A whole week of cupcakes, amazing! As if the OxNosh team needed any excuse to bake. And bake we did. And Internet shop, too. More of that later…

Cupcakes (and I mean the embellished type), are undeniably American, and with ounces of cream cheese frosting on their over-sized form their nationality speaks through whatever disguise they are given. Girls love them for their colours, sparkles and fancy cases; guys love them for their two-bite muchability. And what’s not to love?

Speaking as a member of the fairer sex, there’s something pretty appealing about being able to legitimately accessorise baked goods - literally the more outrageous the better when it comes to cupcakes and muffins. And here’s where that Internet shopping I alluded to comes in- Cakes Cookies and Craft Shop took a large bite out of my account this month in the form of sparkles, cupcake cases and silver balls.

And the result? The most blinged-up cakes this side of New York. All enjoyed with a nice cuppa, how very un-American.

I made three classic recipes to celebrate cupcake week - why not try the delicious hummingbird recipe here, a mix of tropical banana and pineapple, mixed with cinnamon and pecans, coated in artery-clogging cream cheese icing and a few pretty embelishments.

Useful things to note:

• Generally fill your cases up to 3/4 full of raw cake mix - this is usually the right amount of mixture to rise just proud of the case
• Make sure your baked cakes are cool before you ice them - otherwise the icing can melt
• If you don’t have a piping bag, no worries - icing can be spooned and spread onto cakes, or else for a piping bag effect, fill up a freezer bag with icing and squeeze into one corner, carefully snip the point of the corner off, and then pipe to your heart’s content
• Cream cheese icing can be frozen - so if you make replicas relojes too much just pop it in the freezer in a sealed box (or freezer bag), and whisk once defrosted (defrost in the fridge overnight, not microwave)

Always eager for a food-related challenge, OxNosh are going to be foregoing the meat for a week as it’s National Vegetarian Week.

Giving up meat for a week can be tough, especially if you’re not used to cooking without meat, however never fear - we’ve got lots of tasty recipes to mean that inspiration is never more than a click away.

To feast vegetarian style, we’ll be cooking up some vegetarian cottage pie (one of our most popular recipes) at the weekend, eating half for a relaxed Sunday dinner and saving half for later in the week for one of the days we get home from work late and don’t fancy getting the pots and pans out - simply making a quick fresh green salad to go on the side. We’ll also be enjoying some Spaghetti with Tomato and Almond Pesto , and if we have friends around to dinner we’ll rustle up some vegetarian sushi - nothing like something unusual and so delicious-looking to keep carnivores’ minds away from the lack of meat on their plate. And what’s best is it gives you a great excuse to go foraging around in the amazing asian supermarkets. If you’re starting from scratch with sushi, the following are essential, and readily available from Lung Wah Chong (see our shopping guide)

• Bamboo mat
• Nori sheets (seaweed)
• Gari (pickled ginger)
• Wasabi paste
• Black and white sesame seeds
• Sushi rice
• Rice wine vinegar

In addition, I’d recommend having a look at the fabulous videos on YouTube for a visual aid - it’s not difficult to make, but the videos panerai replica really do help you get an idea for the nack.

For a lazy Saturday breakfast, when the traditional fry up is thus cancelled, we’ll make some pancakes and eat them along side some gorgeous seasonal fruit and a good spoonful of honey to sweeten the treat up. Delicious.

Brasserie Blanc – set menu with wine, £11.35-17.30

Ramond Blanc claims that if his Michelin-starred Le Manoir is a delicate waltz, the brasseries are the Can Can. Our meal was a fun experience, but perhaps rather less exhilarating than the Can Can.

The a la carte menu looks sumptuous, featuring French classics such as replica relojes escargots in garlic herb butter, mussels in white wine and cream, and apple tart, but for a more student-friendly option price-wise, I went for the excellent value set menu – two or three courses, plus a glass of wine, with prices ranging from £11.35 to £17.30 depending on the amount of courses and whether you go for lunch or dinner.

