Beef Stir Fry With Black Bean Sauce

You now how life is about economy at the moment, everyone tries to cut down their spending. Well fair enough, so budget meals are a choice of many of us. So as I always say, left overs are the best . Any left over meat of a roasting joint make a wonderful dinner. I had a bit of beef left over, so I used it in a stir fry this time. It is unbelievably quick to make. You have a good flavour to it and no one would think that it's a budget meal. Fair enough we cut the cost of our spending but it doesn't mean we can't eat a lush dinner at the same time.  So do you have any meat left over from your roast dinner? Here is a recipe all the family will enjoy.

For The Stir Fry

Ingredients

2 bell red peppers

2 carrots (chopped like match sticks)

1 chilli

2 cloves of garlic crushed

Olive oil

Sesame Oil

Left over beef

2 nest of medium egg noodles

1 jar of black bean sauce

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Level : Easy

Serves: 3

Method

Chop the vegetables and fry them on a high heat in some olive oil. This will take about 3 minutes.

When vegetables are soft enough add the crushed garlic and fry for another minute.

Add the black bean sauce, and a little splash of water . In the meantime, boil the noodles in some hot water, following the instructions on the packet.

Add the beef and lower the flame so you just warm it trough . It will take about 4 minutes.

Add the ready cooked noodles to the pan and stir it all together, drizzle over some sesame oil and serve while hot.

Lamb Burgers and Spicy Relish

Moroccan cuisine, great flavours . Done into burgers, instead of the everyday beef burger. With a spicy relish that compliments it very well. I didn't use any mint in the lamb burgers as I am not a big fan, but you can chop some and add to the mixture if you like the combination of lamb and mint. They do go very well together.

Lamb Burgers

Ingredinets

400 g lamb mince
1/2 a red onion
 2 garlic cloves
Fresh parsley
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp gram masala
Seasoning
Olive oil


Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Level : Medium
Serves: 5

Method

Sauté the onion and garlic , then tip in a bowl and leave to cool. Add the spices and parsley to the onion. Add the mince and season. Shape them into balls and then flatten a little to form a burger. I managed to make 5 burgers in all. Chill them in the fridge for 30 minutes , for better results when frying, Remember to take them out 10 minutes before cooking. To help them re adjust to room temperature a little.  Fry them in a non stick frying pan with a drizzle of oil. Cook for about 6 minutes on each side. Serve with the relish .

Spicy Relish

Ingredients

1/2 a red onion

1 red pepper

A big handful of cherry tomatoes

2 green chillies

Parsley

Dried oregano

1/2 a lemon (juice)

Seasoning

Olive oil

Extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp smoked paprika

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time; 5 minutes

Serves: 5

Level ; easy

Method

Cut the onion in quarters brush with olive oil and grill on each side down for 5 minutes. Do the same with the red pepper.Skin side up. Grill/ char the pepper for 5 minutes . Get all the ingredients ready in a food processor with the onion and pepper. Whiz and there you go. If you don't have a food processor , chop everything with a knife , remember to leave the onion and pepper cool first.

Beef Stew With Dumplings

The weather lately has been so could, that nothing beets a nice warm hearty stew to warm you up, especially if you have been out in the cold all day. Nothing better for your man to return to then a nice hot stew.

Beef Stew

Ingredients

500 g of diced organic beef

Olive oil

Butter

Seasoning

1 onion

2 celery sticks

6 bacon rashers

3 garlic cloves

Chopped butter nut squash 300g

200g of sweet potato diced

4 sun-dried tomatoes

25 g plain flour

A few porcini mushrooms dried

2 bay leave

Some fresh thyme

Dried oregano

A good splash of Worcestershire sauce

2 cubes beef stock, dissolved in 500ml of hot water

A glass of port or red wine

1 tsp powder English mustard

1 tbsp tomato purée 

A pinch of sugar

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Cooking Time: 3 hours

Serves: 4

Level : Easy

Method

Drizzle some oil in a lidded pot. Add the onion , garlic, and celery and soften a little. In the meantime while this is cooking, Spread your meat on a chopping board, season , sprinkle with the English mustard and plain flour . Set aside for a while. Crisp the bacon in a frying pan and set aside .

Add the meat to the pot and brown all over.

Add the sun dried tomatoes and the porcini mushrooms to the pan with the onion. Add some Tomato purée .

