Rich Ruby Port and Vodka Christmas Cookies

Based on an idea freshly stolen from the Sandi – with thanks :-)...

Ingredients
1 cup of water
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup or brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup nuts
2 cups of dried fruit
1 bottle Rich Ruby Port
1 bottle Vodka

Method
Sample the Port and the Vodka to check quality.

Take a large bowl,check the Port again, to be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink..

Turn on the electric mixer. Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.

Add one peastoon of sugar. Beat again. At this point it's best to make sure the vodka is as good as the port, try a cupfull to test.

Turn off the mixerer thingy.

Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

Pick the frigging fruit off the floor..

Mix on the turner.

If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaters just pry it loose with a drewscriver.
Sample the Port to check for tonsisticity.

Next, sift two cups of salt, or something. Who geeves a sheet. Check the vodka again. Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.

Add one table.

Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find.

Greash the oven.

Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.

Don't forget to beat off the turner.


Finally, throw the bowl through the window, finish the Port, check all the Vodka has gone and make sure to put the stove in the wishdasher.

Cherry Mistmas !

Beans and Things

When I was at college it was not unusual for me to need a quick meal between coming home from lectures and zooming out again to socialise. One of my stand-by meals was baked beans. The standard way of serving baked beans is simply to heat them in a pan and pour them over a piece of toast. But rarely did I do them this way. Usually I added another ingredient – Imagination! I still do this today when I'm feeling lazy.

Among Ingredients that you can add to spice up your Baked Beans are:-

Pickled onions;
Spring onions;
Pickled gherkins;
Mixed herbs;
Chopped ham;
Chopped Spam or tinned ham and pork;
Small pieces of cooked chicken;
Chopped tomato;
Cherry tomato;
Tinned Tomatoes;
Garlic;
Red pepper;
Green pepper;
Yellow pepper;

And you could always top the mixture with a poached egg!

Method:-

Open the tin of beans and pour into a saucepan.
Add the other chosen ingredients;
Heat, stirring as necessary;
Serve on toast or with French bread and butter.

Can’t get easier than that!

Helen's Nut Roast – with and without (cheese)

Ingredients
Mixed nuts (e.g., walnuts, hazelnuts, sesame seeds, almonds, cashews) - 250g
Shallots - 100g
Chopped tomatoes - 400g tin
Egg - 1, beaten
Dried thyme - 0.5 tsp
Dried sage - 0.5 tsp
Dried mint - 0.5 tsp
Parsley - 1 tbsp, finely chopped
Marmite or other yeast extract - 1 tsp blended with 1 tsp boiling water
Lemon juice - 1 tsp
Black pepper
Optional - Cheddar cheese - 100g, grated

Butter / margarine for greasing tin

Method
1) Dry fry the nuts, stirring gently, until golden and fragrant, taking care not to burn. Remove to a bowl and leave to cool.
2) Blend the nuts in a food processor until thoroughly ground.
3) Drain away some of the liquid from the tin of chopped tomatoes.
3) In a large bowl, combine the ground nuts with all the remaining ingredients. Mix thoroughly.
4) Preheat the oven to 180° / gas mark 4. Grease a loaf tin with butter/margarine.
5) Scoop the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for around 45 minutes, until firm and golden. Cool slightly, then turn out. 

Note 1 - I have tried it both with and without the cheese and prefer it without. It tastes a bit too rich for me with the cheese and also remains a little bit sloppy.

Mote 2 - As an alternative to making your own nut mixture you can use a 250gm packet of Co-op Truly Irresistible Roasted Mixed Nuts. These will not need dry frying and can simply be ground.

Note 3 - Can be eaten hot with vegetables or cold with salad or bread and butter.

Note 4 - WARNING - May contain nuts !!!!!

Decorating a Plate

I have been trying to learn the art of decorating a plate in the fancy style that chefs often use. If you are going to try doing it you need to spend plenty of time practising. The chefs make it look easy but it isn't. Obviously the food used for the decoration has to match the food on the plate as regards taste but if you are looking for particular colour ideas you could try some of these these.

