Foody DIY- Homemade Sushi Ginger

At the moment we’re on a bit of a Japanese food kick. Think lots of stir fries, sushi and ramen and you get the picture.

One thing that I love to have with Japanese food, sushi or not, is pickled ginger or gari as it is often called.

I get through so much of the stuff that when a rather bemused boyfriend suggested making my own I thought it might be a good idea.

The recipe is really simple and makes a jar more than twice the size of the ones you buy in the supermarket, for less money. I worked out that it cost me around £1.60 to make my big jar of ginger so whilst it takes a little while and smells a little, it’s more than worth it.

What you will need:

250g ginger, peeled

2 teaspoons salt

120ml rice vinegar

120ml water

110g sugar

Method:

1.       Use a vegetable peeler or sharp knife to thinly slice the ginger

2.       Place the ginger in a bowl and sprinkle with the salt and mix thoroughly, making sure that all of the ginger is coated. Leave for 30 minutes for the salt to draw out the excess liquid.

3.       Transfer the ginger into a sterilised jar, squeezing out any last liquid with your hands as you do so.

4.       Heat the water, sugar and vinegar on medium until the sugar is fully dissolved before turning to high and bringing to the boil (this is the smelly part!)

5.       Once boiled, tip the vinegar mixture into the jar of ginger so that the jar is full and the ginger fully covered.

6.       Allow to cool for 30 minutes before sealing and placing in the fridge for a week to pickle.

Once the ginger has pickled, it can be kept for a month in the fridge. Over the week where it I pickling, the ginger will slowly turn a light pink which it perfectly normal, it is a reaction between the ginger and the vinegar. 

And boom, there you have it, the recipe for your own homemade gari. If you make some of your own let me know, I’d love to know what you think of it.

Annie xx

A Cheeky Shopping Trip ;)

Lately I've been staying fairly well behaved when it comes to spending, what with christmas, then not having a job for a few weeks but when I found out I'd got my new job I went out on a little trip to celebrate and buy myself a few treats. In my defense I also bought most of Daniels valentines gifts on the same trip so I didn't JUST spend money one me :)
Here's what I bought myself, by the way, I apologize for the terrible photos, they were taken on my phone as I was doing some late night tidying.

My first stop was Space NK where I picked up this pretty Rococo nail varnish. It's the first varnish of theirs that I've tried and I must say I am impressed. I have a review coming up for you when I'm back from Tenerife :)

Next up I popped in to The Body Shop to take a look at their mineral foundation £15 because I've heard that it is a good comparison to the Bare Minerals version. I picked one up in the shade Natural Vanilla (not the lightest for a change!) and so far so good, again, review to come next week! Whilst I was there I was drawn in by one of their fab offers; if you spend £18 on makeup and/or skin care at the moment you get a full sized body butter worth £13 free. Don't mind if I do! To round my spend up a bit I picked up a travel sized cleanser and toner to try out since my usual Lush goodies are pretty chunky and wouldn't really fit in my over full suitcase. The lovely sales lady recommended the aloe cleanser to cool me off after a day in the sun and the seaweed toner because it's packed full of vitamins and minerals. When I left she also popped a few face cream samples in to my bag from the aloe and seaweed ranges too for me to pack which I thought was quite sweet even if she just wanted me to come back and buy more!

Next stop was WHS because I like to have a good snoop around the books and they tend to have some good offers on, as you can see from the BIG RED STICKERS on my new Mary Berry cookery book. Such a sweet little old lady. I love baking, I don't write about it often on here, but we do quite a lot of baking in this house (Would you like me to share baking posts more often?) As you can see, I got this book as part of a 2 for £10 deal and since Daniel won't see this before valentines day it won't ruin any surprises for me to say that the other book I bought was a yummy looking mexican cookery book for him to enjoy :)

Finally, being totally hooked on chocolate, I stopped off at the Thorntons outlet that we're lucky enough to have in Bath (sandwiched between Whittard and Ann Summers down near Southgate if you happen to be local) and managed to pick up this huge minty box of fabbyness for £7 down from £20ish. Being a complete old lady, after taking this I popped the mint humbugs in a little bag to keep in my handbag...old before my time I know *face palm*