Add the herbs and the bacon. Add the Worcestershire sauce and cook for a minute , before adding the wine. Cook the wine for another two minutes and add the warm stock. Add a pinch of sugar to the stew. 

Bring everything to a boil and cover. Leave to cook for an hour 30 minutes.

In the meantime you can start the dumplings, and clear the kitchen. 

Time to add the butter nut squash and sweet potato to the pan . Make sure these are cut in chunk as they are vegetables that cook so quickly. You will need to avoid stirring the stew as you might break all the vegetables , and it will look like a mashed up soup.  Cover and leave to cook for another hour. 

The last 30 minutes before serving add the dumplings to the stew, leave them on top and only half submerge and cover with a lid. Remove the bay leaves before serving. Serve with some bread.

Dumplings

Ingredinets

250 g self raising flour

125 g cold butter

Seasoning

A splash of water

Method

Get a mixing bowl and add the flour and season.

With a cheese grater, grate your butter. This is why it need to be cold, as you won't find it easy to grate if it's half melted. 

Get your hands in the mixture and work the butter into the flour, it will look a little like bread crumbs.

Add a splash of water, only a little , you don't want to end up with a dough. Start shaping the dumplings into balls. If not using straight away , leave in the fridge. Take them out 10 minutes before using.

 

Stuffed Roasted Butter nut Squash

This is such a good vegetable, it's nutty flavour is just fantastic. So many things you can do with it. This meal works great for vegetarians without the bacon.

Roasted Butter Nut Squash

Ingredients

1 butter nut squash halved lengthwise 

Olive oil

Seasoning

1/2 cup rice

1/2 cube chicken stock

1 Spring onion

2 rashers of bacon

Parsley

1 garlic clove

Feta cheese

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: About an hour

Serves : 2

Level: Easy

Method

Cut you butter nut squash , de seed. Pre heat the oven on 180 degrees. Brush the butter nut squash with olive oil and fresh pepper. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.

I din't use a whole butter nut squash as it was too big. I saved the top bit for another time. I'm sure I will find a way to use it. 

In the meantime. Ad some hot water to the rice and crumble in the chicken stock. 

Fry the bacon until nice and crisp and set aside.

Prepare the crushed garlic , spring onion and parsley to use as soon as the rice is ready. 

When the rice is ready mix it with everything else , the bacon, onion , garlic and parsley

Get the squash out of the oven and fill with your mixture, crumble some feta cheese on top and return in the oven for another 10 minutes. 

 

Cauliflower soufle'

This is something I came across this week, I normally follow my diary and prepare dinners for the week ahead. But my man decide to come home with two juicy steaks and I need to come up with something to serve with the steaks. I had a quick look in my fridge to see what I can find that needs to be used. So I found cauliflower, cheese and double cream. They work miracles together.

Cauliflower   Soufle'

Ingredients

1/2 cauliflower

150 ml of milk

25 g butter

25g plain flour

1 tsp Dijon mustard

2 egg yolks

2 egg whites

Some double cream

Cheddar

A pinch of nutmeg

Seasoning

Olive oil

Level: medium

Serves: 6

Method

Grease six ramekins with some butter and line them with baking paper. To help the baking paper sit better, try wetting it and scrunching it first before you line the ramekins. Preheat the oven on 180 degrees.

Boil some water and add the cauliflower florets to it. Cook until soft enough to be mashed. 

Melt the butter in a pan with some oil. Add the flour and combine. Take off the heat and add the milk little at a time, and stir well. Back on a low heat. Add the mashed cauliflower to the mixture. Make sure the mixture is hot and thick enough. Add the Dijon mustard, a pinch of nutmeg, cheese and season. 

Separate the eggs. Add the yolk to you cauliflower mixture . Returning to the egg whites, whisk until you obtain stiff peaks.

Fold little by little in the cauliflower mixture.

Fill the ramekins , and put in the oven for 20 minutes. Remember not to open the oven while this is cooking, or you won't have the result you are looking for. 

Take out the oven , leave to cool for a few minutes before taking them out of the ramekins. 

Place on a baking tray, sprinkle with the cheese and a little double cream, put back n the oven for 10 minutes and serve.

Yummy Pork Steaks

Very simple, meal . Anyone could cook this. The other day I bought a lovely waga mama sauce and that's what I'm using with recipe to give the pork a little bit of a different flavour. If you don't have this sauce or can't get your hands on one, just use any good marinade you can find in the supermarket to brush over the meat before cooking, Or maybe just sprinkle some chilli flakes on top. That should do the trick.

