Chicken with Beetroot Salad

Coincidentally, another recipe I had decided to do this week also included beetroot! So I had the pleasure of introducing myself to a different way to use this delicious little vegetable!

 This is another WeightWatcher's recipe, this time taken from a WW cookbook called "Members' Favourites".  The original title is Quorn with Beetroot Salad, but it said you could substitute chicken and we had plenty of that in the fridge!  Although Alan had bought pre cooked chicken, so I imagine the points of this recipe is a bit higher using that, than using what was intended.  I must admit, I did not point this correctly. So the points I will give you are not what mine ended up being, but what should be if you use the correct ingredients!

Quorn with Beetroot Salad

serves 2

6 Propoints per serving

35 minutes to prepare

Ingredients:

2 oranges

1-2 Tbs Dijon mustard

140g pack Quorn roast-style sliced fillets ( I had pre cooked chicken in the fridge and used this instead)

1 Tbs chill and garlic sauce 

1 red onion, sliced into half moons

250g (9 oz) cooked beetroot, (vacuum packed, not in vinegar), sliced

70g rocket leaves

2 Tbs low fat plain fromage frais

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1.  Finely grate the zest from the oranges and mix with the Dijon mustard in a large bowl.

2.  Over another large bowl, to catch all the juices, peel and cut the oranges into segments. Add 2 tablespoons of the orange juice to the orange zest and mustard mixture, along with the Quorn. Stir to coat, then put to one side.


















3.  Add the chilli and garlic sauce to the bowl with the orange segments and stir.  Add the onion and beetroot, stirring gently to mix.

4.  Heat a non stick frying pan and add the Quorn and its marinade.  Cook over a low heat, turning the Quorn occasionally, for 5 - 6 minutes.  With my chicken being pre-cooked, I put this in a microwavable bowl and cooked it for about 1.5 minutes.  Just to get the benefit of the marinade.  I think this would be even more tasty cooking it as instructed!

5.  Tip the warm Quorn or chicken! into the orange and beetroot salad and add the rocket leaves.  Toss everything together and season to taste.  Serve each portion topped with 1 tablespoon of fromage frais.  It all depends on what I can find when food shopping.  This time I used half fat Creme Fraiche because I could not locate any fromage frais.  I also substitute plain yogurt or sour cream.  Whatever I can find at the time!

I must admit I am not really a fan of rocket but try to follow the recipe ingredients, if not the instructions, to the letter whenever possible.  Next time I make this, I will just use normal lettuce or a variety of lettuce leaves.

Try this

In step 4, you could use 140g (5 oz) sliced skinless boneless chicken breast instead of Quorn, for the same ProPoints values per serving.

"Don't just eat at McDonald's, get something a bit better.  Eat a salad.  That is what fashion is.  It is something that is a bit better."  

Vivienne Westwood

Quorn with Beetroot Salad

serves 2

6 Propoints per serving

35 minutes to prepare

Ingredients:

2 oranges

1-2 Tbs Dijon mustard

140g pack Quorn roast-style sliced fillets

1 Tbs chill and garlic sauce

1 red onion, sliced into half moons

250g (9 oz) cooked beetroot, (vacuum packed, not in vinegar), sliced

70g rocket leaves

2 Tbs low fat plain fromage frais

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1.  Finely grate the zest from the oranges and mix with the Dijon mustard in a large bowl.

2.  Over another large bowl, to catch all the juices, peel and cut the oranges into segments.  Add 2 Tablespoons of the orange juice to the zest and mustard mixture, along with the Quorn.  Stir to coat and then put to one side.3.  Add the chilli and garlic sauce to the bowl with the orange segments and stir.  Add the onion and beetroot, stirring gently to mix.

4.  Heat a non stick frying pan and add the Quorn and its marinade.  Cook over a low heat, turning the Quorn occasionally, for 5 - 6 minutes.

5.  Tip the warm Quorn into the orange and beetroot salad and add the rocket leaves.  Toss everything together and season to taste.  Serve each portion topped with 1 tablespoon of fromage frais.

Try this

In step 4, you could use 140g (5 oz) sliced skinless boneless chicken breast instead of Quorn, for the same ProPoints values per serving.