So thats my little celebration haul. I also spent lots in Lush and Molton Brown on Daniels treats as well as his book and a heart shaped chocolate lollie for him to look cute eating :)
Annie x
*ps, I'm away until 17th and this post is scheduled so if you comment and don't get a reply, I promise it's not that I'm ignoring you! <3*

Beauty Baking: Preservatives and Parabens Unraveled

Its been ages since I wrote my first Beauty Baking post so if you want to refresh yourself then take a peek *here*. The basic idea behind Beauty Baking is learning to use products that are packed full of lovely, fresh, beneficial ingredients that will actively help you achieve the effect you want from your products.

Before I start going in depth about ingredients and telling you which ones to look out for and why I wanted to write a bit about preservatives in products, why they're used and where the "dreaded" parabens come in to the equation.

Ok, so first up we have preservatives. Any product containing water will contain a preservative of some kind as if it didn't then the shelf life would be approximately 2-3 weeks before the water would begin to react with the other ingredients causing bacteria to grow and you'd find that things would go nasty and mouldy. In some cases a natural preservative will be used, one example is Lush Fair Trade Honey shampoo where over 50% of the whole product is honey. Honey is a natural preservative and one of the only liquid substances that never goes off. In some cases oils are also used to prolong the life of products, such as caster oil or jojoba oil, which will lengthen a shelf life to around 6-12 months, but the water rule still applies; if there is water in there, it will need a chemical preservative to last any long length of time.

Which brings me on to parabens! Now, I can understand why some people go all out to avoid parabens as there has been some tenuous link between high exposure to paraben and the development of breast cancer (however I hope the people who avoid using any parabens also avoid going outside during the day, brushing their teeth, eating red meat and using mobile phones because all of these things also have the same tiny risk...) and the truth of the matter is that whilst the chemicals have found to be of the same composition to those found in breast cancers, there is no scientific proof that this is due to using products containing parabens on the skin.
So if people are so scared of using a product that contains paraben preservatives then why are they still manufactured? To be blunt, it is because they are cheaper to manifacture, however they are also known to be some of the best at prolonging shelf life. Paraben chemicals are known for their great bactericidal and fungicidal properties. A common natural alternative is grapefruit seed extract however it just cannot compare.

So hopefully this has helped people understand a little more about preservatives, parabens, what they are and what they do :) Now we can get onto fun beauty baking posts in the next few weeks. Sorry for the wordy post but I just felt it needed to be said before talking a bit more about the ingredients in products.
Annie x

Adventures in Chocolate Cheesecake

How better to spend a saturday than making chocolate cheesecake? Originally, Daniel and I set out to make *this* yummy looking recipe from River Cottage which uses avocados to make chocolate ganache but it turns out that the avocados need to be VERY ripe, so our bullet like offerings just didn't make the cut when it came to mashing...the less said about it the better really, so chocolate cheesecake was the next best option!

First of all came the biscuit base. We made this by crushing half a packet of digestive biscuits, mixing with a little melted butter and some chopped up pecan nuts. This was left to set in the fridge for around an hour whilst we threw bits of this and that together for the cheese topping :)

I'm afraid I can't tell you exactly what quantities of what were in the topping as it was just a case of throwing in what we thought until it tasted good. There was two 200g packets of extra low fat Philadelphia, lots of cocoa powder, icing sugar, vanilla essence, a little drinking chocolate, a shot of Tia Maria and two mini Hershies bars... so a bit of everything :D We also spread a thin layer of dulce de leche over the base before adding the chocolate topping.

After leaving it to set for a couple of hours (miraculously) it was able to be pushed out of the tin AND cut pretty easily...even if the base crumbled a little. It also tasted totally amazing, but trust me, you only need a tiny slice :P

Chocolate cheesecake along with snuggling up in front of the telly and very little other activity has made for a fab day thats made an ill Annie feel a little bit better.

