Sugar Free Custard / Ice Cream

I'm often looking for ways to make things without sugar, as my husband is a diabetic.  Custard has always been a bit tricky, but with some experimenting, I've come up with something that works.  I wouldn't call it healthy, but it's certainly less sugary than normal custard, which was the objective!

Ingredients

400g can Coconut Milk
300ml Double Cream
5 eggs
10g Sweetener - this is optional, and the more sweetener you use, the more grainy the texture of your  custard/ice cream will be
1 tsp Vanilla Essence

Method

1.  Place the coconut milk and cream into a saucepan and heat gently.  Keep stirring until you see bubbles just starting to form at the edge of the pan.  Remove from the heat.

2.  Separate the eggs, keeping the yolks.

3.  Whisk the egg yolks until they go slightly pale.

4.  Add the egg yolks a spoonful at a time to the saucepan, making sure to stir in each spoonful until fully combined before adding the next.  (If you do this too quickly, you'll end up with sweet scrambled eggs!) . Keep going until all the egg yolks are combined - it takes a few minutes to do this.

5.  Put the pan back on the heat and heat gently, stirring all the time.  It seems to take forever, but eventually the custard will thicken.  If you're just after custard, pour it over your favourite dessert straight away... I love this just poured over sliced bananas!

6.  If you're making ice cream (or just like cold custard), pour the custard into a bowl and chill in the fridge until cold.  (To stop the custard getting a skin, put some cling film over the surface).

7.  Use an ice cream machine to turn the custard into ice cream.  Alternatively, pour the custard into a suitable dish and put in the freezer.  If you're doing it this way, take the mixture out every half hour or so and give it a good stir - this breaks up any ice crystals that form while freezing.

Fast French Onion Soup for Cheats!

Firstly - this is not the way to make french onion soup.  Seriously, it takes ages to make french onion soup properly to get that amazing onion flavour - some people say it takes 2-3 days to do right! But this cheat version can be ready in about 40 minutes, and for me it gives me enough of the essence of the real thing to satisfy.  Turn your nose up at my cheats if you like, but I love it!

Ingredients

2 tbsp oil (I use sunflower oil)
50g butter
1kg sliced onions (I use a big bag of frozen onions)
1 tbsp sugar
2-3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced (or use 3-4 tsp of powdered garlic)
1 tbsp plain flour
8-12 beef stock cubes (depends on how beefy you like it)

Method

1. Melt the butter in the saucepan and add the oil.

2. Add the onions and fry them until they go soft (about 10 minutes on a medium high heat).

3.  Add in 1 tbsp of sugar and continue to fry with the lid on until the onions start to go brown - but don't let them burn.  (If you started with frozen onions, you may want to keep the lid off as a lot more water needs to come out.) . It takes around 20-30 minutes for this, be patient.

4.  Add the garlic and flour and cook for 5 minutes more.  The flour sometimes makes the onions go a bit gloopy, if that happens add a little water to loosen them up.

5. Add 1.5 litres of boiling water from the kettle, and 8 stock cubes to the pan.  I hate crumbling oxo cubes and the way it makes my fingers feel gritty, so I have a technique... If you fold back the foil flaps carefully, and gently squeeze the cubes, you can crush them still in the packaging, so you don't have to get them all over your hands.

If you like it beefier, add some more stock cubes to taste.

6. Simmer for a few more minutes, then serve.  The classic way is to serve in a bowl and add a slice of toasted baguette with some melted cheese on top.  I sometimes just crumble a bit of cheese straight in and have some chunky bread for dipping.

Split Pea and Lentil Soup

Soups are usually really easy to make, but this one is super simple, and only has a few ingredients.  As with most soups and stews, it tastes better the day after making it too.  My version uses gammon, but if you want to make this vegetarian, you can just use vegetable stock as the base instead.