Houmous and Slaw Sandwich

I have been fairly good about following my eating plan for this week.  It does feel much better to eat such healthy food.  I know this, but sometimes the temptations are just too much!  However, I have virtually maintained my goal weight for 2 years, so I am hoping this new focus gets me back on track.   I lost my way for a while.....

The recipe I am sharing today is another WeightWatchers' recipe.  This one came from the leaflet we receive at meetings.  The subject of that meeting was lunch.  The one I picked was just the first one and using cooked beetroot, not pickled beetroot (in the US we would just say Beets, not beetroot!).  It specifically says not to use beets cooked in vinegar.  Since I have only purchased pickled beets, I did not know if I could even locate this.  But cooked beetroot is in the fresh vegetable sections of grocery stores.  There were 2 different packages available, but one had vinegar.  So if you try to find this, make sure you read the ingredients.

According to my scale, this is what is called for in the recipe.
That is why I decided to double this!  Why use 1/2 a beetroot?

The other words of wisdom I have about this recipe is that it does not make much, so I doubled it!  In WW there are foods you can eat in unlimited quantities, mainly  most fruits and vegetables.  These are highlighted in green in their recipes indicating "Filling and Healthy".  All the ingredients, with the exception of the houmous, are highlighted in green.  So I decided to double the carrots and beets.  I will write this recipe as it is published in the leaflet, but keep in mind, it really does not matter how many you actually put in!




The bread is listed a WW bread, but I used another calorie counted bread because the price was better.  Again, if it is calorie counted, it should be ok, if you are using this as a diet lunch.  If not, just use any bread!

As usual, the recipe with no photos or comments will follow at the end.

Houmous and Slaw     6pp per serving  Serves 2  

10 minutes to prepare, approximately 45pence per serving

45g carrot, grated   (I used 2 carrots)
40g beetroot, coarsely grated  ( I used a whole beetroot)
1 spring onion, sliced  (2 spring onions!)
4 slices WeightWatchers Thick Sliced Wholemeal Bread
75g reduced fat houmous

1.  Place the carrot, beetroot and spring onion in a bowl. Season, mix together and divide between 2 slices of bread.

2.  Divide the houmous between the sandwiches and cover the remaining slices of bread.  Halve and serve.  Alternatively, wrap, chill and eat within 6 hours.


Instead of making the sandwich and wrapping it to take to lunch, I mixed the vegetables and houmous together and then made the sandwich when I was ready to eat lunch.  Seems less likely to have a soggy sandwich then!  Plus, if at all possible, I prefer to toast my bread!

How ever you decide to transport or eat it, enjoy!  This was a nice change and extremely quick and easy to make!

"Ask not what you can do for your country.  Ask what's for lunch."  

Orson Welles

Houmous and Slaw     6pp per serving  Serves 2  

10 minutes to prepare, approximately 45pence per serving

45g carrot, grated
40g beetroot, coarsely grated
1 spring onion, sliced
4 slices WeightWatchers Thick Sliced Wholemeal Bread
75g reduced fat houmous

1.  Place the carrot, beetroot and spring onion in a bowl. Season, mix together and divide between 2 slices of bread.

2.  Divide the houmous between the sandwiches and cover the remaining slices of bread.  Halve and serve.  Alternatively, wrap, chill and eat within 6 hours.

"Ask not what you can do for your country.  Ask what's for lunch."  

Orson Welles

Spiced Carrot and Squash Soup

Continuing my mission to get back on track with WeightWatchers, I took myself to the grocery store, after planning my meals for the week, and bought loads of fresh produce and healthy food!

The one thing that keeps me focused and happy following WW is having good soup virtually on tap.  Today I decided it had to be butternut squash, my absolute favourite!

When WW introduced Smart Start at the beginning of the year, they had a selection of meal cards with Smart Start recipes.  Today was the first time I went through them and there it was - carrots and butternut squash soup!  Perfect!

Although I will publish the recipe  as WW presented it, my soups will always be different.  For one thing- I don't really follow exact measurements of the vegetables in a soup recipe. Then there is the small matter of my cumin allergy - I can't use cumin at all and am always looking for something to take its place.

