Ultimate Side: Golden Glazed Bacon

So pancakes are all well and good, fluffy American pancakes are even better but to take it to the next level you need bacon. Serious bacon.

I'm talking salty, sweet and delicious!

So whip up some fluffy stacks and then fry up the good stuff - smoked streaky rashers. I don't object to a little butter to get them going...

Take the bacon out of the pan (fried not grilled- it is the weekend!) and drain on some kitchen paper. In your pan still over a low heat add a spoonful of golden syrup (maple syrup works equally well). When it's bubbly throw your bacon back in until its glazed- 3 mins max.

Then serve straight over a pancake stack.

Yum. Take that Sunday!

Italian Tomatoes and Buffalo Mozzarella

A quick and delicious dish that I grew up with, serve with warm bread.

Ingredients
1 ball of buffalo mozzarella
4 large tomatoes
Olive oil
Basil or parsley

Method
Slice your tomatoes thinly and arrange so they cover a plate. Drain your mozzarella and tear it with your hands., arranging over the tomatoes.

Drizzle with olive oil and a sprinkling of salt, and add a few leaves of basil or parsley to serve.

French Prawns

A quick and tasty dish that can be served as a dinner party starter or whipped up as a quick supper.

Ingredients

Salted butter

King prawns

1 onion, finely chopped

2 tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic

Parsley

Salt and pepper

Method

1. Melt a little butter in a small frying pan.
2. Add your finely chopped onion and fry on a low heat until soft
3. Add your king prawns and stir into the onions
4. Chop your tomatoes finely and add to the pan, along with 2 whole peeled garlic gloves
5. When the tomatoes have softened and released their juices snip the parsley into the pan and stir
6. Season to taste and serve immediately

Creamy Herb Dip

An easy creamy herb dip, great for a veggie lunch box or to serve with crisps and vegetable batons. Could also work well stirred into a pasta salad.

Ingredients

A selection of herbs; parsley, basil, chives for example

Watercress

Rocket

Spinach

1/4 white onion finely chopped

3 tbsps cream cheese

3 tbsps natural yoghurt

1 tbsp mayonaisse

Sprinkle of paprika 

Splash of Tabasco sauce

Squeeze of lemon

Method

1. Roughly chop your mixed herbs and the salad leaves, and squeeze over some lemon juice
2. Finely chop a quarter of an onion and add to a food processor along with the greens
3. Add the cream cheese, yoghurt and mayonnaise and pulse together
4. Taste and add more yoghurt to loosen if needed. Add the paprika, tabasco and lemon juice and transfer to a bowl
5. Stir to ensure all ingredients are well combined, season with salt and pepper and serve.

Emergency Cupcakes

A simple recipe to use the left over buttercream from Hayley's cake.

Taken from the BBC's Vanilla Cupcakes recipe. Makes 12.

Ingredients
- 110g/4oz butter or margarine, softened at room temperature
- 110g/4oz caster sugar (I used brown sugar just to see the difference, it gives a caramel flavour)
- 2 free-range eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 110g/4oz self-raising flour
- 1-2 tbsp milk
For the buttercream icing
- 140g/5oz butter, softened
- 280g/10oz icing sugar
- 1-2 tbsp milk
- a few drops food colouring

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale. Beat in the eggs a little at a time and stir in the vanilla extract.
3. Fold in the flour using a large metal spoon, adding a little milk until the mixture is of a dropping consistency. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until they are half full.
4. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into one of the cakes comes out clean. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack.
5. For the buttercream icing, beat the butter in a large bowl until soft. Add half the icing sugar and beat until smooth.
6. Then add the remaining icing sugar with one tablespoon of the milk, adding more milk if necessary, until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
7. Add the food colouring and mix until well combined.
8. Spoon the icing into a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe the icing using a spiralling motion onto the cup cakes in a large swirl.

Salmon & Avocado Unwrapped Sushi Recipe

Salmon & Avocado Unwrapped Sushi Recipe

....with wasabi mayonnaise and spring onions

I love sushi, and I think it's the addictive flavouring of the sushi rice that keeps me coming back for more. Sushi rice is easy to make at home using a few simple ingredients that can be found in most supermarkets or asian superstores. This recipe uses smoked salmon and avocados but you could use any combination of sushi filling that you like!

If you don't have a rice cooker it will take slightly more effort but still taste the same- if you are using a normal pan, I recommend tying a clean and dry tea towel around the lid to stop steam escaping while you cook your rice.

Unlike my other recipes I will be using a cup measurement for making up the rice only as this is how I measure my rice at home and it is the easiest way of doing it.

Unwrapped Sushi

Serves 2 hungry people or 4 nibblers

Ingredients

For the rice:

1 cup of Sushi rice or short grain white rice

1 1/2 cup of water

1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar

1/4 cup of mirin (Japanese rice wine)

3 teaspoons of sugar

3 teaspoons of salt

To serve:

1 ripe avocado (if the avocado has some give when you press into it, it's ripe)

60g smoked salmon (I used trimmings or off cuts and they are cheaper)

3 or 4 spring onions or salad onions

Soy sauce

For the wasabi mayonnaise:

5 tablespoons of good quality mayonnaise

1-2 teaspoons of wasabi paste, depending on how hot you want it

Method:

*Tip: Before you start cover your chopping board in cling film to stop the smell of salmon sticking to it.

1. Measure out your rice into a small bowl and cover with cold water, stir briefly with a chopstick and then immediately drain using a sieve or a colander with small holes. Repeat until the water runs almost clear. 
2. Place the rice in the rice cooker (or pan) and add water, you made need to adjust the amount of water for a pan. Start the cooker.
3. Prepare the sushi seasoning (also known as sushi vinegar) by mixing the rice wine vinegar, mirin, sugar and salt together. Some people like to do this in a small saucepan, but I prefer to fill a shallow bowl with boiling water and then sit a small glass in the hot water in which I mix the seasoning until the salt and sugar has dissolved. I find this gives me more control and does not over heat the seasoning. It also saves on washing up! If you are making the seasoning after the rice is cooked, you can set your glass in the rice for the same effect.
4. Mix together your mayonnaise and wasabi paste, add a little at a time tasting it until the flavour is as strong as you would like. It should have a pale green colour. Set aside for later. 
5. Let the seasoning cool, and prepare your 'filling'. If your smoked salmon is not already sliced, chop it up with a pair of scissors and set aside. To prepare the avocado run a sharp knife long way around it right down to the stone, then hold each side and firmly twist until they are separated. Scoop out the stone with a tablespoon, never use a knife. Then either scoop out the flesh or peel away the skin and chop your avocado into slices. Chop your spring onion.
6. By now your rice should be cooked, so remove it and place in a large shallow bowl if you have one. If the bowl is wooden- even better! Take a wooden spatula and stir the rice allowing it to cool and the steam to rice, you can fan the rice or stir it beneath your kitchen extractor fan to speed this up. When the rice begins to get very sticky and has cooled, stir in your seasoning a little at a time. *Note if you want to serve your rice warm, simply stir the seasoning into the warm rice- the previous step is only necessary if you want an authentic sushi rice texture, the taste will ultimately be the same.
7. Add your smoked salmon and avocado to the rice and lightly mix. Sprinkle your chopped spring onions over the top and serve the wasabi mayonaise drizzled over or on the side. Serve with soy sauce and enjoy.

Edit*: Since writing this recipe I have bought a bottle of ready made Mitsukan sushi seasoning from the Japan Centre (Japanese supermarket), rather than restock my mirin and rice wine vinegar which I feel are overpriced in British supermarkets. You can pick up a 355ml bottle of sushi seasoning for around £3.