Fabulously Spicy Fish Steaks

As I said before this was adapted from a Delicious recipe. It's actually gluten-free, but I nearly took the roof of my mouth off with the spices so I have tweaked it a wee bit in order to make it not so spicey, but I'll also list the ingriedents if you like a bit of spice in your life and aren't a total wuss like me.


Ingredients

• 4 Cod steaks (or any other white fish)
• Sunflower oil
• A couple of limes to squeeze over your fish or for making your plate look fancy!
• 2 Tsp cumin seeds (halve this amount if your a wuss like me)
• 2 Tsp coriander seeds (halve this amount if your a wuss like me)
• 3 Tsp fennel seeds
• 1 Tsp Cayenne pepper
• 1 Tsp ground turmeric
• 1 Lemon
• 75g Plain yogurt (I used greek natural yogurt and 100g of it to mellow the spices)
• 1 Small red onion
• 2 Tbsp fresh coriander
• 4 Tsp fresh ginger 
• 2 Cloves of garlic
• 1/2 Tsp salt

Serves 4

Extra's 

• Spice grinder or a pestle&mortar

Method 

• First you need to get on with making the spice mix for the fish to marinade in for a few hours. So get all your spices to hand, and fry up the cumin, coriander and fennel seeds in a frying pan until they start to give off a scent then pop in your grinder or pestle and mortor and give them a good old grind under they're powder.
• Next toast off the cayenne and turmeric in the pan in the same way and add to the other spices.
• Pop in a bowl with the juice of the lemon, yogurt, 4 tsp of grated ginger, onion, garlic, salt and fresh corinander finely chopped (I use scissors, it's so much easier then fannying around chopping with a knife) and give it all a good old stir.
• Smother the fish steaks in the mix and then place in a bowl/tray in the fridge covered with clingfilm and marinade for a few hours.
• When your ready to cook the fish up, preheat the grill to a medium heat and brush a small amount of oil on a baking tray that you can pop in the grill. 
• Pop the fish on the tray and under the grill for about 10minutes. you shouldnt need to turn them over and 10 minutes should be pleanty for the fish to cook through.
• Take them out of the grill, and serve up with the limes, rice or any other accompanyment you might like.
• At 192 calories and only 0.7g of saturated fats its a lovely nice healthy din dins for the summer, so get stuck into the tucker!

       

You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth

Afternoon my lovers!
And what a lovely sunny afternoon it is, not that I'd know since I don't leave the house for anything less than an emergency.
Yet again The Other Bowel Problems and related ball aches have struck me down and hindered the blogging process, I won't go into it all because your probably more fed up of hearing about my ruddy  Bowel Prob's than I am about having them. I basically started on two new tablets last week and one was torture, after a phone call to my consultant and after much pleading and crying (me not him) we (I) decided that I would stop taking said medication. Which is probably best for everyone involved since I was a living breathing nightmare for the short time I was on said tablets.
Anyway.
Did anyone hear about 'Gluten-Gate' aka the 'Demetre Disaster' aka The Royal Muck Up That was Antony Demetre Appearance On Saturday Kitchen?
The general gist as I understand it is Anthony Demetre chef extraordinaire (ahem) appeared on Saturday Kitchen (cooking show here in England for any over sea's folk) and took the opportunity to say that since he became Coeliac he 'eats pizza and pasta every 3 months' because otherwise his 'body rejects it'. Now I won't go into how misleading his comments are  or how irresponsible what he said was or how he failed to issue a satisfactory statement complete with apology because theres only so many ways I can express my anger and irritation without resorting to losing my rag and throwing some unsavoury language about the place.
But.
I will say this...(waves goodbye to dream of gluten-free baking show on the BBC)
The BBC had a responsibility to issue a statement and a apology to the viewers of Saturday Kitchen and also the Coeliac community due to the sensitive nature of the comments made regarding a serious disease and the misleading comments that were made about lifestyle regarding said disease.
Gluten Free Guerrilla's emailed the BBC on three occasions only to receive wishy washy responses and NO formal apology (the BBC also failed to issue any apology on the show despite complaints and outrage)
What made the situation even more frustrating was that Demetre's comments suggested that many Coeliac's could probably get away with the odd bit of gluten here and there such as he does, as he's 'one of the lucky ones' dontcha know! That statement is maddeningly confusing for coeliacs, especially those newly diagnosed, but also totally misleading for everyone else. Imagine turning up to your friends house for dinner and discovering they'd ordered pizza with the works because 'Anthony Demetre said it would be OK to have a sneaky bit of gluten every now and then' (my words not his). It's hard enough trying to impress upon people how serious the condition is without someone totally down playing what can be a very debilitating illness.
Obviously he's a chef not a doctor but people in the public eye have a responsibility to the general public to be careful about not making misleading or false statements such as the ones made on Saturday Kitchen and the BBC should have made an immediate apology and clarified the comments as false.
Anyway. I've said my piece, and made a complaint to Ofcom and the BBC. If you want to hear more on the story visit Gluten Free Guerrillas where you can see Demetre's agents statement and also the emails from the BBC to the Guerrilla's.
Did everyone have a good Easter? My mum and I spent 40 fraught minutes in the town on Good Friday shopping for things for her and my dads trip to Rome in May. The rest of the weekend was spent sorting and tidying and trying to sleep off the after effects of the poison, sorry, tablets.