In Morrison's recently I noticed all kinds of new spice mixes, so I bought 3 of the 4. The only one I didn't get was one with cumin!  This time I used Four Pepper Rub.  It says it is a beef rub, but I ignored that!  And in reading the ingredients, I would like to question how it can be called Four Pepper anything - the list goes like this:  Demerara Sugar, dried onion, dried garlic, salt, mustard seed, dried red pepper, dried green pepper, mustard flour, black pepper, oil, peppercorns and dried thyme.  Regardless of the misleading name - this spice mix was delicious and worked perfectly as a substitute for cumin. There is a burn in this soup and that is the part of eating cumin that I miss!  (ok, in re-reading this, depending on how you count black pepper and peppercorns, there can be 4 peppers!)

The recipe on its own will follow at the end, in case you don't want my comments or photos!

Spiced Carrot and Squash Soup    1pp per serving  4 servings per recipe

I had 2 squashes and decided to double the recipe. 

Ingredients:

calorie controlled cooking spray
300g (10 1/2 oz) carrots, peeled and chopped 
400g (14 oz)  butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and chopped
1 Tbs medium curry powder
1.2 litres (2 pints) hot vegetable stock
2 tsps. olive oil
2 large red onions, sliced thinly
1tsp black onion seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds

All the peel and seeds!  So much easier this way.

Even before beginning to follow the recipe, I would first put the squash in the oven at about 160C for about 45 minutes.  This is the only way I will handle butternut squash.  I cannot believe that people would ever take the time to peel and chop an uncooked butternut squash.  They seem almost impossible for me to handle and I decided I am just not strong enough and life is too short to try!  So I bake them until they are soft and then add them to whatever recipe I am following!   Once cooked, the peel virtually falls off and it is a cinch to finish preparing them!



1.  Spray a large lidded saucepan with the cooking spray and heat until hot.  Add the carrots, squash and curry powder and stir fry for 3 minutes.  Add the stock, bring to the boil, cover and reduce the heat to simmer for 20 minutes until the vegetables are soft.

2.  Transfer to a liquidiser, or use a hand held blender and blend until smooth.

3.  Heat the oil in  a non-stick frying pan and cook the onions over a medium high heat for 5 - 10 minutes until golden and crispy. Stir in the onion seeds and cumin seeds and cook for a minute.

4.   Serve the soup topped with the onion mixture.

I never added the onions and seeds.  This was just too time consuming when all I wanted was soup!  The topping sounds delicious, but I didn't feel like doing it!


"When those waiters ask me if I want some fresh ground pepper, I ask if they have any aged pepper."
Andy Rooney

Spiced Carrot and Squash Soup    1pp per serving  4 servings per recipe

Ingredients:

calorie controlled cooking spray
300g (10 1/2 oz) carrots, peeled and chopped
400g (14 oz)  butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and chopped
1 Tbs medium curry powder
1.2 litres (2 pints) hot vegetable stock
2 tsps. olive oil
2 large red onions, sliced thinly
1tsp black onion seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1.  Spray a large lidded saucepan with the cooking spray and heat until hot.  Add the carrots, squash and curry powder and stir fry for 3 minutes.  Add the stock, bring to the boil, cover and reduce the heat to simmer for 20 minutes until the vegetables are soft.

2.  Transfer to a liquidiser, or use a hand held blender and blend until smooth.

3.  Heat the oil in  a non-stick frying pan and cook the onions over a medium high heat for 5 - 10 minutes until golden and crispy. Stir in the onion seeds and cumin seeds and cook for a minute.

4.   Serve the soup topped with the onion mixture.


"When those waiters ask me if I want some fresh ground pepper, I ask if they have any aged pepper."
Andy Rooney

Raspberry and Cottage Cheese Muffins

I must admit, I have not been the best representative of a member of Weightwatchers recently. And it is beginning to show. So I decided I would have to be more responsible and get myself back on track.  But I do like to bake so much.......

Coincidentally, I bought a new page a day calendar with Cupcakes as its subject matter. And one of those recipes sounded rather healthy so I decided to give it a try!

I can't say for certain, but in my reckoning each cupcake is 5pp and they were really easy to make.   I even made a terrible mistake because I was focused on doing this with a WW angle.  My WW scale is fun to use and has almost magic functions with figuring out what individual foods are worth in pro-points  But I had never tried using the recipe function and adding foods to get a total.

