Valentine food with JP passion – The perfect Valentine dessert
This is an amazing recipe from Jamie Oliver’s book Comfort Food. My brother asked me to make him a sticky toffee cake for his birthday two years ago and I had seen Jamie make this on TV before.
I love that you make it in a bundt cake tin as it makes the cake look quite special and part of the recipe requires you to paint on a layer of the caramel sauce all over the cake.
The cake is deliciously spicy and moist and coupled with the warm caramel sauce, I tell you it doesn’t get more decadent than this. Why not treat your special someone to this heavenly dessert. They will love you even more for it!
Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees. Put the teabags into a jug and cover with 300ml of boiling watering leave to steep for 4 minutes.
2. Pop the dates and cinnamon into a food processor. Pour over the tea and leave to soak for 10 minutes.
3. Blitz the date mixture to a puree stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides to ensure the mixture is well combined.
4. Grease and lightly flour your bundt tin. In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugars together then beat in the eggs one by one.
Ingredients:
Serves 16
4 tea bags
400g medjool dates
1 tsp of Cinnamon
170g unsalted butter
340g self-raising flour
170g golden castor sugar
170g dark muscovado sugar
4 large eggs
Caramel Sauce:
250g unsalted butter
125g dark muscavado sugar
125g golden castor sugar
300ml double cream
Chicken recipe
This is a super tasty supper to make and one that uses delicious fresh ingredients. It’s quick and easy to prepare but it looks right at home from a nice gastro restaurant.
Everybody in my family loves this dish although my Mam was not a fan of Gnocchi, which if you are not too it can be substituted with mini roast potatoes and rosemary. The colours on the plate are bright and vivacious. This is the perfect supper to make for your loved one this Valentine’s Day!
Method:
1. Place the chicken fillets in a large freezer bag and add the zest and juice of one lemon, salt and black pepper and place in the fridge for an hour. You can if you want to get ahead prepare this the night before.
2. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. De-vine the tomatoes and add to a roasting dish. Scatter the chopped onion, basil leaves, garlic and a drizzle of olive oil and place in the oven for 25 mins to roast.
3. When the tomatoes are nicely roasted pop into a food processor and blitz until all the ingredients are well combined.
4. Transfer to a pan and pop on a low heat to keep the sauce warm.
5. Heat a griddle pan if you have one on high heat and place the chicken fillets on but reduce to a medium heat immediately and cook for 5 – 7 mins on each side until the chicken is cooked and is burnished from the ridges on the griddle pan.
6. In a separate pan heat the oil and butter on a medium heat and pop in the gnocchi. Cook for approx. 10 minus turning occasionally to ensure they are evenly golden brown
7. Using a tablespoon place around 2-3 spoons of the sauce in the centre of a bowl or serving dish. Add the chicken on top and scatter the gnocchi around the sides and garnish with fresh basil.
Ingredients:
4 chicken fillets
400g punnet of vine tomatoes
1 onion roughly chopped
20 leaves of basil
Zest and juice of one lemon
1tsp crushed garlic or garlic salt
1 bag of Gnocchi
1 tablespoon olive oil
Knob of butter
Sea salt & ground black pepper
Simply delicious!