With Green
Take a bunch of fresh herbs such as Parsley and Sage. Immerse them in boiling water for 20 seconds. Strain them and put straight into ice cold water. Put the herbs into a blender and mix with some light oil such as rapeseed oil. Add some Extra Virgin Olive Oil and blend again. Bottle the resulting liquid and stopper it to keep it fresh. Use a paintbrush to put it on the plate or simply dribble it into a round spot.

With Red
Tomato Ketchup

With Orange
Barbecue Sauce

With Yellow
A slice of Lemon

With Yellow
Sweetcorn.

With Purple
Mash some beetroot and put it into a piping bag.

With Brown
Brown sauce.

With Brown for a dessert
Choclate sauce

With red for a dessert
Strawberry sauce.

Mushroom, poached egg yolk and micro-salad starter

Ingredients
I large flat mushroom per person
1 egg yolk per person
Butter
Rocket
Water-cress
Spinach
White wine vinegar
Whole grain mustard
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper


Method
Prepare the micro-salad by putting a mixture of rocket, spinach and water cress in a bowl. In a separate bowl put two teaspoons of white wine vinegar, a teaspoon of mustard, a tablespoon of olive oil, some freshly ground black pepper, and sea salt and mix well. Pour over the micro salad.

Gently fry the mushrooms in butter.

In a large pan heat water and add two teaspoons of white wine vinegar. Swirl the water around in the pan until it has a momentum of its own. Carefully drop the egg yolk in the centre of the water and cook briefly until lightly poached.

Serve the mushroom with the egg yolk on top and then loosely drape the micro salad on top.

(Note – in these photos, which were an early experiment, the salad was placed on top without any dressing. Using a dressing on it improves it, in my opinion.)

Fish Pie

There are lots of different fish pie recipes on the web and a few in my cookery books. Not that I use my cookery books very much nowadays. Noting down recipes from TV programmes or the web into my own book has rather replaced the old-fashioned cookery book in my life. This is the recipe I have used for a long time (except that the eggs are an additional touch added recently after tasting Spesh's fish pie).

Ingredients

1 fillet cod
1 fillet smoked haddock
i fillet salmon
(about 750 gram of fish in total)
Parsley sauce to make 1/2 pint.
500 ml Whole Milk
1 stick Celery
I Carrot
Peppercorns
½ Onion
2 hard boiled Eggs.
1 kg Potatoes
2 oz Butter
Frozen Petit Pois or Garden Peas
Parsley
A Bay leaf
Salt
Pepper


(On the go:- back left the potatoes boiling; front left the fish gently cooking; front right the petit pois. Ignore the pan on the back right; that's a separate dish - a beef stew).

Method
Chop the onion and celery. Add these to the milk with a bay leaf, a couple of sprigs of parsley and a few pepper corns.
Add the fish to the milk mixture in a medium saucepan. Bring to the simmer (making sure it doesn’t boil over), cover and turn off the heat. The fish will cook in the hot milk.
Hard boil the eggs.
Boil and mash the potatoes, adding the butter and some salt and pepper.
Heat the petit pois or garden peas in boiling water.
Take the fish out of the milk mixture and gently flake it – but not too finely – into an oven dish.
Chop the boiled eggs and add them to the fish. Add the petis pois. Add a couple of sprigs of chopped parsley.
Sieve the milk mixture throwing away the solids (the celery, carrot, onion, bay leaf and peppercorns) and pour i/2 pint of the flavoured milk over the fish and egg.
Make the parsley sauce and add it to the oven dish.
Very gently stir the mixture a couple of times to mix it together without breaking the fish up too much.
Cover with the mashed potatoes.
Place in a pre-heated oven on 200°C / 400°F / Gas 6.
Cook for about 25 minutes until the mash is going golden brown on top and the fish sauce is bubbling up the sides.

Apple and Sultana Crumble

Ingredients:-
For the fruit:
8 medium apples – peeled and chopped
1 oz soft brown sugar
2 cloves
1 level teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 oz sultanas
2 tablespoons water
3 teaspoons lemon juice


For the Topping:
4 oz wholemeal flour
4 oz plain white flour
5 oz soft brown sugar
3 oz butter at room temperature
1 level teaspoon baking powder.

