LEGO CANDY

I am trying to encourage the kids to stop watching random youtube (though I have little credibility on this as I could not stop watching the 'what are those?!' vines a few months ago). In my search for  science experiment sites, I have become hooked onto the Crazy Russian Hacker and The King of Random. Absolutely addictive stuff: experiments with  liquid nitrogen, melting cans and making green slime, and also plenty of plainly weird but compelling-watching videos about domestic tricks, from how to cut a watermelon to opening packs of crisps. Who would have thought I would end up discussing with a teenager whether it is better making candles with butter or with mandarine peels. Live to believe…

King of Random has this recipe for Lego candy that in a moment of weakness I agreed to try on.
You need:
- 250 ml water
- 125 ml corn syrup
- two packets of unflavoured powdered gelatine (or 10 leaves that you should pre-soak )
- a packet of Jell-o (they sell it in many supermarkets and in Amazon)
You also need lego silicon moulds that you can also buy in Amazon.

Mix the water, corn syrup, gelatine and Jell-o. Heat the mixture in a pan over medium heat for 8 minutes. Put in into a tall heat-proof container. Let it rest for 3 minutes. with a spoon, take the top crust that would form on the top and discard it. Pour the remaining clear liquid into the moulds and let them rest for 5 hours. You should be able to de-mould them easily by then.

SNACK NUTS

I am a bit of a nuts addict. If you put a bowl of nuts any closer than two meters from me the chances are that I will eat them all. It tested all my will power when I was working as a Middle East adviser, as at every single official meeting in any country from Morocco to Iran,  there were endless bowls of delicious pistachios and nuts. I can assure you that trying to take notes while picking at the nuts is not an easy task!

This is a great way to make any type of nut a little bit posher as a nibble for any drinks. You need:

-for three handfuls of nuts (any type)
- half a tablespoon of oil
- a pinch of sea salt (you can also do it with normal salt, but sea salt is nicer)
- a quarter of a teaspoon of rosemary leaves (chopped thinly)
- a quarter of a teaspoon of thyme leaves (chopped thinly)

You can alter all these quantities as much as you like. My middle son likes to add a pinch of paprika, which works well. And if you have a sweet tooth you can add a quarter of a teaspoon of brown sugar.

Warm the oil in a frying pan. Add the nuts and then the salt and herbs. Wait for a couple of minutes (stirring the nuts gently with a spoon so that they do not burn) until they start to get brown. Serve immediately, so that they are eaten warm.

It is just impossible to resist them…

CRANBERRY JELLY

A must for Christmas.

You need:

- 1.5 kg cranberries
- 300 ml red wine
- 200 ml water
-sugar (around 150 gr)

Boil the cranberries, wine and water and let them simmer for 45 minutes. Put the mixture over a muslin cloth and let it drip during the whole night (do not squeeze the muslin cloth). The following morning measure 155 gr of granulated sugar for each 300 ml of the red juice. if you get more or less juice then let your kids calculate the right proportion. Put the juice and sugar in a pan over medium heat and let it boil for 20 minutes (or if you have a food thermometer, until it reaches jam temperature) Pour into sterilised jars.

MINCEMEAT

First Sunday of Advent and rainy weather, so the perfect time to make mincemeat. Over the years we have adapted a recipe that originally came from Delia (we have simplified it a lot) and works very well.

- 1/2 kg of cooking apples (diced)
- 300 g raisins
- 300 g sultanas
- 300 g currants
- 250 g mixed peel
- 300 g brown sugar
- zest and juice of two oranges and two lemons

- 50 gr sliced almonds

-225 shredded suet
- a pinch of cinnamon
- a pinch of nutmeg
- half a glass of rum (or brandy)

Mix all the ingredients in a big pan. Cook on medium heat for 45-50 minutes. Pour the mixture into sterilised jars (see our plum and damson jam recipe). As the jars are cooling down put them upside down so that you get rid of any air. The jars last for a long time (and certainly until Christmas)

ROSEHIP SYRUP

We picked a lot of rosehips last week and have made syrup with them. It tastes great and it is meant to have a lot of vitamin C as well (provided you can close your eyes to the enormous amount of sugar this has…which is pretty difficult as 'the whole world' is now talking about sugar ... and I agree with 'the whole world' on this)

You need:

- 1 Kg of rosehips
- 1 l of water
- caster sugar
- pectine
- sterilised bottles/jars

Clean the rose hips and boil them in 1 l of water for 25 minutes. Then strain the liquid through a muslin cloth (a paper coffee filter will do as well). Measure the remaining liquid and add 300 g of sugar and 40 ml of pectin for each 500 ml of liquid. Bring back to the boil for 10 minutes and decant in the sterilised jars (see the way to sterilise jars in any of our jam recipes)

MINI YORKSHIRE PUDDINGS

The children love eating these and it is fun to see the yorkshire puddings puffing up, but you have to be really careful as the oven tray gets seriously hot an it is really very easy for the children to burn themselves.

You need:
- sun flour oil (12 teaspoons)
- 100 gr plain flour
- 180 ml milk
- 2 eggs
- a pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. When the oven is hot put a muffing tray with a teaspoon of sun flour oil in each hole. Put the tray into the oven and wait for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile mix the flour, milk, salt and eggs with a hand held mixer. Pour carefully the mixture into the  12 holes of the muffing tray (fill them to half only). Be really careful doing this as the fat will be very hot by now. Get it all back into the oven and bake for 12 minutes.

DULCE DE LECHE

It is interesting for the children to see the changes of texture in the condensed milk, but if you cook this in a express cooker be very careful with the tin, as the tin can explode if you do not handle it carefully.

You only need a tin of condensed milk and water.

Put the tin into an express cooker (or a normal pan). Cover it with water and cook for 35 minutes on really low heat (or longer if you want a thicker dulce de leche). If you cook this in a normal pan (again on very low heat) you will need to simmer it for 3 hours.

Open the tin and there is the dulce de leche.

You can it this as a spread on bread or with ice-cream.

It is seriously sweet so a small tin goes a long way...

BUTTER

This is really interesting for children to see. You just need to get double cream into a glass jar with a lid (fill it only to three quarters of the jar or so). Keep shaking it for 10 minutes: first you will see that the cream thickens and becomes like a really heavy paste; after a little bit longer the texture changes completely and you get a solid ball of butter floating in clear liquid.  Get rid of the liquid (it is bitter) and put the butter under tap water to get rid of any remaining bitterness. You can eat this immediately afterwards. The kids thought this was a 'science experiment' rather than cooking...