The interior is elegant and relaxing, with cream walls, soft lighting and food-themed artwork. We were looked after throughout the evening by very attentive French waiters, who addressed us as “Madame” and “Monsieur”. Call me old-fashioned, but I rather liked their charming French politeness. With the arrival of a basket of fresh sliced baguette and butter, I immediately had high hopes for my dining experience. My starter – parsnip soup with a honey and lemon dressing – was deliciously warming, though rather too rich and creamy to finish at the beginning of a meal with two courses yet to come. It was garnished with pretty fried parsnip crisps which provided a nice contrast in texture to the soup. The honey and lemon dressing prevented the parsnips’ sweetness from being too overpowering, but unfortunately seemed to settle at the bottom of the bowl, meaning I had a couple of mouthfuls that tasted like honey and lemon cough sweets. My guest sampled the smoked ham hock terrine, served with egg mayonnaise and capers. This was superb; the deep, rich smoky flavour of the ham was nicely complemented by the creamy eggs and sharp capers.

From a choice of pork and black pepper sausage with puree potatoes, fillet of John Dory with bouillabaisse sauce and olive mash, or Moroccan vegetable tagine, we both chose the fish. The John Dory was indeed delicious and melted in the mouth, but the bouillabaisse sauce and mash combination was a little cloying. Still, it was excellently cooked and flavoured; I think perhaps I am just not accustomed to the French generosity with butter and cream.

Dessert was probably the highlight of the meal. Any menu that features rhubarb – in season at the moment – immediately gains my seal of approval. I ordered the poached rhubarb and Savoie biscuit terrine, a clever creation of sweet, tender rhubarb encased in a layer of moist sponge that was a perfect match for its tangy sharpness. Drizzled with a pink rhubarb coulis and a scoop of cream, it looked absolutely beautiful. There’s something about bright pink food that is happily reminiscent of sugar-filled childhood birthday parties, although there was nothing childish about this delicious dessert, especially when teamed with a glass of dessert wine (not included in the set menu, sadly). Sweet wine, slightly sour rhubarb, soft white cream – excellent. My guest opted for the white chocolate and banana delice, a layer of creamy white chocolate mousse atop a dark chocolate base. I couldn’t detect much banana flavour, and the texture became a bit uninteresting after a while. Perhaps he should have chosen the sticky toffee pudding – impossible to do badly, I imagine, especially with that French love of butter.

A very good meal for the amount we paid; nothing incredibly remarkable though – for that kind of food you’ll have to order a la carte!

A version of this article featured in The Oxford Student newspaper, published by Oxford Student Services Limited (OSSL). OxNosh reproduces this article by agreement with OSSL.

First, the rules: one, wrap everything well in either a freezer bag or plenty of cling film to prevent ‘freezer burn’ which is caused when direct contact with the cold air causes food to dry out. Chicken breasts, fish fillets and steaks all freeze well when wrapped individually in cling film.

Rule Two: label, label, label. It’s amazing how remarkably similar most things look once frozen. Useful things to note are what the item is, the date frozen and how much there is. Try keeping a list on the front of the freezer, once it becomes well stocked; it’s like shopping in your very own supermarket.

Leftovers

Cooking in bulk makes financial sense and saves on effort. If you’re already going to the trouble of making one lasagne, why not make two and freeze one? That way when you’re busy, frazzled and with no time to cook you can take it out of the freezer to defrost in the morning replicas relojes and pop it in the oven when you get in - a ‘ready meal’ at your fingertips. Shepherd’s pie, cottage pie, fish pie and most pasta bakes all work well. Soups and stews also freeze well; it can be handy here to freeze individual portions in bags so you can defrost what you need, perfect for nights when eating alone.

While this can seem a foolproof way to store leftovers, there’s no point using your freezer as a less guilt inducing bin and filling it with food you hope will taste nicer second time around. It will look a lot less appetising when frozen and will only languish at the back of the freezer and eventually have to be thrown away.

Frozen Storecupboard

The freezer really comes into its own if you think of it as a frozen storecupboard; there’s not much that can’t be frozen until it’s needed. Excellent standbys are grated cheese and breadcrumbs - store them in the freezer and sprinkle into dishes as needed straight from the freezer. I always freeze any leftover dregs in the bottom of a wine bottle (although, this is unfortunately a rare occurrence). If you’ve a large amount to freeze, it’s helpful to freeze in wine glass (175ml) portions.