Ingredients

1 gammon joint (or use Ham or Vegetable stock cubes instead to make up a stock)
150g Yellow Split Peas
150g Red Lentils
250g Chopped Onions (frozen chopped onions are brilliant!)
3-4 large carrots (or if you're lazy - which I often am - 2 small tins of carrots)
2 tsp Garlic powder, or 2 cloves of crushed garlic (optional)

Method

1. Place the gammon joint in a saucepan and cover with boiling water.  Simmer this for 1-1.5 hours until the meat is cooked through.  You need to check this every 15-20 minutes or so, and top up the water if required.

2. Remove the meat from the saucepan (leaving the stock in the pan) and leave it to cool.  Peel and slice the carrots.  Add these to the saucepan along with the split peas and lentils.  (If you're using tinned carrots, don't add these until a few minutes before serving.)

3. Return the pan to the boil for around 30 minutes, until the all the vegetables are soft.  Add the chopped onions and garlic and simmer the soup until it thickens (keep checking this every 10-15 minutes - you don't want your peas sticking and burning on the bottom of the pan - it takes 30-60 minutes to turn into a lovely thick soup).

4. To serve, chop up or shred some of the meat and place in the soup bowl (if you're a meat eater).  Spoon out the soup on top, and serve with a chunk of your favourite bread (perhaps Soda Bread?) for dipping - easy peasy!

Tip
Split peas and red lentils are usually cheaper in the 'World Foods' aisle in the supermarket.

Tiffin

As I've said before, I hate baking, as it usually turns out disastrously...  Tiffin frees me from that, as there's no baking involved!  It's a crunchy, super-sweet indulgence of chocolate and tasty morsels and really easy to make, but it's very rich, and can only be consumed in small quantities.  This is one for sharing - I make it for my annual Eurovision party, or to take in to work for a colleague treat.

Ingredients

400g Chocolate (I usually go for dark chocolate, but any will do)
150g Digestive Biscuits
150g Maltesers
75g Raisins
150g Butter, plus a little extra for greasing
4 tbsp Golden Syrup (actually, this time I used Vanilla Syrup from theskinnyfoodco.com which worked just as well - it's there to soften the set chocolate a bit)

Method

1.  Place the biscuits in a plastic bag and smash them with something solid until they are in crumbs.  Do the same with the Maltesers.  It's nicer if there are still some small chunks, and they're not completely crushed to a powder.

2.  Break up 200g of the chocolate into a bowl and add 100g of the butter, along with 2 tbsp of the syrup.

3.  Melt and stir the mixture together.  You can do this in a microwave by heating on a medium power for 30 seconds at a time, and stirring in between, as long as you take care not to get the mixture too hot (it goes thick and lumpy if overheated).  Or you can use the classic method of stirring over a pan of simmering water until the ingredients combine.

4.  Once the mixture is just combined, add the raisins, crushed biscuits and Maltesers and stir together until distributed evenly.

5.  Line a container with baking paper, and rub a little butter all over the paper to stop the tiffin from sticking.  Pour the chocolate mixture into the container and smooth out to a layer around 1-2cm thick.  Leave this in the fridge to set for 1-2 hours.

6.  Melt the remaining 200g of chocolate, 50g of butter and 2 tbsp of syrup in the same way as before.  Pour over the set mixture to form a thin topping layer and smooth out where you can - it doesn't need to be perfect at all.  Place back in the fridge for another 1-2 hours.

7.  Once set, remove from the container and cut into small squares to serve (seriously, it's really rich, so very small mini-bites are best!).  Store the tiffin in the fridge - it will last at least a week if need be, probably even longer.

Alternative Options

I personally use Maltesers and Raisins in my tiffin, but you can use whatever you find tasty - as long as there's enough crushed biscuits to stop it going rock hard, the world is your oyster.  Chopped dried apricots or cranberries would be good.  I'm not a nut person, but if you are, you could try chopped almonds, peanuts or walnuts in the mix.  Or go crazy and add some popping candy, Crunchie bars, Rice Krispies or mini marshmallows.  Maybe try using a chocolate orange as the base, or ginger nuts as the biscuits.  Add some peppermint essence or chilli powder to the recipe if you like.  It's really up to you - the possibilities are endless.