(I actually use 4 oz of wholemeal flour, 2 oz of plain white flour and 2 oz of gram flour. Gram flour is a flour made from ground chana dal, a legume otherwise known as chickpeas. I think it just gives a slightly different texture to the crumble.)

Tinned custard

Method:-
Place the apples and water into a large saucepan, adding the sultanas, sugar and spices. Cook gently until the apples are soft and fluffy. Spoon the mixture into a pie dish.


Place the flour in a large mixing bowl, sprinkle in the baking powder, then add the butter and rub it into the flour lightly, using your fingertips. Then when it all looks crumbly, and the fat has been dispersed fairly evenly, add the sugar and combine that well with the rest.

Sprinkle the apple mixture with the crumble topping. Using a fork, even it out but don’t press it down. Cook for 30 to 40 minutes in a medium oven (gas mark 4; 350°F; 180°C) until the topping is golden brown.

Serve with hot or cold custard.

Recipe for humour

How come when you mix water and flour together

you get glue?..


and then you add eggs and sugar...


and you get cake?

Where did the glue go ?

NEED AN ANSWER?

You know darned well where it went!

That's what makes the cake

Stick to your ass..

Chicken Soup

Ingredients
4 large potatoes
1 large carrot
1 large onion
1 clove of garlic
100 gm noodles
3 chicken stock cubes
1 chicken breast
! small packet croutons

Method
In a very large pan bring to the boil 3 pints of water. Add the chicken stock cubes and continue to simmer and stir on a low heat throughout the rest of the process.
Dice one potato into very small cubes and put them in the water.
Grate the other three potatoes and add them.
Grate the carrot and add it.
Grate the onion and add it.
Crush the garlic and add to the mix.
Add the noodles.
Lightly fry the chicken breast in oil. Cut it open when there is a chance that it is cooked. If not completely cooked continue to fry until it is. (The more lightly it is cooked the more tender it will be.)
Cut and tear the chicken breast into tiny pieces and add to the soup.
Continue to simmer with the occasional stir for half an hour.
Remove from the heat and insert a stick blender. Lightly blend, leaving some of it thick so that there are some potato pieces and noodles left whole.

Serve with croutons.

Makes enough for six as a snack or as a meal starter. Any not eaten at the time can be frozen for the future - ideally in individual portions for snacks - or kept in the fridge for three days.

(There are, of course, many variations of this such as using left-over chicken; adding sweetcorn; using only half the amount of potato, carrot and onion and blending strongly prior to putting in the noodles to give a thinner, chicken noodle soup.)

Florentines - of a sort

These are my attempt at making Florentines like the ones found in the Woodlands Centre at Stornoway. They aren't the same by any means but they are acceptable. when I perfect the recipe I shall post it again.

Ingredients:-
2 oz butter
1 tablespoon syrup
3 tablespoons golden granulated sugar
1 tablespoon mixed dried fruit - mainly sultanas
½ tablespoon chopped almonds
½ tablespoon glace cherries - chopped
15 squares of chocolate
10 squares of chocolate for drizzle
Cornflakes

Method:-
Melt the ingredients - excluding the cornflakes and chocolate for drizzle - in a large saucepan. Then add cornflakes and turn slowly - trying not to break up the cornflakes but to cover them with the mixture. Try to add enough cornflakes to absorb all the mixture without adding so many that some cornflakes remain uncovered.



Spoon out onto greaseproof paper and mould into roundish shapes. Allow to cool. Melt the 10 remaining squares of chocolate and drizzle them over the 'Florentines'.
Put in the fridge to cool down for a while. Store in an airtight container.

MUSHROOM & BACON TOAST

Ingredients

2 oz butter
3 rashers bacon
4 oz button mushrooms
1 tbsp parsley
seasoning
4 slices bread
2 oz soft fat cheese


Method

Melt half the butter in a shallow pan; add chopped bacon and fry for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms, parsley and seasoning. Cover the pan and cook gently for 6 to 8 minutes or until the mushrooms are tender.

Toast the bread on both sides. Spread with butter and cream, cheese. Sandwich in pairs and spoon the mushroom and bacon over the top.

