Cooking with Carly – By @carlyillston

Cooking with Carly

Hello friends. Seeing as I have not left my house since the last SCAB I wrote, I don’t have much exciting news to catch you up on. So I was having a think about what I could write about that is:

1. Exciting and different in my life, and

2. Interesting to the people reading it.

So I’ve decided to share some of my quarantine recipes that I’ve been making this week. Just a disclaimer, I am not a chef, but these were all really easy recipe and taste good so I thought I would share.

And also, some of these measurements are American and therefore do not make sense. (What even is a cup??) so good luck deciphering it.

Orange and Cranberry Muffins

I decided to make these muffins purely because my mum and dad both bought a load oranges without the other person knowing and they were slowly taking over the kitchen.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup fresh orange juice

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter

Orange zest to taste

2/3 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 cup milk

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Put the cranberries and orange juice in a small saucepan, and bring just to a simmer

over medium heat. Remove berries from the heat, and set aside to cool. Drain off any excess liquid and set aside.

3. Lightly brush a 12-muffin tin with butter. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a

medium bowl and set aside.

4. In a large bowl, cream the butter, orange zest, and 2/3 cup sugar until light and fluffy,

about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Remove the bowl from the mixer.

5. Fold the flour in 3 parts into the butter mixture, alternating with the milk in 2 parts,

until just combined. Fold in the cranberries. Do not over mix. Divide the batter evenly into the muffin tin and sprinkle the tops with sugar. Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes. Cool muffins in the pan on a rack. Serve warm.

Lemon Drizzle

Sadly I have not been able to hop on the banana bread baking trend because Bermuda is somehow completely out of bananas, and we have been for the last 3 months. An Island with bananas? I know, it’s almost unheard of. Also, this recipe is in English, not American, so it’s easier to understand.

145g self-raising flour

115g softened butter

115g caster sugar

1tsp baking powder

2 large eggs

grated zest of 1 lemon

juice of 1 lemon

for the icing:

icing sugar and lemon juice.

1. Preheat oven to 150c

2. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl, then add all other ingredients.

3. Add into a greased tin and cook for 25-30 mins. That was easy.

4. Let the cake cool for 5 mins, but make sure to ice it while it’s still hot. Mess around

with the icing sugar and lemon measurements, but try and make it into a paste. Stick a few holes into the cake before you pour it on so the drizzle goes all the way in to the cake.

Peanut Sauce Stir Fry

Okay this is my own recipe so the measurements aren’t as strict. Just add whatever you would normally add into a story fry, but I add:

Broccoli

Onion

Garlic

Edamame

Red peppers

Couple handfuls of spinach/ kale

Mushrooms

Tofu

Whatever type of noodles you like

Sesame oil

For the sauce:

Soy sauce

Peanut butter

Little bit of teriyaki

To serve:

Slices of lime

Crushed peanuts

Sliced spring onion

This is a super easy recipe. Just cut up all the veg and cook in a big saucepan with some sesame oil. Add the peanut style sauce once all the veg is cooked, then throw in the edamame and spinach. Boil water, cook noodles, drain noodles, serve noodles, eat noodles.

Vegan Potato Salad

Okay this is another recipe that I just made up as I went along so bear with.

potatoes (obviously)

chives

red onion

vegan mayo (I use Vegenaise)

paprika

salt & pepper

and I used a seasoning pack called “savoury herbs” which is incredibly descriptive and doesn’t actually tell you what’s in it, so sorry about that I guess just add whatever seasoning you have in your cupboard.

1. Boil the potatoes, and let them cool for 10 mins. Cut them up into smaller pieces, the add all the other ingredients and give it a good stir. Refrigerate before eating.