Georgina Hayden

Feeding since 1982

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Prawn Gyozas

01.30.2015 by georgie // 2 Comments

I want to let you into a little secret. Gyozas are insanely addictive. To make, to eat, the lot. Once you master making these little beauties, you’ll never stop. Pork, prawn and crab, chicken, veggie… You’ll be making them quicker than you can eat them.

A few weeks back my mum came to visit, so I set about making gyozas en masse. I knew full well she’d love them (she’s obsessed with dim sum) but mainly I wanted her to take them home to my dad. My mum and dad struggle with their evening meals – my dad is a pescatarian and my mum is a carnivore that doesn’t eat fish. Its a bleedin nightmare! The only thing they do agree on however is prawns; it’s the only protein they will both eat. So with that in mind I sent her home with a box of these gyozas to see how they’d go down. They were an all round hit. So much so that my dad hasn’t stopped talking about them since! So, a week later, when I had an evening to myself, I stocked up on ingredients and started to make a stash of them for their freezer. It was so incredibly relaxing. Pete was working late and I just stood there folding gyozas for a few hours. It was almost meditative – I highly recommend it for mental well being. And the best bit is they’re not unhealthy. They’re lightly fried to get that gorgeous crispy bottom but that’s it (although I’m sure the amount of soy I drench them in is questionable!), nice and light.

Prawn gyozas
Lightly fried Prawn gyozas with soy and chilli dipping sauce
Lined up and ready for to go
Lined up and ready for to cook

So, here you go. Impressive little prawn parcels, perfect for a party, for a snack or as part of a main meal. Heck, on honeymoon I even had them for breakfast – its all good.

Read on for recipe…

Categories // Fish, Light meals, Main meals, Starters & sides Tags // Dumplings, Gyoza, Japanese, Prawns

Incredible roast veg salad with a minty yoghurt dressing

01.23.2015 by georgie // 1 Comment

With life starting to slowly return back to ‘normal’ (ha), I find by Friday I am a little bit frazzled/ broken/ exhausted from all the yo-yoing. Take this week for example: Monday was counselling, Tuesday I was at work, Wednesday we saw our therapist back at the maternity unit, Thursday I had to have some blood tests, followed by a day at work, then last night I didn’t get to sleep till around 4am, but woke up at 7.30am when Peter did. Today – I am exhausted.

It’s a stunning day, the view from our apartment is incredible, London looks gorgeous in the sunshine. However I have decided to stay indoors. If you are good at putting on a front (guilty as charged) then I think people assume you’re fine? That’s ok, I need to carry on ‘carrying on’ and can’t talk about what has happened all the time. However it’s surprisingly tiring. I struggle to concentrate. My time was my own before to think about Archie whenever I liked, where as now I go out, do things, work, see people. Just when I think I’ve got my head around the landscape of my grief it changes and I feel a bit lost again.

So today I’ve gone back to the start. The Archers is on the radio, I’m still in my PJ’s (it’s 2pm) and I’ve made myself some good wholesome grub. We bought some gorgeous baby veg from the market on the weekend and I wanted to showcase them quite simply – something nutritious and healthy, whilst getting the most out of these beauties. So here they are, lightly spiced but not hot, with a refreshing yoghurt dressing. A truly perfect sunny lunch. Delicious.

Now, I’m going to go treat myself to a nice long bubble bath, then who knows, maybe I’ll crochet. I hope you all have a lovely weekend x

Incredible roast veg salad with a yoghurt dressing
Incredible roast veg salad with a yoghurt dressing

 

INCREDIBLE ROAST VEG SALAD WITH A MINTY YOGHURT DRESSING
This salad is simply gorgeous, not too complicated and great on its on as a lunch or dinner. Or, for something a little more substantial try it with a piece of grilled lemony fish.
Serves 4 as a side, 2 as a main
  • 300g baby carrots, scrubbed
  • A romanesco cauliflower, trimmed (or just a regular cauliflower if you cant get romanesco)
  • 150g curly kale, washed and stems removed
  • A drizzle of runny honey
  • Olive oil
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
  • 1 juicy lime
  • 4 heaped tablespoons natural yoghurt
  • Handful of mint leaves
  • A small cloves of garlic
  • 2cm piece of ginger, peeled
  • 1/2 a green chilli, deseeded
  • 2 tablespoons of dried cranberries
Spiced roasted veg
Spiced roasted veg

Preheat your oven to 200/400/ gas mark 6.