BREAKFAST RISSOLES

Ingredients

Hard-boiled Egg
Mashed Potato
Cooked Bacon
Tomato Sauce
Cornflakes
Mixed herbs
Beaten Egg
Seasoning

I haven't put quantities in this recipe because it never occurs to me to weigh things. In the case of the ones I made today there were 2 hard boiled eggs; three good-sized rashers of bacon and about four medium-size potatoes worth of mashed potato. That amount made enough for five rissoles.

This is just designed for breaklfast or brunch but if you wanted a more substantial meal you could serve them with baked beans, beetroot and pickled onions or with a green salad.



Method

Beat together the hard boiled eggs, mashed potatoes, chopped cooked bacon, a splodge of tomato sauce, a teaspoon of mixed herbs and salt and pepper. Make into rissoles, dip in the beaten egg and cover with mashed cornflakes. Fry for a couple of minutes.

Food for thought

I really enjoy cooking (when I’m in the mood) but it tends to be a spur of the moment thing and because I often feel better in the morning than the afternoon or evening I tend to cook in the morning. The end result is that I am often stumped as to what to cook. I have all these grand ideas but unless one shops in advance for the fresh ingredients the range of meals available to cook is limited. Perhaps this partly explains why a lot of my cooking is improvised.

I have decided I am going to be a lot more disciplined in future and choose at least two recipes that I want to make each week and then ensure I have shopped for all the ingredients. (Note that the word try did not appear in that sentence – I’m going to do it. Power of positive thinking and all that.)

LAMB PILAFF

This quantity serves 2. Serve with a green salad if desired.



Ingredients
2 oz butter
1 onion
1 clove garlic - crushed
12oz boned leg of lamb, cut into cubes (or you can use minced lamb)
2½ oz long grain rice
½ pint lamb stock or vegetable stock
seasoning
generous pinch mixed herbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1½ teaspoons dried marjoram
½ tsp ground allspice
½ a red pepper - chopped
1 tbsp sultanas
1 tbsp chopped almonds
2 tomatoes

Method
Chop the onion finely and fry gently in the butter until soft.
Add the crushed garlic clove.
Add the meat and rice and stir well until the meat is browned.
Add the stock, allspice, mixed herbs, marjoram and seasoning.
Bring to the boil then cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
Peel, skin and slice the tomatoes and add them to the meat.
Add the parsley, sultanas, red pepper and almonds.
Cook for a further 25 minutes or until the meat is tender and the rice cooked.

Tips
To skin tomatoes, pop them into a bowl of boiling water and the skin will burst. Take them straight out again and with use a sharply pointed knife to remove the skin.
To freeze this dish – cool it quickly and freeze in a plastic container for up to 3 months.
As an alternative you can use diced chicken - which may not take quite so long in the cooking. It's a chicken version starting to simmer (and just about to have its lid back on) in the photo.

STUFFED ONION

Serves two – serve on a bed of green salad.

Ingredients
2 large Onions
3 fl oz Olive Oil
3 fl oz Chinese rice wine
1 tbsp Honey
Freshly ground black Pepper
Salt
4 sprigs fresh thyme leaves
4 oz fresh breadcrumbs
3 oz butter
3 oz flaked almonds
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 clove Garlic, finely chopped
Green salad to serve.

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C


2. Remove the onion outer skins and cut each to half way with a sharp knife. Then cut again to half way at a right angle. You should now have a cross shape that goes half way down the onion. Then make another two cuts to a quarter of the way down forming eight divisions but not separating the onion at all.
3. Put the onions in a roasting tin and drizzle the olive oil over them. Season with salt and pepper and place the sprigs of Thyme across the top.
4. Cover the tray with foil and put in the oven for an hour.
5. Remove the onions from the oven and take the foil off. Drain away the olive oil and pour the rice wine and honey into the roasting tin. Return to the oven until nicely roasted – about 15 to 30 minutes.
6. In a dry frying pan, gently toast the almonds without burning them.
7. Pre-heat the grill. Put the breadcrumbs, butter, flaked almonds, parsley and garlic into a bowl and mix well.
8. Remove the onions from the oven. open out the leaves a bit and press the filling into all the spaces.
9. Grill under a hot grill for 3 to five minutes or until golden brown.
10. Serve on top of a bed of green salad.

