Landlocked Mermaid

A few posts ago, I detailed a few things I wanted to get done this year. One of which being, make that weird vegan cheese thing my mum makes . It's this delicious, spreadable cheese-like, urm, thing. I have no idea where she got this recipe from, I have only ever seen hand written versions but my god do I love it! Every party buffet, it is on the table and I swear I eat about three-quarters of it. It cannot be helped, it's just too tasty. Ever since I first tried it, I have been threatening to get the recipe and have a go at it myself. To the point where I did take the recipe a couple times, only for it to get lost in the void that is life. It may have taken years, but I have finally managed to take note of the recipe, buy the ingredients, and actually make it. I think I over cooked the first batch, which clearly means it was high time to make it again And share my mishaps here, too. It's been an age since we were last in the Mermaid Kitchen! Ingredients 75g cashews 4 tbs...

It was my partner's birthday last month, which is an excuse for cake if I ever did see one. However, as I mentioned in the cannelloni post, I have really been struggling to get flour in! I'm guessing it's a pretty wide spread thing, my news feeds are full of flourless recipes. A friend of mine recently shared a delicious looking cheesecake she had made and was kind enough to pass on the recipe. Here was my thinking: Birthday + cheesecake inspo - flour = Birthday cheesecakes! Birthday cheesecake While I am very grateful to my friend for sharing her recipe, I ended up not using it. It was from the Philedephia cook book and was verging on the more technical side of things for my liking. Namely, it used gelatine. For absolutely no reason at all, I am terrified to make a recipe which calls for gelatine. Not to be deterred, though, I took to the internet to search for a cheesecake recipe which used soft cheese but not gelatine. And the internet provided! I came across this recip...

It's been a while since we ventured into the kitchen. Naturally, I have been baking and making (anyone see the mammoth bake or green icing on my personal insta?). But they were all recipes I have thrown at you before. However, with this lockdown and all the panic buying, a few weeks ago I found that the only pasta Morrisons had was cannelloni. We needed something and have since been experimenting with tubular pasta. My first attempt, not pictured, was made with philly (ahem, saver's soft cheese) rather than ricotta because there was none in stock. It worked well enough but was definitely way too sweet. We made a couple more mistakes too; over reduced the tomato sauce, not enough tubes, and did not chop the spinach. That last one meant we got these massive long slugs of spinach followed by a mouthful of just philly. They did not mix well together. I didn't mind the mouthfuls of philly, the slugs were a little off putting, but my partner is not a big fan of soft ...

In case you missed it, it was my Birthday this week. I am 29 whole years old. Although, I fear I can remove the "29 whole years" of that sentence and it would still be true! Now, my Birthday often creeps up on me - I think it's because of how short February is, maybe? I don't know. But I had a whole extra twenty hours this year - so if that was not an excuse to do something then I don't know what was. The best birthday cakes are a pile I have bought many cupcake recipe books over the years despite having zero patience for the intricate icing they often demand. I turned to these for inspiration for my cake. The first was very much too much faff for me to deal with and none of the flavour combos seemed worth using, so I turned to the second which I found for 80% in WHSmiths many years ago: Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery. I have no idea where the Primrose Bakery is but I am apparently powerless to a £3 cookbook. (I got one for Chinese food at the sam...

A few weeks ago, my favourite YouTube channel SortedFood posted a video where two of the presenters cooked a Swiss roll without a recipe. As usual, it was all very hilarious and sparked an idea which had been mooching around my head for a while. I love Arctic roll. It was always a treat my grandparents would have in the freezer for when we visited. While living on my own I definitely demolished an entire roll to myself on more than one occasion. (Don't judge, you'd do it too!) Presently, it is a treat I deny myself because of the unnecessary plastic packaging and it is so rarely on offer. But watching the Sorted boys flail about the kitchen gave me an idea. I can make ice cream. They just provided me with a recipe for Swiss roll. Why not put the two together?! That's a good looking forkful! Was it genius or just plain crazy? Well, after the fact, I can tell you it was a mix of the two! I used this recipe as a base for my sponge and the ice cre...

My partner and I like to have sweet treats in the house. Because we don't buy them from the store anymore (other than the occasional comfort food fueled need), I tend to make things which are quick, easy, and adaptable. Cookies are a firm favourite of mine, as we know from previous posts . I love a good bit of cake, but only every now and then. Cake is not an everyday snack, in my eyes, but cookies are. So I took to the internet to find a good cookie recipe. I found this one from GoodtoKnow.com. My initial cookie desire was to make Ginger Crunch Creams - try and curb a craving, avoid buying the real thing and whatnot. The original recipe was for chocolate chip cookies, but I just didn't include them and poured in the ginger. (Thankfully, not three tablespoons this time!) This recipe also says to include an egg as the dough is forming but when it came to adding it, I felt it wasn't necessary. The dough was forming nicely enough and it meant this recipe was now vegan! ...

A while back, my mum and I went to the Chinese supermarket in Birmingham. I went with the goal of getting condensed coconut milk (for fudge) and dumplings (because I love a good dumpling). As well as coming away with a few other gems, I came back with gyoza skins with the aim of making my own dumplings. I decided to have a go this week. Pretendy Duck Dumplings I figured I should start with something simple, in case it all went horribly wrong. It was also a little bit of an impromptu decision, so I hadn't shopped specifically for it. But I remembered that we had the Linda McCartney vegetarian shredded duck in the freezer. Nothing says simple like hoisin duck dumplings. At the very least I know the flavours work, and that I'm not likely to make myself sick from not cooking it properly! All you need. INGREDIENTS Linda McCartney vegetarian shredded duck, Hoisin sauce, Gyoza skins. These are so simple to make, it is hardly worth writing out a method!...

Pizza is a staple in my household. Between my partner's Italian heritage and the fact that pizza ticks all my boxes (cheese, carbs and tomato), it's a miracle we don't have it every night! As with most of our food, we try not to get the shop made stuff. Sometimes it's unavoidable, feeling poorly or lazy or pressed for time. But most of the time we make our own. Dough and everything. And if you follow my personal instagram account, you'll see we make it rather regularly! We like to use Jamie Oliver's dough recipe, with a couple tweaks and a variant my own salsa recipe for the sauce. My favourite thing about home made pizza is overloading on the toppings. Yeah, shop bought and takeout pizzas have structural integrity but they never have enough toppings. I have been overloading pizzas since university. Sometimes they don't always come out circular. DOUGH INGREDIENTS 500g plain flour or OO flour. (The OO is finer, but Morrisons have stop...