Melomakarona - 300th POST!

This is my Christmas present to all of you this year. For my 300^th post (!), I bestow the recipe for the best cookies in the entire world. And I’m posting it in plenty of time so that you can go out and get the ingredients and set aside the time to make them. You honestly won’t regret it.

These are Greek Christmas cookies that you are only allowed to make at Christmas (according to my Greek friend!). They are delicately spiced, sweetened with syrup and they are my EVERYTHING. The amount of ingredients sounds ridiculous – and it is! This is a serious Christmas cookie recipe, you get about 60 of them. Enough to get you through the whole holiday season of gorging.

THIS ISN'T EVEN ALL OF THEM

Now, the recipe looks a little funny. I’ve never baked cookies with orange juice before. I've never dunked hot cookies in syrup before. I was worried that the dough wouldn’t come together and would be too sticky. I was worried the cookies would fall apart in the syrup. But it went great, it all worked out, trust me and just go with it. I bravely went first so that I could light the path for you guys.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Ingredients for syrup

• 375ml water
• 600g granulated sugar
• 100g honey
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 3 whole cloves
• 1 vanilla pod
• ½ an orange, halved again

For the cookies

• 400 ml orange juice
• 400 ml sunflower oil
• 180 ml olive oil
• Grated zest of 1 orange
• 1 kilo all-purpose flour
• 50 g icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 3 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 200 g fine semolina

To Finish

• A few tbsp. honey
• A handful of chopped walnuts

Method

Start with the syrup, you can make this a few hours beforehand (it has to be cool before you dip the cookies in it) or even the night before.

Add all of the ingredients except for the honey to a saucepan and gently heat until the sugar has melted and liquid is clear. Stir every now and again.

Remove from the heat and add the honey. Then set aside until cooled and ready to use.

When you’re ready to make the cookies, preheat the oven to 190C.

Add the orange juice, oils and orange zest into one bowl and whisk with a fork.

To another, bigger, bowl, add the flour, icing sugar, spices, bicarb and semolina.

Make a well and add the wet into the dry ingredients.

Mix very briefly, up to half a minute maximum.

Shape the dough with your hands into slightly flattened oval shape, about 4cm long.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and crispy.

Place the hot cookies in the syrup a few at a time. Dunk them real good so they're covered and coated in syrup.

A spatula will help

Coat in syrup and remove to a wire rack to dry off (I put a load of tinfoil underneath to catch the syrupy drips and make cleanup easier).

Drizzle over some honey and sprinkle over the walnuts and allow to dry and crisp up.

ENJOY

Sticky Honey Chicken

I really like Chinese takeaway. But, unfortunately I can’t eat takeout every day. Would that I could!

So this weekend, try this little homemade wonder. It is basically is my at home version of honey chilli chicken.  It's easy to whip up, and it really does satisfy that hungover craving that you may or may not suffer from come Sunday...

The chicken comes out beautifully sweet and tender and this is fast becoming one of my favourite dinners!

The great thing about making it yourself is that you can play up the flavours that you prefer – I don’t like sour so I keep the vinegar element to a minimum, but I like honey and chilli so I amp up those, and I throw in some sesame for good measure. Peanuts would also be killer with this.

Turkey Meatballs with Honey Sesame Sriracha Sauce

Taking a very short break from my regularly scheduled programming of cake and brownies.

Turkey mince is healthy, but it isn’t always the easiest meat to work with. I find that if you’re not careful, it can turn out a bit bland. Adding a highly flavoured sauce is the answer here. You cannot go wrong with spicy sesame, honey and paprika and it’s a combo that I rely on often. The sauce here is delicious and full of flavour, and would also be great with shredded chicken breasts.

I was also sceptical about cooking meatballs in the oven, I didn’t know how they would survive being cooked like that – and I was pleasantly surprised! They came out perfectly cooked and perfectly formed!

I made this as a main meal with rice and roasted veggies, but these meatballs would make an amazing pita sandwich. Just imagine them, stuffed inside the bread pocket with that sauce drizzled all over, some shredded red onion and salad to make an incredible lunch.

Makes 20

Greek Feast! Individual Spanakopita, Aioli, Honey Sesame Baked Feta

Greek food is awesome. I have always found the Greeks to be like a Mediterranean version of the Irish. The Greeks and Irish are both family orientated, with a matriarchal society, and use food as love. But the Greeks are more tanned than us. And their cuisine is superior.

There is a seriously amazing Greek restaurant nearby which is a family affair - dad and mum cook, sons hold the floor. It's my favourite restaurant and if I'm not there, chances are I want to be there. 

And then last weekend, my Greek friend made some amazing Greek food for dinner which I completely PIGGED OUT at. Everything was delicious (how had I never had moussaka before?!) but I was completely enamoured with the individual spinach pies (spanakopita). I had to make them. I bothered him for a week for the recipe. And as soon as I had it in my grubby hands, I made them. Winner.

Then, as I was feeling pretty Greek, I baked the leftover feta (warmed sweet and nutty cheese? Hello!) and whipped up some aioli.

The aioli was pretty easy to make, and much better than my last, disastrous, effort at making mayonnaise. 

"Jaffa Cake" Cake

Orange treat box - Jaffa cake cake AND chocolate orange brownies!

What is a girl to do when she has oranges needing used up? Make some cakes! It’s so obvious!

Historically, I haven’t been a fan of Jaffa cakes . But it’s getting wintery and nothing beats a chocolate and orange combination on an autumn evening. Plus, everyone knows that chocolate oranges are one of the unofficial chocolates of Christmas, so these flavours fit right in.

This is one of my favourite kinds of cakes to make, it’s super easy, the topping is sweet and tangy, and the chocolate piping is actually a lot of fun to do.