MSG

I don’t like Monosodium glutamate. I have known for years that if I eat a dish (usually a take-away) that has too much MSG in it I get a migraine. I also get an upset stomach (not related to the migraine stomach). The potential ill-effects caused by MSG were first described in a medical journal as ‘Chinese Restaurant Syndrome'. Symptoms including numbness and palpitations were reported shortly after visiting a Chinese restaurant. Such claims have never been specifically linked to MSG however, and could be due to common allergies to ingredients like peanuts and shellfish. MSG has been linked to many conditions including migraines, asthma, depression and Alzheimer's, but has never been isolated as a cause. Huge amounts of MSG have been fed to humans without causing ill-effects, and MSG is considered a safe additive by every government which tests these things. For all its testing I’m pretty sure it has an adverse effect on me and interestingly I have a neurodegenerative disease and MSG has now been implicated in a number of neurodegenerative diseases, including ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis and Huntington's disease.

I have now heard rumours that MSG lacerates your taste buds – that’s how it enhances flavours. The problem is that the taste buds then scar over and that reduces their effectiveness in the future. I don’t know if there is any truth in the rumours but it’s one more thing to put me of it.

All in all I think I shall continue to avoid it – after all, my cooking must be pretty poor if it needs a chemical additive to make it eatable.

RISSOLES

This creates about five medium sized rissoles.
As an alternative the tuna fish can be replaced by a tin of corned beef (chopped and broken into small pieces) or 6 to 8 oz of grated cheese (Cheddar or Double Gloucester preferred). I never weigh cheese so I hope I’ve got the amount right!
Serve with salad or baked beans.

Ingredients
Four large potatoes or the equivalent
3 oz butter
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1/3 cup plain white flour
Flour to cover lightly
2 tins of Tuna Fish (in oil or brine as preferred)
Salt
Fresh ground pepper

Method
Boil the potatoes and mash well with 2oz butter.
Drain the oil or brine from the tuna fish.
Add the flour and tuna fish to the potato, season and stir well.
Cover your hands in flour and take a small handful of the mixture (ouch, hot!) and pat it into an oval about three quarters of an inch (2cm) thick, then add a sprinkling of flour to the surface.
Put the other 1oz of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and heat it up.
Put the rissoles in the frying pan and turn occasionally until both sides are a crisp golden brown.
Serve with baked beans or a green salad.

BEEF BOURGUIGNON

Don’t try doing this at a moment’s notice. It takes a fair while but hopefully you’ll find it’s worth it. It also sounds complicated but it is actually just a lot of easy stages. This serves four.

Ingredients
900g/2lb chuck steak, cut into 5cm/2in cubes
500ml/17½fl oz red wine
100g/3½oz bacon lardons
1 onion, sliced
1 carrot, sliced
30g/1oz plain flour
30g/1oz tomato purée
250ml/9fl oz chicken stock
16 small shallots
300g/10½oz button mushrooms
50g/2oz butter
1 tbsp fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 tbsp vegetable oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
fresh parsley, chopped
rice or boiled potatoes

Method
1. Place the beef, red wine, thyme, bay leaf and garlic into a large bowl. Cover and marinate in the fridge for at least two hours, preferably overnight.
2. Preheat the oven to 160C/320F/Gas 3.
3. Heat the vegetable oil in a pan over a medium heat. Add the bacon lardons and fry until crisp and golden-brown.
4. Remove the beef from the marinade. Reserve the marinade liquid for later. Add the beef to the pan and cook until brown on all sides. Remove the beef from the pan.
5. Add the onion and carrot to the same pan and fry for 5-6 minutes, until softened.
6. Return the beef to the pan and season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
7. Sprinkle with the flour, stir well and cook for a further two minutes.
8. Add the tomato purée, stir to combine and cook for four minutes.
9. Add the wine marinade and the chicken stock and bring to the boil.
10. Cover with a lid and cook in the oven for two hours.
11. Towards the end of the cooking time, melt half of the butter in a frying pan over a low heat. Add the shallots and fry for 10-12 minutes, until golden-brown all over.
12. In a separate frying pan, melt the remaining butter and fry the mushrooms until golden-brown all over.
13. Remove the beef casserole from the oven and carefully strain the sauce into a clean pan. Reserve the beef and vegetables. Bring the sauce to the boil and cook to reduce the volume by half.
14. Return the reserved beef and vegetables to the pan of reduced sauce and add the cooked shallots and mushrooms. Simmer for three minutes, stirring occasionally.
15. To serve, spoon equal portions of the beef bourguignon onto warmed plates. Garnish with parsley and serve with rice or boiled potatoes.

