pan and set aside. You should be left with a rich red oil in the pan.
Place the pan back over the heat, add the garlic and onions and fry for two to three minutes until the onions are soft.
Add the chopped tomatoes and dried oregano, then half fill the empty chopped tomatoes tin with warm water and stir into the pan (if you have red wine it would be great here instead of the water). Bring the sauce to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes until it has reduced a little.
While the sauce is reducing, cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet, drain and set aside.
Stir the chorizo and cannellini beans into the tomato sauce until everything is warmed through.
Add the sauce to the cooked pasta and stir through.
Serve with a good grating of Parmesan cheese.

It's quickly becoming an annual tradition that early on a Saturday morning at the start of autumn just before the leaves fall from the trees, we take my little cousin out blackberry picking. It doesn't take too much persuading really, because at the end of our trek around the local hedgerows and fields, she always knows we'll end up cooking a whole batch of sweets and treats. Last year we spent a bumper day of cooking, which included, Blackberry Coulis, Blackberry Mess and the most amazing blackberry cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting! AMAZING!

This year it was just a big batch of blackberry jam and these really easy blackberry crumb slices.
Blackberries are most certainly not the most pretty of fruits our Irish countryside has to offer, especially when compared to our most prized summer berry the seductive and far more grown up, glamourous, strawberry. No the blackberry is a bit more like your rough and ready cousin who doesn’t bother with the latest trends and insists on wearing wooly jumpers! But despite all this, blackberries are by far the most accessible and economical of all the fruits our countryside has to offer, with bramble bushes along most road sides literally teeming with the bulging black fruit.
So if you have the time this weekend, grab a few extra hands, pull out an old basket or a bucket and get picking! I got some good advice to bring an umbrella with a hook on the end to pull down the branches- the big ones are always at the top!

Blackberry Crumb Slices
I think these blackberry crumb slices match the fruit perfectly! They are most definitely and bit more rustic looking than most cake slices, but are full of warm sponge and juicy flavours. Both the cake mix and the crumb topping are extremely easy to make and great for baking with kids!

Makes 24 delicious slices
115g butter, at room temperature
175g caster sugar
1 large free range egg
280g self raising flour
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
125ml milk
300g of fresh blackberries (you could use frozen if you’re stuck)

For the sweet crumb topping
115g caster sugar
85g plain flour
zest of 1 lemon
75g of butter

Preheat the oven to 190oC/Gas Mark 5.
Grease a rectangular baking tin and line it with parchment paper. If you’re stuck for parchment paper you could probably get away with greasing the tin and flouring it instead.
Using a hand mixer, in a bowl beat together the sugar and butter until pale. Add in the egg whisking to incorporate the mixture little by little.
Using a wooden spoon fold in the flour, cinnamon and milk. Mix gently until you have a sticky dough like mixture.
Spread evenly across the bottom of the prepared baking tin, this requires patience as the dough can be sticky, but bear with it you’ll get there! Then arrange the blackberries on top. Set aside while you prepare the sweet crumb topping.
Add all the ingredients for the sweet crumb topping to a bowl and rub the dry ingredients into the butter with your fingertips as you would with pastry. Keep mixing until you have a mixture that resembles rough breadcrumbs.
Sprinkle the crumb topping over the blackberries in the baking tray and place in the oven on the middle rack for 40-45 minutes until the top is golden brown.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool before slicing into 24 pieces.