Pretty sparkly egg from my Mama

Spring flowers

Gluten-Free Cupcake from The Swallow Bakery

My super cute and super bonkers cat Poppy asleep on top of the microwave

Pretty birthday wrap in a cheapo sainsburys frame, cute no?

Easter card

I haven't done much baking or cooking lately or though I have a few bake dated recipes which I'm

popping up soon. 

Today's recipe is from Delicious. If you don't read Delicious you have to get your hands on a copy, I love it. That and Sainsbury's food magazine are my favourites and I always find lots of ideas and the recipes don't often need much tweaking to make them gluten-free. 

I know I promised a give away before Christmas and I haven't forgotten, I'm going to do it when I get to 100 followers, that will give me time to accumulate a few lovely bits and bobs for the prize. 

My dad is doing a sponsored walk on the 12th of June in aid of Children's Hospices UK and Breast Cancer Campaign, it's a bit of a trek-a good 20 miles from Teddington Lock to the London Eye . 

I'm dead proud of him because it's not been long since his heart scare thing and him then being diagnosed with Angina so he's doing really well bless him. If you would be interested in sponsoring him email me at thekatieboobaker@hotmail.co.uk.

Sass & Belle

It's no secret that I'm a bit of a slut where dotcomgiftshop is concerned, but recently my gal pal Sophie introduced me to the oh-so-cute Sass&Belle...and a new obsession has been born (god help Mr Bank Manager).
Don't believe me? Check out this too-cute-for-words bits and bobs yourself. They're perfect little pressies for Easter (or for you, just because your awesome).

'Mama's cooking up a cheery piiiee!'...so pretty pinny

For those 'I.Just.Can't.Be.Arsed.You.Do.It' days

great for pegging recipes or notes up on your noticeboard!

 For keeping your cookbooks in order.

Are you sensing a theme here?

Mushroom madness...salt and pepper shakers.

Not very baking related I know,but adorable none the less.

Hang up your utensils (y'know..your spatulas and what not)

Magnetic noticeboard, pop up your recipes,memos or family pics.

Who doesn't love a bit of bunting?

Gluten-free toast only!

Kreativ Blogger Award

My gorgeous and lovely pal Sophie from Cider with Sophie tagged me in this award.She's such a sweetheart and is so creative and clever so go check out her blog!)

Rules:

Say 10 facts about yourself

You must tag 10 bloggers

Tell them about the award!

Who I am tagging:

• The super sweet Caleigh at Gluten-free[k]
• The girls over at the ace new dieting blog Where Are My Knees?
  
• New find and fav read of the week, Bee at vivatramp
  
• Lovely Ms Pink at  The Pink and Blue Blog
  
• My gorgeous buddy Skye at "even artichokes have hearts"
  
• The very cute Lyzi at being little
• The cheeky Emma at Voodle
  
• Another lovely Lizzy at EABeauty
  
• The ridiculously clever Chris at Dulcie Blue Bakery
  
• The amazingly talented Sally at Sally Faye Illustration
  

                            Now, ten things about me:

1. Despite my fear of the dark I wear an eye mask to bed.

weheartit

 2. I like my orange juice warmed in the microwave for 30seconds. I don't even know why.

weheartit

3. I'm a terrible coward, my list of fears is endless...heights, deep water, kids, spiders and eyeballs...happily not needles.

4. For the past 2 weeks I've been sucking a dummy at night because I read online it could help me stop clenching my jaw at night. Sexy.

5.My favourite book when I was a kid was Sophie's Snail by Dick King Smith

6.My favourite book now is a toss up between The Secret History by Donna Tartt and Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks.

weheartit

 
7.I used to work at Gap, it was the best job I've ever had, namely because we got to wear radio head sets and could do Britney dance routines in the fitting rooms

8.I once tricked my mum into putting mustard on her sunburn when we were on holiday in Majorca. I broke the news that I made it up 3 days later.

9. I'm unashamedly obsessed with all things Disney, my favourite holiday is Florida and Disney World, I'm currently working on The Boyf to get married at The Disney Wedding Pavilion. He said he's rather blow his brains out.