VEGETABLE SOUP

This is a simple way to use any vegetables that are getting past their best. The end result can be frozen in portions and brought out whenever you fancy some soup.

Ingredients:
1 Leek
5 medium Potatoes
5 Carrots
1 tin Chopped Tomatoes
5 teaspoons Bouillon
2 tbsp Pearl Barley
2 tbsp Red Lentils
½ tbsp Mixed Herbs
1 Clove of Garlic
Any other vegetables you want to use – for example, Green Beans, Broccoli, Onion, Peas, or Cabbage – but, in my experience not Swede, Parsnip or Brussels Sprouts as they seem to ‘turn’ the flavour.
Note you can get Vegan Bouillon so this can be a real vegetarian recipe.

Method:
Peel and chop the vegetables fairly finely.
Bring to the boil 3 pints water.
Add the Bouillon and stir.
Add the tin of tomatoes (or rather the contents of the tin!) and some freshly ground pepper.
Chop the Garlic clove finely and add to the water.
Add the Pearl Barley and Lentils and simmer for ten minutes.
Add the remainder of the vegetables.
Simmer for 20 minutes.
Remove from the heat and test for taste. Bouillon is salty so it is doubtful that you will need to add salt.
Using as hand blender, thin the soup to your own preference. Be CAREFUL – remember that the soup is almost at boiling point so do not splash your hand. Note that the soup will thicken as it cools so you may want to add a bit more boiling water at this stage. So long as you don’t add too much water it should not alter the taste too drastically.


This shows two different thicknesses of soup according to the amount of blending and additional water.

JUMP-IN-THE-PAN CHICKEN

A simple recipe that gives you plenty of exercise preparing the meat and jiggling the frying pan.

Ingredients:
3 skinless chicken breasts – around 150 g each
2 tbsp plain flour
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 garlic clove, crushed
4 bay leaves
2 tbsp capers, well rinsed
125ml dry white wine
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley
(To serve, green salad)

Method:
Place each chicken breast between two sheets of cling film or greaseproof paper and bash flat with a meat mallet or rolling pin. Make it as thin as possible, almost breaking up.
Tear the chicken into little rags with your fingers, and toss lightly in the flour, seasoned with salt and pepper.
Heat the olive oil and butter in a large, heavy-based frying pan. When hot, add the chicken, scattering the pieces so they don’t clump together. Instead of stirring, move the pan on the heat and flip the chicken pieces until lightly golden, so they jump in the pan.
Add the garlic, bay leaves, capers, sea salt and pepper. Remove the pan from the heat, add the wine, and return to a high heat. Let the wine bubble away, again jiggling the pan like crazy.
When there is only a little wine left, add the lemon juice and parsley leaves, and jiggle the pan until the sauce comes together and looks creamy. Serve immediately.

Bacon and Garlic Pasta

I have been reminded that it is a while since I inputted any recipes so here’s a quick pasta meal to be going on with –

Ingredients
8 oz smoked bacon
4 oz garlic cream cheese (such as Boursin)
5 fl oz single cream
4 oz frozen peas (defrosted)
12 oz pasta such as penne
olive oil
salt and pepper

Method
Cook the pasta in boiling salted water; drain and drizzle over a little olive oil to stop it from sticking together.
While the pasta is cooking, grill or fry the bacon until crispy, then drain on kitchen towel and cut into very small pieces.
Melt the cream cheese in a saucepan with the cream and keep stirring until smooth.
Add the peas and baocn to the sauce and mix well.
Season the sauce with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Add the pasts to the saucepan and continue to heat and stir over a low heat until the mixture is thoroughly hot again.
Hey presto, that’s it...