Bibimbap is one of my favourite traditional Korean dishes and is comprised of rice, a mixture of veg, an egg, and meat with Gochujang stirred through it whilst it's at the table. It's so colourful and full of flavour, I would highly recommend it on a dull Autumn day.

Bibimbap is traditionally served in a hot stone bowl called a dolsot. You heat the underside so the rice gets browned and crispy. Delicious! If you don't have a dish or pot you can put on direct heat you can stir fry the rice a little before assembling this plate so you still get some of the texture.

The recipe below is my take on the dish. If you're looking for some authentic recipes I highly recommend taking a look at Lia's blog. I get my supplies of Korean ingredients from Mama Halla & The Korean Pantry. 

List Of Ingredients
 

Marinated beef
300g beef sirloin, very thinly sliced
2½ tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp roasted sesame seed oil
3 garlic cloves, crushed
3 spring onions, very finely chopped
½ tsp ground black pepper
 
400g short-grain white rice 

Toppings
150g carrots, cut into very thin strips
300g courgette, quartered lengthways and thinly sliced
150g bean sprouts
200g  mushrooms, sliced
300g spinach
4 eggs
roasted sesame seed oil, to season
soy sauce, to season
sunflower or vegetable oil, to fry
toasted sesame seeds, to serve
 
Gochujang sauce
3 tbsp gochujang chilli paste
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp roasted sesame seed oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp maple syrup
 

• 170g unsalted butter
• 4 eggs, separated
• 330g  plain flour
• 170ml milk
• 330g icing sugar (plus a little extra to decorate)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla sugar
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 3 tsp cocoa

• Preheat your oven to 170°C  and coat the bundt cake tin with plenty of melted butter.
  
• Whisk the butter with the egg yolk until foamy, add all the icing sugar, and stir until creamy. Add vanilla extract or sugar (sachets of vanilla sugar are very common in Austria and Germany but I've never seen them here)
  
• Beat the egg whites until stiff. Sift together the flour and baking powder. Mix half of the flour into the butter mixture and combine. Add the milk, combine, then add remainder of the flour. gently fold in the egg whites.
  
• Pour roughly half of this mixture into the cake tin. Add cocoa to the rest and mix. Pour the darker batter on top of the lighter one into the tin.
  
• Drag the handle of a wooden spoon or a fork through the batter and wave it around to achieve the marbled look.
  
• Bake for 50 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes on a cool rack, then take the cake out of the pan. Dust with icing sugar before serving.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  If you have a go at baking this please tag me in any photos you share, I would love to see.

Serves: 2
Preparation time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 15 mins 

You will need:

• 115 grams kimchi, chopped (I used this one)
• 3 tablespoons of kimchi juice 
• 2 teaspoons gochugaru (chilli flakes)
• 1 teaspoon gochujang 
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce 
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil 
• 2 servings cooked rice (day old is best) 
• 115 grams pork belly 
• 2 Spring onions (finely chopped) 
• 2 eggs 
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped  

Directions

• Cook chopped pork belly in frying pan until slightly browned  
• Add half of the spring onion and all of the kimchi and cook on high heat 
• Mix the kimchi juice, garlic, gochujang, gochugaru, sesame oil and soy sauce together  
• Add the rice and mixed ingredients to the pan and reduce heat to medium
• Stir until everything is well incorporated and the clumps of rice are broken up, cook for 3 to 4 minutes. 
• Top with a lovely, runny fried egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds and remaining onions to serve.
  
  I've also made a recipe card for those who like to print and save these kinds of things 😊

Serves 4

You will need

225g chopped or grated gruyere cheese
225g chopped camembert (remove the rind)
225g emmental cheese, grated
300 millilitres white wine
2 tsp cornflour
3 tablespoons kirsch (optional)
1 clove garlic (peeled)
Pinch of black pepper

To serve
Cubed bread
Potatoes
Charcuterie
Whatever vegetables you have - tomatoes, peppers etc

Method

Once everyone is at the table tuck in and prepare to enter a CHEESE COMA. Cheese fondue is the best but you may need a little nap after consuming this amount of cheese. I think as long as you have gruyere in the mix you can add whatever cheese you have at home and create your own fondue mix. It might not be typically Swiss if you add cheddar but who cares?

Ingredients

225g self-raising flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
225g Bramley or Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced
100g sultanas
115g unsalted butter, diced and chilled, plus extra for greasing
115g light brown sugar
1 large egg, beaten
6-8 tbsp milk
2 tbsp demerara sugar

Method 

Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/ gas 4. Grease and line a 20cm cake tin with baking paper.