Pork Steaks

Ingredients 

5 pork steaks

Olive oil

Seasoning

Fresh tarragon

Waga Mama sauce

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time:  15 minutes

Serves: 3

Level : Easy

Method

Place the pork steaks on a chopping board. Remember always to use a separate chopping board for raw meat and vegetables, this avoids salmonella and any other bacteria from raw meat to contaminate your vegetables.

Rub the pork with some oil, the sauce , season and chop some tarragon and sprinkle over. 

fry in a non stick pan, 1 minute on each side on high heat. Then lower the heat to medium and cook for a further 6 minutes on each side.

Rest the meat for a couple of minutes before serving. Sprinkle some more tarragon over .

Serve with some mash and any steamed greens

Minestrone

Minestrone, this is a type of soup. The only difference is that it's not liquidized . Good healthy and very nutritions , low calorie dinner. Plus it's filling and warm , brilliant for these cold days. I flavoured it a little adding bacon and chicken to it. You could do it with just the veggies. But I was using it as a main dish for dinner, so I needed something else to it to make it more filling.

Minestrone

Ingredients

4 rashers of bacon
Olive oil
Chopper rosemary
2 carrots
2 celery sticks
1 onion
2 ripe tomatoes
1/2 broccoli
1/2 cauliflower
Tomato paste
Dried oregano
Dried mixed herbs
2 bay leaves
2 chicken stock cubes
200 g baby spinach
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup frozen broad beans
A handful of rice
A handful of small pasta ( I used bows)
Chicken breast ( halved lengthwise to make it thinner and cook quicker)
Parmesan
Seasoning

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hour
Serves : 5
Level : Medium

Method

Fry the finely sliced bacon until crisp. Set aside for later. Get all the sliced/ diced vegetables, apart from the broccoli, tomatoes and spinach. Heat up a little oil in the pot, and fry the vegetables until a little soft. Season , and put the bay leaves in. Add the tomato paste. Crumble the stock cubes,add the dried herbs and cover with hot water. Cover the pot  with a lid and leave to cook for 15 minutes.

Now it's time to add the chicken breast. They will poach in the liquid of the minestrone. Cover and leave to cook for a further 20 minutes. 

Add the tomatoes, rice and the little pasta. Cook for a further 15 minutes, before adding the broccoli, peas and broad beans . Cover for a further 5 minutes and add then add the spinach . Cover and turn the heat off, leave the spinach to wilt for a couple of minutes.

Serve the minestrone topped with chicken , sprinkle over some bacon from earlier and parmesan shavings.

Zebra Cake

So I was home and bored, didn't what to do and kill the time. When I thought Baking kills the time , I like doing it and I haven't baked any cake for this new year 2013. So I decided to go in the kitchen and have a quick look at what I have in my cupboards that I could use. So I found I had all the basics to get started. Firstly it was meant to be a marble cake, but on second thought , zebra cake sounds better and looks prettier . So here we go . It's really good cake for kids and adults, especially good tea time cake. Enjoy baking .

Zebra Cake

Ingredients

230g of self raising flour

225g of softened unsalted butter

4 eggs

225g caster sugar

100 ml of milk

25g of cocoa pwder

1 tsp vanilla extract

Zest of an orange

4 tbsp of sunflower oil

Method

Pre heat the oven on 170 degrees. Get all the things ready and measured. In a mixing bowl , sift the sugar and add the softened butter. I put the butter in the microwave for 30 seconds to soften quickly and easier to beat then. Beat well with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs one by one and beat well, it might look a little bit curdled to start with , it's not a bad thing.  Sift the flour in and fold it in, it will be very thick at this point the cake mix.Add the baking powder. Add the milk and beat again. The mixture will be a little bit smoother , but it will still be quite thick. 

Now the best thing to do at this point before mixing anything else . Divide the cake mix in two. One of them need to have a little bit more weight in. 

Mine were as follows: VANILLA MIX:- 430 g

                                : COCOA MIX   :- 510 g

You don't need to follow exactly my guide lines for measures, but I found it worked really well for me.

So I then put the vanilla extract in the vanilla mix with two table spoons of sunflower oil to make it a bit smoother. Then add the cocoa powder, orange zest and another 2 table spoons of sunflower oil in the cocoa mix.