The accepted way to mix muffins, and I have known this since high school home ec class, is to put the dry ingredients in a bowl, mix the wet ingredients, then make a hole in the centre of the dry ingredients and very gently mix the two together.  The less you mix, in theory anyway, the more your muffins will rise.  I have done this for a long time.  But in using my scale in the recipe mode for the first time, I just dumped everything into the bowl on the scale.  After the eggs, I realised what I was doing was a huge mistake!  Too late to retrieve the eggs, but the milk, oil and cottage cheese got mixed up the way they were supposed to.

Not sure how this was going to work, I just had to mix it all together, put the muffins in the oven and hope for the best.   And they worked out alright.  Moral of this story - read the recipe first and don't do anything on automatic pilot no matter how many times you have baked muffins!  (or anything!)

Two things I would change - mixing the eggs the correct way, with all the other liquids, and using less raspberries.  The 2 cups it calls for is just too many. The muffins were squidgy, not a good word when describing muffins. They were delicious, but they could have been better.

So here is the recipe!  And there will be a copy without pictures if you scroll down further!

Raspberry and Cottage Cheese Muffins  
(the recipe says it makes 1 dozen but I got 15, probably because there were just too many raspberries)

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour   (plain flour in the UK)
3/4 cup superfine sugar (possibly caster sugar in the UK)
1 Tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 lightly beaten eggs
4 Tbsp sunflower oil
1 1/4 cups low-fat milk
1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese
2 cups fresh raspberries  ( I am going to try only 1 1/2 cups next time)





Preheat oven to 350F (175C).  Grease a 12 cup muffin pan, or use cupcake papers.

In a medium bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt with a spoon.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs, oil, milk, and cottage cheese with an electric mixer until smooth.  (in my haste and confusion over doing the first part wrong,  I did not mix the liquids until very smooth.  Another thing to change the next time I do this recipe.)

Add the flour mixture and stir until nearly combined.  Fold in the raspberries, but do not over mix.   Spoon the mixture into prepared pan.  Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Remove pan from the oven and cool for 5 minutes.  Then remove the muffins and cool on a rack.  Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Makes 1 dozen  (15 for me this time around)  If I had ended up with only 12 muffins, I figure they would have been 6pp each.

"Don't count your Muffins untill they're baked."  

Taken from the Muppetcentral.com website.

Raspberry and Cottage Cheese Muffins  
(the recipe says it makes 1 dozen but I got 15, probably because there were just too many raspberries)

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour   (plain flour in the UK)
3/4 cup superfine sugar (possibly caster sugar in the UK)
1 Tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 lightly beaten eggs
4 Tbsp sunflower oil
1 1/4 cups low-fat milk
1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese
2 cups fresh raspberries  ( I am going to try only 1 1/2 cups next time)

Preheat oven to 350F (175C).  Grease a 12 cup muffin pan, or use cupcake papers.

In a medium bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt with a spoon.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs, oil, milk, and cottage cheese with an electric mixer until smooth.  Add the flour mixture and stir until nearly combined.  Fold in the raspberries, but do not over mix.   Spoon the mixture into prepared pan.  Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Remove pan from the oven and cool for 5 minutes.  Then remove the muffins and cool on a rack.  Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Makes 1 dozen  (15 for me this time around)

Slow-Cooker Salsa Chicken and Fashion Workshops!

I have just spent a wonderful day at a fashion workshop organised as part of a team project by my daughter's HND class.  The fact I was able to go at all was good luck and timing.  With being semi-retired, I do have spare days - unfortunately filled too much already. But a day like this was priceless!
Not only did I have a great time, but it was so nice to see my daughter helping to run such a successful event.

There were a variety of interesting workshops -

recycling old clothes (mine was a dress and I put a gold trim on it to make it different),



a marketing talk that was amazing and I think the fashion students there would really benefit from what the man told them.

We were also lucky to have a life coach and she challenged our beliefs and thought processes.

But the most fun was the tiara workshop!  My fingers are still sore from working with the wire, but it was fascinating to take random beads and wire and end up with a thing of beauty!

