Posts Tagged: celebrity chef

Celebrity Chefs / Recipes / TV chef — No Comments
10
Feb 13

Pancake recipes from TV chef Marcus Bean

It’s pancake day on Tuesday which is great news for me as I love pancakes.The classic lemon and sugar filling is always a favourite of mine as it takes me back to my childhood when my grandmother used to make me pancakes but sometimes it’s nice to try something different.

Marcus Bean, winner of Iron Chef UK 2010 and regular on ITV This Morning

Marcus Bean, winner of Iron Chef UK 2010 and regular on ITV This Morning

This year I want to do something a bit more adventurous so I asked winner of IronChef UK 2010 and regular chef of ITV This Morning, Marcus Bean for a couple of recipes to try.

I love chocolate even more than I love pancakes so this recipe is perfect for me:

Chocolate pancakes with chantilly cream and butterscotch sauce

Makes about 10 medium pancakes

Ingredients:
125g plain flour
1 egg
1 egg yolk
300g milk
20g cocoa

 Butterscotch sauce

Chocolate Pancakes with chantilly cream and butterscotch sauce

Chocolate Pancakes with chantilly cream and butterscotch sauce


60g unsalted butter
250ml double cream
100g soft dark brown sugar

Chantilly cream       
250ml double cream
½ vanilla pod
1/2 tbsp of icing sugar

 Method;
Sift the flour and cocoa into a bowl, mix togther the eggs and milk, then add to the flour and keep whisking to stop lumps from forming.

To make the chantilly cream, put the cream in a bowl and add the icing sugar and the seeds scrapped from the vanilla pod. Now whisk until done.

To cook the pancakes heat a medium non stick frying pan on the heat then brush with some oil or melted butter, cook your pancakes one at a time, use a small ladle to spoon the mix for each pancake into the pan. Cook on both sides then remove and place on a plate, repeat this process for every pancake.

 To make the butterscotch sauce put the cream in saucepan and bring to the boil, whisk in your butter and sugar then simmer for 3-4 minutes

 To serve the pancake fold in half or roll up filled with the cream. Place a good spoonful of your chantilly cream on the plate, then pour your butterscotch sauce over the pancakes.

These look so amazing I’m definitely going to be trying this recipe, and not just on pancake day!

Raspberry pancakes with maple syrup

Raspberry pancakes with maple syrup

I also really love the idea of these raspberry pancakes with maple syrup. The raspberries mean I can pretend they are good for me – they must count towards my five a day!

Ingredients; Serves 3-4
135g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp caster sugar
130ml semi milk
1 large egg
10g melted butter
small punnet of raspberries

Method;
Sift the flour into a bowl then add the baking powder and sugar, mix together then slowly add you milk & eggs whisking at the same time to stop lumps from forming.
Once the batter is made fold your raspberries into the mix, then set aside.
To cook the pancakes, place a non stick frying on the heat brush with oil or melted butter then put a spoonful of mix into the pan and cook for 2 minutes on a low heat, then flip over and cook for another 2 minutes.
Serve with maple syrup.

If you don’t have a sweet tooth though there’s no reason why you have to miss out.
Marcus has given me this recipe for Courgette and wild garlic pancakes with Snowdonia cheese and chives which look really tasty. And it’s a great excuse to have pancakes for main and dessert. 

Courgette and wild garlic pancakes

Courgette and wild garlic pancakes

Ingredients; Serves 2-3
150g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1tsp salt
140ml semi skimmed milk
15g of unsalted butter
1 large egg
3 wild garlic leaves (use a small handful of spinach if not available)
½  Courgette (Grated)
50g of grated snowdona cheese or other mature cheddar
1 tbsp chopped chives

Method;
Grate your courgette and chop your wild garlic, put a pan on a medium heat and add your butter, saute the courgettes & wild garlic until soft and the liquid from the courgette has dried, now remove from the heat.
In another bowl sift your flour, add the baking powder & salt then slowly add your milk, keep whisking while adding the milk to stop lumps from forming in the batter.
Once the mix is smooth add your courgette mix, chives & cheese.
Heat a non stick pan on a medium heat, add a splash of oil or butter then spoon some mix into the pan making the pancake size you want. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side.
Serve straight from the pan with some fresh salad leaves.

I hope you enjoy trying these recipes and if you have any more you’d like to share then please let me know. You can find out more about Marcus at www.marcusbean.co.uk.

Happy Pancake Day!

Celebrity Chefs / Italian cuisine — No Comments
13
Jan 13

Celebrity chef Antonio Carluccio

I’ve got a bit of a crush on Antonio Carluccio. The man may be seventy-five but he’s not without a certain sex appeal. It’s the Italian charm, he may have left his homeland more than half his life ago but it’s still there.

Celebrity chef Antonio Carluccio oozes Italian charm

And so is the accent. The melodic lilt coupled with the deep, throaty tone – not unlike a finely tuned sports car (Italian obviously!) is pretty irresistible, and we haven’t even started on his cooking skills yet.
There’s a mischievous twinkle in his eye as he recalls how working his magic in the kitchen helped him work his magic with the ladies.
While living in Vienna as a young man he started missing the food of his childhood and began trying to recreate it. He said: “I saw for myself that friends – and by friends I mean girls – responded well to it.” I don’t ask him to elaborate. He may well have once been something of a bad boy, but now Carluccio is 100 per cent gentleman – he won’t kiss and tell. There’s a real warmth about him, as if the Italian sunshine of his childhood has been absorbed right into his soul, and it’s never more apparent than when he reminisces about his mother. It was she who inspired his love of food.
“Mama was an artist in the kitchen,” he recalls. “I was brought up with all kinds of wonderful food, even though it was war time.
“Papa was a station master and mama used to send me out to find out if the train was on time so that the pasta would be perfectly cooked for when he came home. Mama used to feed the Germans and the partisans because they would come to the house because they heard she was a really good cook.”
There’s not quite the same affection when he speaks about his adopted country’s version of the food of his childhood and to say that Antonio Carluccio is not a fan of spaghetti Bolognese would be something of an understatement.
“Spaghetti Bolognese does not exist,” he says, the Italian accent growing even more pronounced as he grows increasingly animated. “It is a version of a very famous dish that here has been crucified. People here put in garlic, herbs, chillies, but the original is very simple – just meat, vegetables, tomato paste, a bit of wine and that is it. And always with tagliatelle, never spaghetti.
“When I came here 37 years ago I saw many restaurants doing Italian food but I call it Britalian. Now slowly, slowly, the message is getting through.”
Listening to him talk about food there seems to be some truth in the stereotype of the fiery, passionate Italian. It’s not unattractive. If you have any more lessons Carluccio keep talking and I, along with the rest of the female population, will definitely keep listening.

Featuring WPMU Bloglist Widget by YD WordPress Developer