Raw meat can be frozen in strips in a marinade. Once defrosted, it’s ready to go straight into a stir fry. Likewise if you’ve some distinctly floppy vegetable languishing in the bottom of the fridge, chop into similar sized pieces, drop into a large pan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Drain and rinse in cold water, then freeze. Now you’ve got vegetables ready go into a stir fry too. Try it with cauliflower or broccoli and freeze in florets ready to be made into soup or nestled under a thick blanket of cheese sauce. Chicken carcasses can also be frozen until you feel like making stock and the resulting stock frozen until you want to use it.
A seasonal glut is the perfect time to exploit your freezer; raspberries and blackberries frozen in the height of summer bring a little sunshine to a winter’s day. Try them in smoothies, crumbles, trifles or with ice cream. Remember that strawberries don’t like the cold so much and turn into sludge once defrosted. I am forever stewing apples in autumn and freezing them ready for a crumble topping (also frozen) and some custard when I really need comforting. For more tips on reducing food waste visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.com.

I love aubergine, so much so that it’s perhaps my favourite vegetable - it’s all in the texture for me, the meltingly soft flesh held firm by the shiny black skin, a sponge for flavour. A great dish for Aubergines is involtini - griddled or grilled slices of aubergine wrapped around a flavoursome filling, baked until the flavours have melded and the aubergine flesh is meltingly soft.

And so when pimping this pot, the Moroccan Squash Tagine, involtini was on my mind and a couple of purple, shiny aubergines were added to the basket. Back in the kitchen, each aubergine was sliced into about 6 slices lengthways, brushed with oil and grilled until darkening on each side. I then placed a generous teaspoon of the veg pot on what had been the stalk-end of each slice, sprinkled with some crumbled feta cheese, and then rolled the whole slice up to create involtini. Placing the little parcels open ends upwards in an snug oven dish, I then cooked them for 15 minutes at a medium heat, until the aubergine slices had soaked up some of that replicas hublot fabulous flavour and the feta had turned golden. Served with some cous cous, through which we stirred a few chopped sundried tomatoes and a tablespoon of their oil, this made a fabulous relaxed meal for two.

Restaurant page

My best tapas experiences have always involved being on holiday with my family in Andalucia; a quartet of non-Spanish speakers, subsisting off our ability to point at interesting-looking dishes in various bars. Al Andalus, the tapas bar on Little Clarendon Street, proved an exciting prospect – familiar dishes in a great setting. One of the other beautiful things about tapas is the sharing, and Al-Andalus caters well for people such as myself who find the prospect of sharing rather nerve-wracking – what if the last piece of tortilla disappears before you have a chance to sample it, busy as you are tucking into patatas bravas with spicy tomato sauce? Luckily, the provision of side plates means you can grab a bit of everything before it disappears. And you will want to.

The food is excellent: portions are surprisingly large (you would be unlikely to finish more than three plates of tapas each) and everything is packed full of flavour (due, I suspect, to liberal amounts of fine Spanish olive oil). Classics such as patatas bravas and tortilla were excellent; though with the exciting array of plates on offer you may want to attempt something a little more adventurous, such as the deep-fried goats’ cheese with honey; a sublime combination. If that isn’t enough to supply a goats’ cheese fix, the milhojas de queso de cabra (goats’ cheese baked with potato and serrano ham) will definitely do so. The calamares romana were on the right side of crispy, with a lovely seafood flavour still shining through from the squid. A seafood addict, I also ordered the marinated seafood salad: octopus legs and replica rolex mussels marinated in Spanish vinaigrette, which was a fresh-tasting foil to the abundance of potato, cheese and ham adorning our table. For ardent carnivores and fans of hearty food, the montaditos de lorno y queso, pork loin marinated in paprika and olive oil and served on tomato bread with melted cheese, is as good as it gets: a hamburger with a twist. Just make sure you have a napkin at hand.

The all-round favourite at our table, however, was the delightful datiles con bacon: dates stuffed with blue cheese, wrapped in bacon and grilled. An interesting combination, but try it and you will not be disappointed: the sharp creaminess of the blue cheese and the sweetness of the chewy dates cuts through the saltiness of the bacon, and the result is pure gastronomic heaven. You can even get them with beef on a skewer, if the bacon isn’t enough meat to satisfy your carnivorous cravings.

