Cook Blogs

Have you ever asked yourself “How can I get my daily caloric intake with just one decadent treat?”  Have I got the answer for you:  Millionaire’s Shortbread.  This is a common treat found in deli’s and supermarkets throughout the UK.  It is one of my favorite treats but I have sadly discovered that it’s incredibly easy to make.  If it’s that easy to make then I’m going to be putting on a lot of weight soon.

Ingredients:
225 g / 2 Cups plain flour
75 g / 3/8 Cup caster sugar
375 g / 3 1/3 sticks unsalted butter
397 g / 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
4 Tbsp golden syrup
325 g chocolate (Dark or Milk - your preference)
1x 23 cm / 9 inch square brownie tin or similar, greased bottom and lined

Preheat oven to 170^o C / 340^o F
Put the flour and sugar in a bowl and run in 175g (1 1/2 sticks) of butter, clumping the dough together to form a ball. Don’t bother using a spoon or blender - your hands are the best tool for the job! Press the mixture into the tin and smooth it either with your hands or a spatula. Prick it with a fork and cook for 5 mins. Then lower the oven to 150^o C (300^o F) and cook for a further 30-40 mins until it is pale, golden and no longer doughy. Let it cool in the tin.

Melt the remaining butter in the microwave in a large, glass (we’re going to reuse this bowl later) bowl for 2-3 mins.  Add the condensed milk, golden syrup and melted butter into a pan. Whisk the mixture until the butter is thoroughly incorporated. Heat on a medium/high heat until it is just at a boil, stirring regularly. Watch that it doesn’t burn. It’s ready when its thickened and a light golden brown. Pour this mixture over the cooled shortbread and leave it to set.

Bring a pot of water up to a boil.  Break the chocolate into pieces. Place the pieces in the glass bowl from earlier and melt.  Pour the melted chocolate over the cooled caramel and leave to set overnight.  Cut, eat, enjoy!

The Setup

We just put an Express Ready Set Go indoor electric grill through its paces. It is positioned as a space-savvy counter top cooker for a wide variety of meals. See the infomercial clip above.

Ordering & Shipping

The ordering process is simple and secure at www.redisetgo.com. The site promises 7-10 days Express shipping, but we received our package only 5 days after placing the order. No problems so far.

**Update** Check out this discount link that I found: Save 30% on the ALL NEW Xpress Redi Set Go – during the Exclusive Introductory Offer. Plus, Get over $50 in FREE Bonus Gifts.

What You Get

Our package contained the grill, two non-stick pans, a double-sided spatula and an instruction manual / recipe book. The pans are a split pan divided pan and a “mini-food” pan for mini-muffins, appetizers, etc. The pans can be inserted into the cooker to suit different recipes - or the grill itself can be used without a pan to cook larger meals.

The recipe book / manual is great - it’s well-designed and printed in color. The instructions are quite simple, as one would hope for a device such as the RediSetGo. As for the recipe book, it contains nice beauty shots of the included recipes and each recipe is clearly coded for “Meals under 1$ per serving”, “Fast Meals”, “Meals that need only 3 ingredients” and “100 calorie snacks”. Also symbols appear for the pan(s) appropriate to each meal.

Does it do what it says?

In a word, yes. Our Xpress Ready-Set-Go grill heats up super quickly and is ready to cook. Cathy Mitchell’s recipes cover a lot of ground. We made a lot of them and were overall enjoying the results. Homemade pizzas using the included ‘almost instant pizza dough’ recipe, “Cini minis” (mini cinnamon rolls), grilled mexican burritos, and the mixed berry corn pancakes are our favorite meals so far. We also tried a few tougher assignments - almond crusted tilapia and quiche lorraine. The tilapia turned out light and perfectly cooked on our first try, and the quiche lorraine was delicious. Nearly everything we cooked took around 5-7 minutes to cook, and we never had problems with food burning or sticking to the pans or grill itself. Cleanup is very simple, all the more so when you cook using the insertable pans.

The grill can be stored easily, and can stand upright for narrow cabinets.

We have to commend the Ready Set Go for including well thought out recipes that are easy to prepare with food you probably already have in your fridge, and which are easy to get great results with. Clearly a lot of thought has been put not only into the grill itself, but the entire package.

Rating

4 1/2 of 5 stars. The Xpress Redi-Set-Go is a great indoor electric cooker; it’s small, well-designed and comes with everything you need to cook small meals successfully, even if you are not an experienced chef. Highly recommended! Buy online.

Our only qualm is those with very large families may want to consider buying two, or spending (a lot) more for larger appliances in this category.

More Resources on the Web

Xpress Redi-Set-Go Official Site - www.redisetgo.com

Another Redi-Set-Go Blog Online Review

A native species to the UK is the wild garlic - and it’s delicious!  Wild garlic is a springtime favourite in my house and - if you can get it - I’ll show you how to make it a favourite in yours.

Wild Garlic in full bloom

The first part of the fun is the thrill of the hunt.  Wild garlic grows in shady areas and woodlands.  It is usually very easy to spot by it’s distinctive leaves and small white flowers.  It’s mid-April now and, to date, I have not found any wild garlic in bloom so it’s only the leaves that is my visual beacon.  However, if it’s a warm, sunny spring afternoon, it will be another sense that sniffs out this culinary treat.  Be careful as you pick this as the leaves look very similiar to lily of the valley which is poisonous.  As you do pick it, you don’t need to worry about which bits are edible - they all are.  The leaves are the most commonly consumed part of the plant, but the buds, flowers and bulb are all delicious.

Cooking Ideas

Wild Garlic Pesto
Serves about 4
100g Wild Garlic Leaves
3 tbl spoons Pine Nuts
1 tsp Salt
2 tbl spoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tbl spoon Parmesan Cheese

Blanch the wild garlic in boiling water for about 15 seconds and immediate immerse in a sink of cold/ice water.  Place pine nuts in a frying pan and place over a high heat.  Keep moving the pine nuts and turn occasionally until toasted to a golden brown colour.  Combine all ingredients into a blender until smooth.

Wild Garlic Fish

Choose your favourite fish (I prefer a whitefish with this recipe) and rub with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and sprinkle with a light coating of salt.  Wrap the fish in two or three layers of the wild garlic leaves and bake at 180^oC / 350^oF for about 12-15 minutes (depending on how large the fish is). Garnish with wild garlic flowers.

Sure, there are plenty of cheese graters out there.  You probably have one of those four-sided jobs that is a horror to wash so you never get it out or you just buy pre-shredded cheese.  I can get you past the first horror easily enough, but the second is just a bad habit you have to break on your own.  I introduce to you… the Microplane.

Ever since I bought my first one in 2003, I have been hooked. I have noticed that they are appearing more and more on food tv as well. There is a good reason - they are very sharp and very effective. There are several different gauges for the Microplane from the small zester to the chocolate shaver. You will buy one and then keep adding and adding the different sizes, it’s an addiction.

The most significant bonus to this item is that I use mine at least once a week and some weeks even more. I do typically use it as a cheese grater, but the finer grade I use for zesting and for liquefying garlic.

If you have one, I’d love to know what you think. Post you comments below.