What have you been up to today? Anything as exciting as making cheesecake? Have you had this horrible cold thingy thats going around? I'd love to know how long I'm going to feel so rubbish.
Annie xx

Chocolatey Loveliness!

Hi again.
I can happily say that I am finally getting over my tonsillitis and am feeling human again today! Yay!
To celebrate I dug out one of the recipes that I had stored to make on pinterest and I have to say that it is delicious!
I'm a fan of everything sweet and cookie like so I was excited to find this recipe as it fulfills my sweetness requirements but as it also contains two cups of oats, honey instead of sugar and peanut butter to hold it together, it isn't anywhere near as sinful as most recipes out there!
So here it is, a lovely, chocolatey snack bar recipe!

Ingredients:
3tbsp smooth peanut butter (could use crunchy to add extra texture)
3tbsp runny honey
25g butter
2tsp dulce de leche (optional for extra sticky, richness)
1 bag milk chocolate chips
2 cups oats
handful of dried fruit (optional)

Method:
1. Pour the peanut butter, honey, dulce de leche and butter into a microwaveable bowl and heat for 30 seconds. Stir and then heat for a further 30 seconds or until the butter has fully melted.
2. Remove and add the chocolate chips, stirring until mostly melted into the mixture.
3. Add the oats and blend in fully so all are coated in the chocolatey mixture.
4. Stir in the optional dried fruit before tipping into a tray and cooling in the fridge to set for 1 hour.
5. Enjoy :)

I can promise that these treats are definitely worth making, and because they're nice and easy. they are a great, slightly healthier choice to make with children.

Give them a go and let me know what you think :)
Annie x

Festivity!

Hello-ho-ho!
So, today I am feeling amazingly festive. I know its scarily early to be as excited I am for the christmas period but after a day like today I just can't help it :D
After a week of feeling rubbish due to tonsillitis, I decided to climb out of my pit of illness this morning and do a spot of baking to cheer myself up. The result? A beautiful, fruity, nutty, cinnamon filled christmas cake!
There is nothing more festive than baking a christmas cake I have decided. The smells are wonderful and the ingredients that have to, of course, be bought specially for the occasion each year just scream out winter to me.
I'm now ready to start my shopping, put up the tree and dance around in wooly clothing listening to Slade although I fear that this sort of behaviour may not yet be acceptable. Indeed, my fiancee does not share my enthusiasm at all and insists that celebrating is not allowed until after his birthday on 22nd November. So instead I shall content myself with counting down the days until then and changing my blog background to something a little more festive than should perhaps be allowed this early in November :)
Is anyone else feeling the christmas vibe yet?
Annie x

Let's Get Started!

Hello there,
I was planning on kicking off the new blog by making some delicious peanut butter cups to share, but, rather typically, the OH has polished off all of the peanut butter since I last looked.
SO, instead, I spent the afternoon battling a new chocolate torte recipe I found online.
In theory, it is an easy torte to make, and it is totally delicious...however it just didn't work for me today looks wise.
I would still hugely recommend trying it out, it tastes great!...and yours might turn out actually looking like torte, not just chocolate cake :P

Ingredients:

Method:

1. First of all, pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4/180c and grease a 23cm spring form cake tin.
2. Using an electric whisk, beat together the sugar and eggs for about 5 minutes until they are of a similar consistency to an old fashioned custard.
3. Next, gently heat the butter and chocolate together over a pan of water until smooth and glossy in appearance.
4. Using a metal spoon, fold the chocolate mix into the eggs and sugar until well combined.
5. Carefully add the flour and almonds and mix well until totally combined.
6. Pour into your baking tray and cook for 35 minutes until firm and a light crust has formed across the top of the torte.
7. Leave to cool until mildly warm and turn out of tin and dust with cocoa.
8. Eat before the OH does!

I think next time I decide to do some baking I'll stick to a recipe I know! And in a few days time I will be listing the peanut butter cups that I WILL make! 

Happy baking :) Let me know if you attempt to bake the infamous torte :)...And if you have a better torte recipe please please please share.

Annie x