Trim the cleaned carrots, and halve any larger ones lengthways. Cut the cauliflower into even sized florets and place all the veg in a large roasting tray. Drizzle with olive oil, a squeeze of runny honey, and sprinkle over a pinch of salt and pepper. Bash the cumin and coriander seeds in a pestle and mortar until mostly ground, but with a bit of texture still, and scatter over the veg. Toss everything together, mixing it well and spread out in one layer. Pop in the oven for around 20 – 25 minutes, stirring once or twice, until almost cooked through and starting to caramelise (this will depend on the size of your carrots, if they don’t feel quite ready roast them for a further 5 minutes). Remove the tray from the oven, scatter over the washed and torn kale, toss with a little olive oil and return to the oven for a further 6 – 8 minutes until the kale starts to turn crisp and the veg is cooked through. Remove from the oven and leave to one side to cool a little.

Whilst your veg is cooling make your dressing. Spoon the yoghurt into a mixing bowl and squeeze in the juice from the lime. Finely grate in the garlic and ginger. Finely chop the chilli and most of the mint leaves and add to the bowl. Mix everything together and season to taste. Spoon the dressing onto a large plate and pile the roasted veg on top. Scatter over the cranberries and reserved mint leaves and serve.

Spiced veg goodness
Spiced veg goodness

Categories // Light meals, Starters & sides, Vegan and Vegetarian Tags // Carrots, Cauliflower, Cranberries, Fertility, Gluten-free, Kale, Mains, Mint, Nutrition, Pregnancy, Starter, Vegetarian, Wheat-free

My favourite chocolate cake

11.30.2014 by georgie // 3 Comments

This week I had the privilege of making a special birthday cake for the lovely Jools Oliver. Working for Jamie means I have known Jools for quite a few years now; she is such a lovely lady, incredibly down to earth and a wonderful inspiring mother. She has been very supportive since we lost Archie, her kind and heartfelt words have meant a lot. So when I bumped into Jamie a few weeks ago I mentioned I would love to make her a cake, as a gift for her 40th birthday and a way of saying thank you for her support. When I asked her favourite flavour, I was told ‘chocolate and coffee’. Dream combo. So I took that and went from there…

Needless to say there were a lot of chocolate and coffee components! Including salted pretzel coffee bean caramel, shards of marbled chocolate with chocolate honeycomb pieces and torched homemade marshmallow to finish.

I’ve never made a cake I haven’t delivered myself, so when I let this creation go I was so nervous. I knew it wasn’t being given to Jools until the following day and I just prayed it would make it and stay in one piece! I’m glad to report it did, minus a bit of broken chocolate shard, but I can deal with that. It was a potential mudslide of a cake I was worried about!

So for this blog post I am sharing the base of this creation, the recipe for my favourite foolproof chocolate cake. I use this recipe for all sorts, I even used it as part of our wedding cake. It keeps really well and freezes perfectly too.

Jools' birthday cake
Jools’ birthday cake
Chocolate coffee layer cake
Chocolate coffee layer cake

 

MY FAVOURITE CHOCOLATE CAKE

Serves 16

  • 275g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
  • 150g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
  • 300g golden caster sugar
  • 6 large eggs, free range or organic
  • 150g self raising flour
  • 30g good quality cocoa powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • A shot of espresso or tablespoon of vanilla extract (optional)

Preheat your oven to 180/ gas mark 4. Grease a 23cm spring form cake tin and line the base with greaseproof paper.

Bash up the chocolate into small pieces and place in a heatproof bowl with the butter and sugar. Pop the bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure that the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the water. Give it a little stir from time to time, until it is all melted, glossy and smooth. Remove the bowl, and leave it to one side for 10 minutes to cool slightly.

Whisk the eggs in jug, and once the 10 minutes is up gradually whisk the eggs into the chocolate mixture. Do this bit by bit, and whisk vigorously between each addition. Once the eggs are all incorporated sift in the self raising flour, cocoa and sea salt, then fold them in with a large metal spoon until just mixed together. Stir in the espresso or vanilla, if using, and then pour the cake mix into your prepared tin.

Bake in the middle of your oven for around 50 minutes, or until just cooked through. A skewer should come out clean, but still look like the cake is moist. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 – 15 minutes and then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. I then slice my cake into 3 even rounds, and finish however my heart desires! Sea salt caramel and cream, black forest gateau, with boozy cointreau and orange frosting… the possibilities are endless.

 

Categories // Baking & puddings, Cake decorating, Celebration, Starters & sides Tags // Baking, Birthday, Cake, Chocolate, Coffee, Sweets

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Georgina is an award winning food writer, cook and presenter from North London.
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Moussaka hotpot!
Marmite and cheese Christmas tree!
Afternoon tea with @reengageuk ❤️ one of my favourite days of the year is when my local Reengage group come over for afternoon tea. It's such an honour! I started hosting 6 years ago, my first tea was when Persephone was just 7 months old and I've loved seeing the girls grow with the group.
This Morning!
Spiced squash, apple + coconut AKA Golden soup
Rare shot of me all dressed up with my make up done from filming something festive yesterday and drinking insane cocktails all afternoon (and being a bit TOO loud... def have the fear this morning! Anyone else?!).

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