The workshop lasted from 10 - 4 so I knew it would be dinner time when I got home.


There had been an interesting recipe posted on Facebook called Slow-Cooker Salsa Chicken and this was what I decided we would have for dinner.

With my new food processor it took no time at all to prepare the vegetables, but this also made them a bit smaller than what was called for.   The time saved was worth the loss of a bit of substance though.

I thought I had managed to save this recipe on Facebook, but couldn't locate it last night so I looked for it on the internet and here it is!  A copy of the recipe with no pictures is at the end!

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken

Minutes to Prepare: 5

Minutes to Cook: 480

Number of Servings: 8

Ingredients

2 pounds (32 ounces) chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
1 cup salsa, homemade or purchased*
1 cup petite diced canned tomatoes (choose low-sodium)
2 tablespoons Taco Seasoning *
1 cup onions, diced fine**
1/2 cup celery diced fine**
1/2 cup carrots, shredded**
3 tablespoons sour cream, low fat

Salsa Chicken is easy to make; just put all the ingredients in a slow cooker and let the machine do the work. There are infinite variations, and your family is guaranteed to like each one.
6-8 hours to prepare; 15 minutes of active cooking time
Makes 8 one-cup servings of chicken.

Place the chicken in a slow cooker. Sprinkle the taco seasoning over the meat then layer the vegetables and salsa on top. Pour a half cup water over the mixture, set on low and cook for 6-8 hours.

The meat is cooked when it shreds or reaches an internal temperature of 165°F. When ready to serve, break up the chicken with two forks then stir in the sour cream.
Makes eight 1 cup servings.

The recipe does not say what to serve with this, and mine at least, was too runny to just eat.....so we decided to have brown rice with it.  And I believe that was a good choice!









*With my allergy to cumin, I had to change this recipe a bit.  There is no Taco Seasoning I can use and I have to read the ingredients of every salsa in the grocery store.  I guess I really should make my own seasoning and salsa, but that will have to wait until I am able to spend more time at home.  I used Fajita sauce instead of taco seasoning so this added liquid.  As a result, I didn't need to add any water.

**In my haste I didn't measure any vegetables, I just threw them in the food processor!  I used one onion, 2 stalks of celery and 3 carrots.  I also did not measure the tomatoes, just poured the can in.  Plus I only had one pound of chicken so I only got about 4 servings.  They were delicious too, my husband is not crazy about Mexican food and he went back for seconds!  That says it all to me.

I absolutely hate cleaning a slow cooker and years ago, Mom told me about slow cooker liners.  I have only found these at limited places in the US and nowhere else.  Even a Canadian friend of mine searched when she went home and she could not find them.  This is one of my "must buys" whenever I visit home and I love using them.  A bit of me does not approve of cooking in plastic, but the lazy part of me just hopes that the manufacturers have done their bit and kept this a safe method of cooking.

I probably mention these any time I publish a slow cooker recipe, but they are a very important part of the activity!

"Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening." Coco Chanel

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken

Minutes to Prepare: 5

Minutes to Cook: 480

Number of Servings: 8

Ingredients

2 pounds (32 ounces) chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
1 cup salsa, homemade or purchased
1 cup petite diced canned tomatoes (choose low-sodium)
2 tablespoons Taco Seasoning 
1 cup onions, diced fine
1/2 cup celery diced fine
1/2 cup carrots, shredded
3 tablespoons sour cream

Salsa Chicken is easy to make; just put all the ingredients in a slow cooker and let the machine do the work. There are infinite variations, and your family is guaranteed to like each one.
6-8 hours to prepare; 15 minutes of active cooking time
Makes 8 one-cup servings of chicken.


Place the chicken in a slow cooker. Sprinkle the taco seasoning over the meat then layer the vegetables and salsa on top. Pour a half cup water over the mixture, set on low and cook for 6-8 hours. The meat is cooked when it shreds or reaches an internal temperature of 165°F. When ready to serve, break up the chicken with two forks then stir in the sour cream.
Makes eight 1 cup servings.