Time to start assembling your cake. Line your cake tin with some sunflower oil. Start with any flavour mix you like, I started with the cocoa one,as I had more of it. Put a blob in the middle of the tin in the shape of a circle  Then add another blob a little bigger this time with the cocoa mix which will completely cover the other blob, and keep repeating this until you finish the batter and fill your cake tin. 

Bake in the pre heated oven for 30/35 minutes. To check the cake insert a toothpick in the middle of the cake, if it comes out clean the cake is ready.            

Left: Cake from top

Right : Cake from bottom.

I decided to decorate my cake with some buttercrream . You could leave like this works really well with tea.

Buttercream

Ingredients

200g icing sugar

200g softened unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method 

Beat all three ingredients together and then spread on your cake, allow cake to cool before decorating. 

Peri Peri Sauce For Roast Chicken And Gravy

What a good way for a quick and yummy roast dinner, different from the usual roast. It's Mediterranean based flavours . We have enjoyed eating it and I have no doubt you will. So easy to prepare. You will be left with a lot of spare time to do what ever you want. Watch some telly maybe or even read a nice book. I done the sauce with the food processor which was even quicker and easier to do. If you don't have one it doesn't matter you can still do . Just takes a little longer and a bit of chopping. This will be a great meal, especially when having people over for dinner and you need to impress, and not spend all day in the kitchen but with your guests

For the Peri Peri Sauce

Ingredients

2 red chillies (de-seeded if you want)

2cm ginger

5 garlic cloves

50 ml olive oil

25ml red wine vinegar

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp smoked paprika

3 tsp oregano

A pinch of sugar

1 lime, juice and zest

2 tbsp Tabasco sauce

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Method

Get all the ingredients above. Put everything in the food processor and give it a good whip. Pour in a bowl and set aside for later. You can also prepare this a day in advance and leave in the fridge.

Preparing You Chicken

Ingredients

1 whole chicken (2 kilos)

Olive oil

Seasoning

New potatoes

1 red onion

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time : Over 2 hours

Serves: 4

Level : Easy

Method

Score your chicken with a sharp knife, so that the flavours will suck in it better.Transfer your chicken in baking dish, it need to be big enough , so later on you can put the potatoes in with the chicken. Like this they will soak up the peri peri flavour  Cover the chicken with olive oil and season well. Cover loosely with some foil , and put in a preheated oven 190 degrees for an hour.

After an hour, take the chicken out of the oven, remove the foil. I didn't throw mine away , I will use it again later to cover the chicken when it's resting. Get the peri peri sauce and pour over the chicken, and help it a bit with a brush so that you get all the parts of the chicken. Do not use all the sauce save a little for later , for making the gravy . You don't need a lot . Tip the potatoes and the red onion in  , (quartered) with the chicken. Leave to cook uncovered this time. For another hour 15 minutes. 

Leave to rest on a chopping board , covered with some foil for 15 minutes before carving. 

 

For The Peri Peri Gravy Sauce

Ingredients

Peri Peri Sauce (recipe above )

1 heaped tbsp plain flour

500 ml of hot chicken stock

Level : Medium

Serves : Four

Method

The baking tray you had the chicken cooking in. Pour all the fat away. The onion and maybe some burnt bits left in the tray. Put on the hob. Add the flour and de glaze the tray. Add the stock little by little, so that the stock is to your preferred consistency . Add the rest of the peri peri sauce. Bring to boil and leave to simmer for a couple of minutes. Serve in a gravy bowl . 

Mediterranean Roasted Vegetables

Ingredients

1 green pepper chopped

1 yellow pepper chopped

1/2 a red onion sliced

1 courgette sliced

2 cloves of galic

2 ripe tomatoes

2 carrots peeled and sliced

Thyme leaves

Dried oregano

Olive oil

Rosemary leaves

Seasoning

Smoked paprika

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time : 1 hour

Serves: 3/4

Level : Easy

Method

Get all your prepared vegetables in a baking tray and toss them . Add the herbs, oil and season. Put in the pre heated oven 190 degrees, bottom shelf for an hour.
Serve along with your peri peri chicken.

Cinnamon Pancakes

This morning, was a bit bored . Didn't have much to do. So I decided to make some yummy pancakes for breakfast as my man was at home. Found this brilliant recipe, which works so much better then the old traditional fluffy pancakes. I suggest to give it a go.