Northern Irish Pasties

Another peculiarly Northern Irish food is the Pastie.  For the rest of the British Isles, a pastie is some sort of pastry with a savoury filling, but for the Ulsterman, it's normally battered deliciousness, available at every chippy (mmm, pastie and chips 🤤).  Even better when put in a bread roll to make a Pastie Bap!

Ingredients

500g Northern Irish Vegetable Roll
1kg Potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks (I often use frozen mash instead as a time saver)
100g Butter
2x 130g Batter Mix (yes, another cheat - but it's only about 25p a pack and saves time!)
Salt
Oil for frying

Method

1. Cover the potatoes in lightly salted water and bring to the boil.  Boil for 15-20 minutes until soft.

2. Drain the potatoes and mash with the butter until smooth.  Try to use as little butter as possible, as you want your potatoes to be fairly dry.  I'm really bad at doing mash without lumps (I have no patience!), so I use a potato ricer to get it smooth.

3. Put the vegetable roll and mash into a bowl and knead together with your hands until the mixture is an even paste.

4. Shape the mixture into balls that fit in the palm of your hand and squash slightly to make patties.  You should get around 20 from this mixture.  Place these in the fridge to chill for around 30 minutes.

5. Heat your oil in a pan (I use a wok) - if you have a deep fryer use that.  Make sure the oil is hot.

6. It's not hot enough. Wait until it's hot!  In the meantime, make up the batter mix from the pack instructions, but use slightly less water than it says to get a thick batter.

7. Coat the patties in the batter (it's easiest if you keep one hand wet and one hand dry).  Now the tricky bit... Hold the battered patty half in, half out of the oil for a few seconds, before dropping in.  This gives the batter time to set slightly before you let go, which will help it not to stick to the bottom of the pan (or basket).

8. Fry in batches of around 4 patties at a time (to prevent the oil cooling down) for around 5-7 minutes until the batter is a golden and crispy.  Turn them over in the pan halfway through cooking, to get an even colour. (Don't turn them too much, as they have a tendency to fall to bits if you do.)  Let them cool a little before eating.

It's unlikely you will eat 20 pasties in one go!  You can keep them in the fridge for a few days, and reheat in the oven at 230℃ for around 10 minutes.  They can also be frozen - double the cooking time if oven baking straight from frozen.  Oven cooking is great, as it makes the batter go extra crispy!

Alternative options

If you're not keen on deep fat frying and batter and all the mess and potential burning that goes with that, skip steps 5-8.  You can just fry the patties as they are for a few minutes on each side, and they still taste great.  Or, coat the patties in plain flour, then beaten egg, then breadcrumbs, and bake in the oven at 230℃ for about 15-20 minutes until cooked through.

Sugar Free Lemon and Lime Loaf Cake

I hate baking.  There, I've said it!  Almost every time I bake, it just doesn't come out right.  I get collapsed cakes and stodgy muffins.  They normally taste OK, but they just aren't quite right, know what I mean?

But my husband LOVES cake.  Unfortunately, he is diabetic, and cakes need sugar to give it the texture.  But do they?  After looking at many recipes and tweaking them, I have finally found a cake with no sugar, that even I can bake and comes out right every time.  And as a bonus, it's not bad on the old carbs either.

Also, I have finally discovered the two keys to baking - ALWAYS measure everything very carefully, and ALWAYS pre-heat the oven!

Ingredients

175g Low Fat Spread (or butter, if you can afford the calories!)
30g Granulated Sweetener (I prefer the taste of sucralose sweeteners - usually in yellow packaging)
225g Self Raising Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
3 large or 4 small Eggs (beaten)
3 tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tbsp Lime Cordial

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180℃.  Place the low fat spread and sweetener in a bowl.

2. Stir until they just come together and you can't see any granules left.  With an electric mixer, this only takes a few seconds.

3.  Mix the flour and baking powder together.  Add 2 tablespoons of the flour mixture and one tablespoon of beaten egg and whisk until combined.  Repeat this until all the flour mixture and egg have been combined in the mix.

