This Side of Paradise

1. Spoon the flour and sugar into a bowl and mix. I ran out of caster sugar so I used demerera, which I think actually makes it more breakfast muffin-y and golden!
2. Add the butter (softened/room temp) and the egg (beaten) and beat well. Add in the milk and keep beating the mixture until it is a smooth, creamy consistency. Then add in 2 generous teaspoons of blueberry preserve and stir it in until the mixture is a grey-blue-lilac colour! Put your preserve back in the fridge to cool down.
3. If you're using greaseproof paper instead of cupcake cases, cut 6 squares that fit your cupcake tray and grease the non-shiny side of each with oil. Put the squares, shiny side down, into the cupcake tray by pressing them down and folding any bits that need to be folded for them to fit the tray. Remember it doesn't have to look perfect because we're being rustic!
4. Put a dessert spoon of cake mixture into each case and poke it a bit to make sure it reaches the edges of the case. 
5. Drop about half a teaspoon of (fridge temperature) blueberry preserve into the centre of each case. This will create the jammy middle! 
6. Top each jammy centre with about half a dessert spoon of cake mix until you've used it all up and make sure the preserve is completely covered. Do not stir the mix inside the cases because then the jammy centre won't work!
7. Put your lovely cupcakes in the oven. Mine took about 30 mins but all ovens are different, so cook them for 15-20 mins and then check every 5 mins until they're golden on top.
8. Leave them to cool a little on a wire rack or a plate and then enjoy! They're very tasty when they're still warm.

1. Crack your eggs into a mixing bowl or glass jug. I would strongly recommend using a jug to save on washing up! Whisk them until the whites and yolks are combined. 
2. Add the flour bit by bit, whisking as you go, until you have a thick cake-batter consistency that's quite difficult to whisk.
3. Now add your milk bit by bit until the mixture is runny but still reasonably thick. It should be a pale colour like normal pancake batter. Make sure it's mixed really well and stop when little air bubbles appear in the mixture when you let it rest for a few seconds. Add in a pinch of salt and the sugar and mix.
4. Heat up a frying pan on the stove on a medium-low heat. I don't use oil because it's a non-stick pan and it would just make the batter spread out more which is not what we want for this type of pancake!
5. Pour a small puddle of batter into the middle of the pan. Don't be tempted to swirl it around like you would with a crepe. It will spread out a little by itself as it cooks.
6. When bubbles have appeared, flip it with a spatula. You should see this...
   
7. It won't take long for the other side to cook, so keep checking it. Once it looks like this, it's ready...
   
8. Slide your pancake onto your serving plate and pour in your next one. While you're waiting for the bubbles, spread your first pancake with a thin layer of nutella. It should spread really easily while the pancake is still hot. Then add the next one when it's ready and repeat until you have a yummy stack! Try not to eat them as you go along...
   
9. Once you've done your last pancake, don't put nutella on the top, but instead heat up the blueberry preserve in a small pan over a low heat. I used Bonne Maman Wild Blueberry Preserve, which I found is far, far too sweet to go on toast but I plan to use it for baking and it goes amazingly with pancakes. Keep stirring it over a low heat until it starts to go runny and hot. Just before it starts to bubble, pour it over the top of your pancakes and encourage it to dribble down the sides. Now they're ready to gobble! 
   
   

1. Pour your dry couscous into a pan and cover with just over the same quantity of boiling water. So if you used half a cup of couscous, you would need just over half a cup of water. Stir, cover with a lid and leave for 5 minutes.
2. Slice up your tomatoes however you like, halve the olives.
3. Once your couscous has absorbed all the water, fluff it up with a fork and then scrape it all into whatever you're eating out of, ie. a bowl or pasta dish.
4. Add your chopped tomatoes and olives to the couscous and mix well so all the tomato juice mixes with the grains. Then add the mozzarella pearls and stir with your fork.
5. Season with your balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Shred the basil leaves by tearing them into little pieces and throw them in. Stir well.

1. Throw your pasta into a pan of boiling, salted water. Let this cook while you're making the sauce, for as long as it says on the packet (usually about 10-15 mins).
2. In a milk pan, heat up the oil for a minute, then sprinkle in the flour. Make sure the quantities of oil and flour are roughly equal. Stir or whisk them together until the mixture looks golden. (This forms a roux - you can use a chunk of butter instead of oil but I never have it in the fridge and oil works equally well). 
3. Add milk to the pan and whisk on a low heat - I'm not sure exactly how much milk it is, but it's probably about 1.5 large mugs...basically enough to make sauce for one. Use your instincts - you can do it!
4. Once the sauce is bubbling it will start to reduce. When you think it's thickening, add your cheeses! You can experiment with various types of cheese but I've found that cheddar on its own doesn't really work. Stir in until the cheese is melted in, then season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Drain the pasta and pour the sauce over it, then swirl around and make sure the pasta is fully covered in cheesy goodness. 
6. If you have any willpower to not devour it right now, you can put the pasta in an oven-proof dish and bake it in the oven to make the top go all crispy (sprinkle with extra cheese first) but otherwise, dig in!

• Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C (fan assisted).
• Pizza dough can be quite tricky, and lots of recipes use yeast. It took me a while to get it to the right consistency, so be patient! 
• First, sieve the flour into a mixing bowl and add a little salt. Drop the butter into the bowl and rub into the flour with your fingers until it is the consistency of breadcrumbs. Put flour on your hands so the dough doesn't stick to your fingers, then pour in your milk slowly and knead into a dough. If it's really sticky, keep adding extra flour bit by bit until it's a soft, stretchy dough. Equally, if it's too dry and not sticking together, add more milk. 
• Grease a baking tray with oil and stretch the dough out into the shape you want - if you're feeling unconventional maybe make a rectangular pizza! Or a heart shape if you want to impress your other half. (Side note - I was once presented with a heart-shaped pizza at a restaurant in Florence and it made my day. Definitely a great romantic gesture for food lovers.) It should be about 1cm thick but really, the thinner the better. Just make sure there aren't any holes!
• Now the fun begins. Spread a few teaspoons of tomato puree (Or a dessert spoon of passata if you're using it) all over the base, leaving about 1cm of crust round the edge. I usually add chopped garlic because I think it goes amazingly with tomato. I then added 4 quartered cherry tomatoes, but if you're using fresh tomatoes be careful not to use too many because the juice will make the dough go soggy.
• Then sprinkle on your cheese of choice - be careful if you're using mozzarella (the fresh white type, not the grated yellow stuff), because it is very wet and will also make the dough go soggy if you use too much. I used flakes of cheddar, but you could also use goats cheese (yum) or whatever you fancy.
• Add any other toppings you like. You can use anything that's already cooked, so that means the scraps of leftover roast chicken in the fridge, salami, cooked ham, tuna, sweetcorn, whatever. Do NOT use any raw meat or fish. Just don't overload the dough because it won't rise and you don't want an uncooked pizza - use a little of each ingredient and distribute it evenly across the whole base.
• Sprinkle a generous pinch of oregano over the top and add salt and pepper to taste. Fresh basil leaves also work really well if you have them. Drizzle with a little olive oil (preferably extra virgin) and bung in the oven for about 20 mins, or until the dough is golden round the edges. Even if the toppings looked cooked, the dough is more important!

Serve with your condiments of choice, or a generous heap of coleslaw like I did, and enjoy!

A photo posted by Liv Soutter (@livsoutter) on Jan 1, 2015 at 5:08am PST