10. I have a talent for accents. My speciality is Australian.

Cheeky Cranberry and Cream Cheese Muffins

Ingredients

• 100g Cream cheese (Philadelphia)
• 200g Plus x2 25g caster sugar 
• 175g Cranberries (I used frozen cranberries defrosted )
• 1 Tsp vanilla extract
• 2 Eggs
• 2 1/2fl Sunflower oil (don't be tempted to use olive oil,it will make the muffins taste vile!)
• 200g Plain flour (Doves Farm,Glutafin)
• 2 Tsps Gluten-Free Baking Powder

Makes 12


Extras

• 12 Muffins cases
• 12 Hole muffin tray
• Small pan

Method

• Pop the oven up to Gas mark 5 and get on with beating 25g of sugar into a bowl with the cream cheese, mix well until its all combined and whack it in the fridge until you need it later.
• Throw the cranberries and another 25g of caster sugar into a small pan over a low heat. Warm the cranberries through until they start to pop and the sugar has dissolved. Take it off the heat and give them a little mash up with the back of a wooden spoon.
• Get yourself a big bowl and sift in the flour,baking powder and the 200g of sugar and a tiny pinch of salt and give it all a quick stir. 
• Crack in the eggs, pour in the oil and add the vanilla extract along with the mashed cranberries and give it a big old stir until everything is combined and well mixed. It won't be smooth like a normal muffin/cake mix because of the cranberries so don't panic.
• Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases and dollop a spoonful of the cream cheese mix in the middle of the cranberry muffin mix.
• Pop in the oven for 25minutes, they should be golden and lovely and slightly oozing on the top where the cream cheese is. Leave to cool, sit back and prepare to be popular!

Lovely Lemon Macarons (Are you on Team Macaron?)

 So here we go a lovely gluten free macaroon recipe you can get your teeth into. Make sure you make these on a day when you have no appointments/things to do/people to see/sleep to be had. The times I've had to ring up and cancel appointments because my macaron's aren't ready..
The original recipe is gluten-free anyway, but I couldn't resist twiddling with the recipe and changing the lemon curd around so I could use my own recipe for it.

  
Ingredients

• 2 Large eggs (I always use free range, chickens have feelings to y'know)
• 60g Ground almonds
• 110g Confectioners sugar  (icing sugar to you and me)
• 20g Superfine white sugar
• 1 Tbsp of lemon juice
• Yellow food colouring (optional)

For the lemon curd

• 50g Butter
• 1 Large egg
• 2 Heaped tbsp of cornflour or potato flour
• Zest and juice of a nice big chunky lemon
• 50g Caster sugar

Extras

• Saucepan
• Piping bag and nozzles
• Hand whisk

Method

• Make your lemon curd first then you can let it cool and forget about it until you need it later. Whisk the egg in a small pan, add the rest of the ingredients and whisk over a medium heat for about 3-4 minutes until the mixture starts to thicken. When it reaches this stage turn the heat down to the lowest heat and simmer for about a minute. Take off the heat and let it cool and then pop in the fridge.
• Pop the oven up to gas mark 5. You need to finely grind your almonds and icing sugar together, so whack them in a blender together and whizz up until the mixture is fine enough to strain. Next strain over a baking tray lined with parchment and cook for 5-7 minutes and take it out to cool.
• Separate your eggs and plop the whites in a big bowl and whisk into peaks with your hand whisk or by hand if your Iron Man. 
• Gradually add the superfine sugar a bit at a time whilst still whisking on a fairly fast speed. At this stage you can add your lemon juice and your food colouring if you want to add it, it just makes the mixture nice and yellow and lemony looking.Obviously.
• Fold your cooled almond and sugar mixture into the egg white mix until nicely combined.
• Spoon the mixture into your icing bag (you'll need a fairly wide nozzle, big enough to make small(ish) circles). Pipe your macarons mix onto a baking sheet with fresh parchment and let it stand for an hour somewhere nice and dry away from tiny hands, nosey boyfriends and clumsy cats, until the macarons have started to form a crust on the tops.
• Pop in the oven for 10-12minutes. Once cooked let them cool and then gently (and I mean gently because after all this faffing your going to scream the house down if you break them by being a clumsy oaf) remove them from the tray and leave to cool completely on a baking tray.
• Next you can sandwich the macarons together with the lemon curd you made about 36 hours ago.  Spread the curd carefully over a macaroon and sandwich another on top. Pop them in the fridge for another hour before you dish them out to family and friends. Cupcakes not looking so bad now, huh?