Al-Andalus also offer main courses; there are several grilled meat dishes, and the classic paella. Unfortunately, we were all far too full to even attempt a main, let alone dessert; though from what I could spy at the adjacent table, the desserts are definitely worth a try. As is the sangria, available by the glass or in litres in authentic-looking earthenware jugs that reminded me of a memorable (or not so, as the case may be) episode in a bar in Barcelona. All in all, a perfect destination both for large groups (they also offer a set menu for parties of seven or more) or diner a deux. It is also very good value, with plates of tapas ranging from £3.50 to £5.50; a couple could share five and probably not need dessert.

However, do be careful to check your order – we were brought several plates of bread and tortilla that we hadn’t ordered; assuming (perhaps naively) that they were complimentary, we tucked in with relish and were then charged for all of them, whilst some of our ordered dishes seemed to have been forgotten by the kitchen. Though, the meal was so enjoyable (and enhanced by the presence of a Spanish dancer brandishing castanets) that I will ascribe this to the fact that the restaurant was busy and that we did order about twenty different dishes between us, so I’ll let them off.

A version of this article featured in The Oxford Student newspaper, published by Oxford Student Services Limited (OSSL). OxNosh reproduces this article by agreement with OSSL.

Next up - Indian Daal Curry. We took loose inspiration from this Jamie Oliver recipe to make this spicy seafood and vegetable soup. Heat the veg pot with 1/2 cup (125ml) of vegetable stock (or coconut milk if you’re feeling decadent). Meanwhile, get a piece of oily fish such as trout or salmon and sprinkle with a little salt and garam masala. Skin and cut into chunks. Heat a frying pan with a little oil and fry the fish for a few mins on each side until lovely and golden, squeeze over some lime juice. Add a squeeze of lime juice to the soup as well and pour into a bowl; top with the fish, a spoonful of yoghurt, some extra sliced chilli if you like it hot and chopped coriander. Enjoy!

This is open to interpretation of course - use whatever fish you fancy or can get your hands on. Using an oily fish like trout makes this even healthier as they’re packed full of omega 3’s and you’ll get a nice boost of calcium from the yoghurt.

If yeast-based cooking isn’t your thing, just halve a ciabatta, toast the underside in the grill, layer up as above, grill a little more, and enjoy.

Now all you need is a tall, dark stranger and a bottle of Italian wine for company…

They’ve already started in the Innocent blog here - so we had our work cut out.

Spicy Chilli Wraps using Sweet Potato Chilli

We decided to make this veg pot all Mexican. Take a tortilla, dollop on some hot chilli, sprinkle over some diced avocado, red onion and fresh coriander, if you have it. Top with a splodge of yoghurt and roll up into a tasty wrap. Try adding some grated cheese or, to make the veg pot go further, add 2 fried eggs into the mix and share between two people.

This week we received: Onions, Carrots, Potatoes, Parsnips, Purple Sprouting broccoli, Beetroot, Salad Pack

We’re happy to see the return of a little beetroot, the earthy sweetness is delicious in this soup, lime and vodka make it zingy and fresh, while a dollop of yoghurt not only makes it a lurid pink, but cools it down. If we’re lucky enough to get a warm sunny day, then this is delicious eaten cold.

Now that we’re getting into spring, it’s all about eating simple salads, a fresher way of eating. Try asian carrot salad, or this courgette and bulghar wheat salad, eat it with hummus and pitta bread; or some grilled haloumi.

We’re still loving the purple sprouting broccoli, I’m thinking a simple stir fry with some garlic and chili and a genrous splash of oyster sauce, try buying yours from Lung Wah Chong, you can huge bottles for next to nothing. Serve with fluffy white rice (we like Delia’s recipe) or egg fried rice and some toasted cashews.

This veggie shepherd’s pie is one of our most popular recipes. Red lentils braised in red wine and tomatoes, topped with buttery mashed potatoes and grated cheese, and baked until bubbling and golden. Try adding parsnip to the mash potato topping to make it even healthier.