Mix the flour and cinnamon together in a large bowl. Add the butter and rub into the flour using your fingers, until it looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the light brown sugar. Beat in the egg followed by 6 - 8 tbsp of milk until you get a smooth, thick batter.

Add the apples and sultanas and mix to combine. Scrape the batter into your prepared tin and gently level out. Sprinkle over the demerara sugar and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes and then carefully turn out onto a wire rack to cool further.

Best served still warm with a little custard. (I like a lot of custard, so thick you can slice it)

You can't go wrong with the classic crêpe served with lemon and sugar but I fancied doing something a little different for pancake day this year. These fluffy and light American style ones are a firm favourite in my house but we keep them for special occasions. I wish I could eat a huge stack of pancakes for breakfast everyday but I don't think my body could cope with the obscene amount of maple syrup I pour on the top of mine.

If you want to try making these yourself just follow the simple instructions below.


You will need:


1 tablespoon baking powder
1 pinch of salt
1 teaspoon white sugar
2 large eggs (beaten)
30 grams butter (melted and cooled)
300 ml milk
225 grams plain flour
butter for frying

Super straightforward method:

• Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and caster sugar into a large bowl.


• Pour the milk, eggs and butter into the flour mixture and, using a whisk, beat until you have a smooth batter. If it's lumpy keep on whisking it. It will seem really thick but that's what we're looking for. Let the batter stand for a few minutes.
  
  
• Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and add a knob of butter. When it's melted, add a ladle of batter. I add two/three because my pan is big and it means I can cook a few at the same time.  Wait until the top of the pancake begins to bubble, then turn it over and cook until both sides are golden brown and the pancake has risen to about 1cm (½in) thick.
  
  
• Repeat until all the batter is used up. You can keep the pancakes warm in a low oven, but they taste best fresh out the pan. Once I had roughly used half of my batter I tipped in a tub of M&S Belgian Chocolate chunks so I had some plain pancakes and some with gooey chocolate in the middle.

Serve with lashings of whatever takes your fancy and enjoy. I topped mine with strawberries and flaked almonds and Martyn had chocolate chip pancakes with chocolate sauce. These would be great for a weekend breakfast treat served with maple syrup and crispy bacon


 I hope I've inspired you to try something new. What type of pancakes will you be having tonight?

This Baileys no-bake cheesecake makes an impressive dessert when you’re entertaining friends and it's sooo easy to make. You don't need many ingredients and there's no baking involved. But beware, each slice contains about 650 calories so don't eat half of it then go to Weight Watchers and weigh in because you will put a pound on like I did. Ooops. Make sure you have lots of people to share this with because you will keep on going back for more.


Melt the butter in a pan and add the crushed digestive biscuits. I put mine in a sealed bag and had fun bashing them with a rolling pin. Mix well until the biscuits have absorbed all the butter.

Paprika is everywhere in Budapest. It's used in the national favourite Goulash and I picked some up on my trip there in the Great Market Hall. It's a spice made from air-dried fruits of the chili pepper called Capsicum. The spice was first introduced to the Hungarians by the Turks during their occupation in around 1530. 

I've been looking for a way to use my holiday souvenir since I got home and this recipe really ticked my fancy. It's really easy to make and if you serve it with vegetables it makes a pretty healthy midweek dinner option. 

Serves 4

50ml red wine

340ml beef stock

17g gravy granules

pinch of salt & pepper

4 small chicken breasts

20ml olive oil

tsp paprika

I've mastered the meringue, baked lots of bundts over Christmas and I'm a bit bored of a classic sponge. It was time to try something new and I wanted to get some use out of my new KitchenAid (Thank you Martyn, best Christmas present ever). My blogging pal and amazing baker Amy suggested marshmallows so that's what I settled on. You might think it's not worth the hassle making your own but pulling off a homemade marshmallow recipe is easier than you think. This recipe gives you perfectly gooey marshmallows which are sooo much better than ones you can buy from a shop. You can toast these on a fire, package them up as gifts or just dip your marshmallow in hot chocolate.

Looking for a little food inspiration? Cook with M&S is a tasty range of ingredients, perfect for putting together mouthwatering meals in minutes. I've created one of the recipes from the Cook with M&S site which was a perfect winter warming dish, lamb koftas. I think these would also be perfect to pop on the BBQ in the summer too. I had a lot of fun making this Middle Eastern inspired dish as I normally cook more European style foods, mainly Italian & Spanish.

The lamb koftas were seriously good and I can't wait to make them again, they are a much tastier version of a Saturday night kebab. The saffron infused yogurt felt pretty decadent and the koftas are really filling. If you want to know how to make them then keep on reading...