Makes one delicious cake, divides into 36 little bite size squares

Slow Cooker Honey Chilli Chicken

Ooh, this is a good one. I haven't had time to cook much with work and revision, so anything to make the process simpler is a good one for me!

The slow cooker is such a great invention. I use mine at least 2-3 times per month, normally on a weekend. There's nothing better than shoving some food into the slow cooker on a lazy Sunday morning and knowing that dinner is taken care of so that you can focus on the important Sunday activities which include sitting on the sofa and reading the paper.

I don't know about anyone else, but my favourite takeout is Chinese food, and I love a good deep fried honey chilli chicken. I'm always looking for ways to recreate those flavours at home and this one really hits the nail on the head.

This is one of the most simple meals I've made, and the first time I made it, I'll admit, I didn't have high hopes. But the flavours are insane! This is a really delicious dinner, and super simple. Make sure to scoop out some of the sauce because it is really amazing over rice. And apart from all the other things that make this meal amazing, it also is basically made from kitchen staples - I always have these items on hand which means I can have this dinner whenever I want. Which is often, no shame.

Mmm, gotta sop up that sauuce

serves 2 with leftovers

Ingredients

• 3 medium chicken breasts
• 1 red onion, roughly chopped
• 1 red pepper, roughly chopped
• ½ red chilli, deseeded and chopped small
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• ¼ cup tomato pasatta
• ¼ cup runny honey
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp oregano
• 2 tsp paprika
• 2 tsp sesame seeds

Method

Chop the chicken breasts in half and line the bottom of the slow cooker. Sprinkle over the onion, pepper and chilli.

Mix together the garlic, pasatta, honey, soy sauce, sesame oil, oregano and paprika until smooth. Pour this over the top.

Cook on low for 5 hours or high for 3-4 hours.

Remove the chicken and veg onto a plate, and pour over the sauce. Sprinkle over the sesame seeds and serve with rice or noodles.

Honey Mustard Chicken Tenders

I really love chicken. Definitely my favourite meat to cook with, because it’s just so easy and versatile. Somehow I don’t think I’ve ever made little chicken tenders before, which is a real shame. The blog has been skewing sweet lately, because Christmas = sugar. So I thought these would be lovely little morsels to re-introduce some savoury and make the sugar crash a little more bearable.

These are delicious little morsels of spiced, crispy chicken that are super easy to make. They might be baked, but the little drizzle of butter before baking gives them that delicious fried taste, without using a potful of oil.

These can be served however you like, but I was using mine in lieu of a Sunday dinner, so I went with comfort food – gravy, mash and sweetcorn. Broccoli, peas and carrots could easily have been added to the plate also but I was feeling lazy. Or you could serve with a crispy peppery salad instead. Or in a brioche bun with a drizzle of mayo.

Versatile and delicious. KFC has got nothing on me.

Wheaten Bread

That's what I'm talking about.

A taste of home! I just spent an excellent weekend at home, catching up with my wonderful family and friends, and of course eating my fave treats from Belfast. It inspired me to make this lovely dense loaf, a staple of my childhood diet.

So, this is an excellent loaf if you don’t have the time or will to follow the normal bread-making routine of kneed, let rise, kneed again, let rise again etc. It’s a traditional Irish type of bread which uses bicarbonate of soda for the rising part, meaning there is no yeast and therefore no need to spend half the day leaving it to rise. While I love the satisfaction that comes from a particularly well-risen yeast loaf, I do adore the flavour, simple method and speed of preparation of this lovely little loaf.

This is a dense, flavourful bread which I find goes particularly well with soup, and is absolutely exquisite buttered, warm from the oven.

Sweet Sesame Fried Chicken

Chinese takeout at home, anyone? I was always intimidated by this kind of thing because I didn’t think I’d be able to get it quite right. So, this recipe is a testament to just giving something a go. I researched a lot of recipes and this is an amalgamation of the nicest parts of about 6 different recipes. 

It really turned out deliciously, sweet and nutty and spicy and crunchy and overall damn delicious. And no MSG in sight!  OK it isn't the healthiest, but for a weekend treat I think deep frying is extremely justified.

Although the ingredients list might seem intimidating, they are all things which are easily sourced/cupboard staples, and a lot of the ingredients are repeated. There is quite a bit of preparation to this recipe, but once you have everything marinaded, chopped and mixed, it makes the actual cooking part a whole lot easier. I am awful for not prepping beforehand, so you'll find me frantically chopping a pepper while the onion burns in the pan because I don’t have enough hands to stir it.

Don’t be like me. Prep your vegetables before you start, and maybe read the recipe the whole way though beforehand too. Again, learn from my many mistakes.

Banana, Honey and Cinnamon-spiced Smoothie

Well, we are home from our hols and I am not happy about it. One thing I noticed in Dubai that every cafe had an extensive fresh fruit juice menu, with blended flavours creating delicious cold drinks. My obvious favourite is mint lemonade, which I plan to make soon for the upcoming summer weather (optimism!). But I noticed something similar to this on a menu, and I've turned it into a delicious spiced smoothie.

These smoothie posts are always light on photos, because there’s only so much that you can break a ‘peel, pour, blend’ recipe down into. They’re that simple.

There is only one simple fruit here, and it is allowed to shine. I don’t know about you, but I find eating a banana intensely boring. The flavour is so monotonous and I get distracted half way through. 

Not so with this smoothie! The vanilla yogurt makes it creamy, and the added sweetness of honey and spice of cinnamon makes this so different from any of the fruit-heavy other ones I normally whip up. In fact, it feels closer to a milkshake than a smoothie. And it is YUM.