Team Cupcake

So. The new kid on the block is the Macaron. This year will be the year the Macaron will trounce the Cupcake and blow the Whoopie out of the water.
Apparently.
They are defiantly what I'd call the 'posh gals cupcake'. While they're pretty and all that jazz I'm not entirely sure (OK, pretty much certain) that they will ever replace Cupcakes in my affections, plus having made them myself I can honestly say that in terms of taste they ain't got nothing on the humble Cupcake.
To me the Cupcake is like Jennifer Aniston..reliable, lovely and likeable..the girl next door of baked goods. Then theres the Macaron. The Macaron is like Angelina Jolie..an overated puff of air.
In the case of the Cupcake Vs Macaron, I would argue that not only is the cupcake an easy bake but its always a crowd pleaser, and while a Macaron looks pretty on a plate it's nothing short of a ball ache to make (oooo that rhymes!).
I know, I know, the cupcake is more overexposed that Katie Prices love life (almost) but theres something so simple, so yummy and so comforting about the beloved cupcake (I just a searched for team cupcake t-shirts and found loads..as if I'd actually wear one..I so would).
Anyway.
Obviously I would in no way want to influence your opinion in this matter one way or another (cupcake, cupcake, cupcake, cupcake, cupcake) so today's recipe is for macarons. Exciting,no?
So you can all decide for yourselves which is better. While your doing that I'll just be over here...stuffing my face with cupcakes...

I Want To Be A Millionaire Shortbread

Millionaires shortbread seems like one of those things that should be super duper hard to make, but this recipe is actually surprisingly easy. The recipe is in part inspired by a Phil Vickery recipe, but the rest I've tweaked and changed to make it easier and even more yummy (if I do say so myself).

Ingredients

• 120g Butter
• 60g Golden caster sugar
• 160g Plain flour mix (Doves Farm, Glutafin)
• 397g Tin Carnation Caramel (Nestle)
• 200g Milk chocolate
• 100g White chocolate
• A few drops of vanilla extract

Extras

• Baking parchment
• 20cm Tin (I used a round tin)

Method

• Pop the oven up to Gas mark 4. Grease the tin with butter and line with baking parchment.
• Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl then add the vanilla extract. Sieve in the flour and run into the butter flour mix with your finger tips until it looks a bit like breadcrumbs.
• Pop the mixture into your lined tin and press down with your fingers or the back of a metal spoon until even.
• Bake in the oven for 20-25minutes. Take it out of the oven and leave to cool.
• When the base is cool pour the caramel over the base spreading evenly and pop in the fridge. The caramel won't set completely but will harden slightly.
• Melt the milk and white chocolate in separate bowls, either in the microwave or over simmering water. Pour the milk chocolate over the caramel until its completely covered. Use the white chocolate to drizzle over the milk chocolate to create a marbling effect.
• Pop back in the fridge when the chocolate has cooled. When the chocolate has set, slice into pieces. Stuff your pockets full and run for the hills.

Teenage Dream

Hello my Katie-Boo Babes!
Long time no see. I've been a bad blogger again. Although for good reasons this time other than The Other Bowel Problems (which are more bain of my life than mere problem at the moment.
Did anyone see a certain Miss Katie-Boo in the Dietary Special's e-newsletter last week? I got a mention for my Dietary Specials/Co-Op post that I did last week. It was quite exciting seeing my name in print(ish).
I've been out and about, despite feeling rough, visiting a few restaurants for another project coming up soon, and I've been rushing around with a Biro in my top knot screaming 'I've got a deadline!' to an  audience of my 3 cats and dog.
There have been some paranormal happenings happening at casa de Kate. Gary the Ghost has morphed from a mild mannered Casper like chap into a raging violent poltergeist. Pictures and the like have been flying off the wall and smashing, and I've taken to sleeping with my hardback copy of Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince under my pillow as its the closest thing to a weapon I have.
Wednesday was mine and Stevie's (The Boyf's) 6 year anniversary. I really have him to thank/blame for my fairly recent interest in food and baking, after feeding and cooking for me for three years at uni he graduated, leaving me to fend for myself thus forcing me to cook (direct any hate mail his way!). He's also put up with many a gluten-free induced tantrum over the years and has trudged around various cities and towns with me to find places to eat while I've wailed, 'I can't eat another jacket potatoooooooe!'. He really should be nominated for the New Years honour list.
I'm in the process of making 'labels' which will be on all my recipes to indicate whether they're gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian or low fat. I was also thinking of putting easy to hard ratings on all the recipes too, what do you guys think? I've also been having a rethink about the photos that accompany the recipes, would you like to see pictures of recipes in stages? I like to think my recipes are pretty straight forward but I'm more than happy to do photos of the process as well as the finished product, I just worry it would make for a rather picture heavy post. Let me know your thoughts on it.
Tomorrows recipe is a cracker, I know I say this about every recipe but this one is an all round winner, plus it'd be something Mum's up and down the country would appreciate come Mothers Day, so stay tuned.
I'll leave you for now with a few pictures of me and The Boyf through the years. Baking related it ain't..vomit inducing it could quite possibly be.

L-R 2007, 2007, 2005, 2010, 2006.