St David's Day - Welsh Cakes

Yesterday was the first day I actually felt the benefit of my semi-retirement.  I met two friends for cocktails and lunch in Glasgow.  These friends were my colleagues in a job that seems like a lifetime ago.  This meeting would have been difficult on a weekend, but was a perfect way to spend a Friday afternoon!

We all came from different directions, meeting at the Station Hotel Champagne Bar.  As many times as I have walked through Glasgow Central, I had never been inside this building.  It was a nice place, with loads of folks having tea and really good cocktails.  One friend had never had a cocktail and we suggested a Marguerita.  Sounded like such a good idea, all of us had one!

On the way to Amarone Restaurant (which was an amazing place with a great menu!), we detoured to the Steamer Trading Cookshop.  It had only opened in November, and I had never heard of it.  What a treat for someone who enjoys cooking!  They have such a wide variety of everything and anything you might need to stock your kitchen.  I controlled  myself but will definitely return.  They are opening their basement on 15 March and are going to have loads of guest chefs and demonstrations!  I intend to be there!

The result of visiting this fabulous shop was the realisation that I have not cooked anything in quite awhile!  And coincidentally, on Facebook yesterday someone had published a Welsh Cake recipe.

I have only experienced Welsh Cakes once, when Mom was first in the hospital and her friend also broke her hip a few days later.  They were both in the same ward, not the same rooms though.  Her husband is a fantastic cook and brought these in for the staff (and for me!)  I was sleeping on the floor of her room and these little cakes got me through a few difficult days.

For some reason, the idea to make these sounded good and today IS St David's Day, so it is a good day to celebrate something Welsh!

They were delicious and tasted just as good as I remembered when I ate them in the hospital.  So this is a really good recipe, because the man who made my first Welsh cakes is a great baker and I would never have expected my first attempt to taste anything like his.

I found this recipe on the BBC Website so have just copied it here, but I have added my own measurements in cups.  I cannot guarantee they are perfect but it is the best I can do!  And at the very end is the recipe just on its own.

Welsh Cakes:

Ingredients

• 225g/8oz/1 and 1/4 cup self-raising flour, sieved
• 110g/4oz/ 1/2 cup (preferably Welsh) salted butter
• 1 egg
• handful of sultanas  (I am not comfortable with "handfuls" so I added 1/4 cup, and it was just right!)
• milk, if needed
• 85g/3oz/ 1/3 cup caster sugar
• extra butter, for greasing

Preparation method

1. Rub the fat into the sieved flour to make breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, dried fruit and then the egg. Mix to combine, then form a ball of dough, using a splash of milk if needed.
   
2. Roll out the pastry until it is a 5mm/¼in thick and cut into rounds with a 7.5-10cm/3-4in fluted cutter.
3. You now need a bakestone or a heavy iron griddle. Rub it with butter and wipe the excess away. Put it on to a direct heat and wait until it heats up, place the Welsh cakes on the griddle, turning once. They need about 2-3 minutes each side. Each side needs to be caramel brown before turning although some people I know like them almost burnt.  (two minutes worked for me)
4. Remove from the pan and dust with caster sugar while still warm. Some people leave out the dried fruit, and split them when cool and sandwich them together with jam
   
   
   
   
   Hwyl am rwan/nawr Bye for now 
   
   

   Welsh Cakes

   Ingredients

   • 225g/8oz self-raising flour, sieved
   • 110g/4oz (preferably Welsh) salted butter
   • 1 egg
   • handful of sultanas
   • milk, if needed
   • 85g/3oz caster sugar
   • extra butter, for greasing

   Preparation method

   1. Rub the fat into the sieved flour to make breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, dried fruit and then the egg. Mix to combine, then form a ball of dough, using a splash of milk if needed.
   2. Roll out the pastry until it is a 5mm/¼in thick and cut into rounds with a 7.5-10cm/3-4in fluted cutter.
   3. You now need a bakestone or a heavy iron griddle. Rub it with butter and wipe the excess away. Put it on to a direct heat and wait until it heats up, place the Welsh cakes on the griddle, turning once. They need about 2-3 minutes each side. Each side needs to be caramel brown before turning although some people I know like them almost burnt.
   4. Remove from the pan and dust with caster sugar while still warm. Some people leave out the dried fruit, and split them when cool and sandwich them together with jam