4.  Add the lemon juice and lime cordial and whisk until combined.

5. Pour the mixture into a lined loaf tin.  I am lazy, and buy pre-made tin liners, but baking paper works just as well, or you can grease the tin with butter.

6.  Bake in the oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour.  It's done if you can stick a skewer in the middle and it comes out clean.  Serve in slices.

Northern Irish Vegetable Roll

Vegetable Roll is confusing to folk from outside Northern Ireland.  Why?  Because it's mostly meat!  More correctly, it's sausage meat and vegetables, normally served fried or grilled in rounds as part of an Ulster Fry, Northern Ireland's favourite cooked breakfast.  Imagine slices of black pudding, but made from sausage meat instead of blood.

Since moving to Manchester, I've craved vegetable roll a lot, but never been able to find it.  One of the Asda stores nearby did have an experiment where they replaced the butchery counter with a franchise from a Northern Irish butcher and for one glorious year, vegetable roll was available whenever I wanted it... but sadly it didn't last.  I've been trying to make my own for a while, but the one recipe I found for it online tasted wrong and included odd ingredients I wouldn't normally have (what on earth is mace??!!).  Eventually I started experimenting and this is the version I've liked the most.

Ingredients

900g Sausages
(2 packs - these should traditionally be beef, but I like Asda Butcher's Selection Pork & Tomato)
2 Spring Onions
2 Baby Leeks (they had none today, so I used about half a normal leek)
120g Fine Breadcrumbs (yes, I cheat on this and use packet breadcrumbs, but I'm lazy!)
Pinch of salt and black pepper

Method

1. Take the skins off the sausages and put the sausage meat in a bowl.

2. Finely chop the spring onions and leeks.  I use an electric chopper (a bit like a tiny food processor) that I picked up for about a tenner.  It makes life easier and gives you nice tiny pieces.

3. Add the chopped leeks and spring onions, along with the breadcrumbs to the bowl with the sausage meat, and add a little salt and pepper.

4. Time to get your hands dirty!  Knead the whole mixture with your hands until it all comes together.  It's done when the vegetables are fairly evenly spread and you can no longer feel the grittiness of the breadcrumbs.

5. Turn out the mixture on to a board and form into a thick sausage shape, about 6-8 cm thick.

6. Wrap the mixture tightly in cling film.  If you need to, roll it while in the cling film to get a nice round shape.  Then chill the sausage in the fridge for a few hours.

7.  Once chilled, cut the sausage into rounds around 1-2 cm thick.  If you're not using it all at once, it will freeze really well.  To cook, fry or grill the rounds for around 5 minutes on each side until cooked through.  Or do what I do, oven bake it at 180℃ for about 15-20 minutes - this results in a bit of a drier meat, but I love the crunchy crust this gives the outside.

Welcome to Grubbed Up!

Here we go - I'm starting a new blog - this one to focus on food and recipes!  I don't know if I'll update every week or only post once a year - and actually, it doesn't matter - this is mainly just a way for me to be creative when the mood takes me.

The original thought behind this blog came from looking for a specific recipe online (for Northern Irish Vegetable Roll if you're wondering), and not being able to find it.  (Well, I found one but it had weird ingredients in it (what the heck is mace????) - and didn't really taste like what I remember.) . So I experimented until I got something that I enjoyed - why not share this with the world?

A lot of food blogs focus very much on cordon bleu, pseudo-chef style fine dining.  That's not what I'm aiming for here!  I'm just going to be sharing things I personally like to eat.  You see, I DON'T cook everything from scratch (gasp!).  I take shortcuts.  I use ready-made pastry and frozen mash.  And I don't care!  Don't expect pretty, instagram-ready meals from me, just tasty grub.  Nothing here will be going on Rate-My-Plate 😂.  If you like it, great - if not, no problem, it's down to your own taste.

The main thing here is I like trying things out and adapting them to make myself happy - isn't that what food is all about?