Cinnamon Pancakes With Streaky Bacon And Maple Syrup 

Ingredinets

225g of self raising flour

3 tbsp of brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Zest of half a lemon

300ml of milk

1 beaten egg

10 rashers of streaky bacon

Maple syrup

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 20/ 30 minutes

Serves: 2

Level: medium 

Method

In a mixing bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger. Add the milk little by little and stir well to combine. Finally add the vanilla extract to the pancake mixture, a pinch of salt and the lemon zest.

 Set aside until you get started with the bacon.

Turn the oven on 100 degrees. This will help you keep everything warm while you cook everything. As it is all done in batches. Fry the bacon until crispy and put in the oven.
On a clean non stick frying pan start spooning the pancake mixture to the hot pan. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side and put in the oven . I cooked mine in batches of three. I had nine pancakes in all by the end.
Serve them with lots of maple syrup and the crispy bacon.

Stir Fried Noodles With Black Bean Burgers

Well I made my black bean burgers, but they didn't hold together very well, so I would suggest to make then in the shape of meat balls for better
results of presentation. I must say the flavours were all there it was a surprisingly good meal. I done this meal very spicy, as I dared to use a scotch bonnet  You can use a normal chilli with this even de seeded if you like.

Black Bean Burgers / Meatballs

Ingredients

300g of minced meat

5 tbps of black bean sauce

Seasoning

Olive oil

Soy Sauce

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Serves : 2

Level : Easy/ medium

Method

Put all the ingredients together in a bowl. Mix it all up well to combine. Shape your burgers/ meatballs if you like. Drizzle some oil in a non stick frying pan. Add the burgers/ meatballs . Half way through cooking splash onto them some soy sauce . Make sure they are all cooked through . Serve on top of your stir fry . 

For The Noodle Stir Fry

Ingredients

2 nests of medium egg noodles

Baby corn

3 coloured mixed peppers

1 scotch bonnet
2 garlic cloves
Sesame oil
3 tsp cornflour
1 tbsp honey
1 lime, juice and zest
2 tbsp of dark soy sauce
Vinegar
2 cm piece of ginger
Toasted sesame seeds
Seasoning
Olive oil

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 15/20 minutes
Total Time: £0/35 minutes
Serves : 2

Method

In a small bowl mix the soy sauce , cornflour honey and lime with a splash of water. Set aside for later. Meanwhile get the sesame seeds and dry fry them in a non stick frying pan . Do not add any oil to them. When they turn brown and not burnt, remove from the pan and set aside. Heat up the wok and add some oil to it. Add the sliced peppers and baby corn to the wok. Cook away for 5 minutes before adding the scotch bonnet, crushed garlic and grated ginger. Meanwhile boil the noodles and drain. Set aside. 

Get back to the wok. Add the mixture of soy sauce , honey , lime and cornflour to the wok. Add more water if you need. . It will look sticky and thick. That's good it is what you want to achieve. Bring the noodles to the wok and stir fry with everything else for a minute until it's all combined together. Serve in a plate. Drizzle some sesame oil over. Bring the burgers/meatballs to the plate and sprinkle over the toasted sesame seeds over. Enjoy with a glass of ice cold beer . 

 

Beef Stroganoff

I don't get to cook with mushrooms very often in my kitchen as my man is not keen on them. I do Like a beef stroganoff and to be fair it's not a storganoff without mushrooms. It's quick and easy to make and really tasty.

For The Stoganoff

Ingredients

1 red onion

8 gherkins 

A handful of mushrooms

500g of frying steaks

Olive oil

2 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp brandy

Seasoning

Crème Fraiche 

1 tbsp sweet papika

A good splash of Worcestershire sauce

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes 

Serves: 3/4

Level: Easy

Method

Slice the onion and gherkins , and fry for a couple of minutes in some oil then add some vinegar from the jar of gherkins. Add the mushrooms , garlic and steaks. Cook until the meat is brown all over. Add the paprika and season well, add a good splash of Worcestershire sauce. Cook away for a minute or two. Add the brandy and flambé. It's time to add the crème fraiche . Bring to a boil, take off the heat and serve with the rice.  

For The Rice

Ingredinets

1 cup rice

2 handfuls of baby spinach

Butter

Olive oil

Seasoning

Preparation Time:  5 minutes

Cooking Time: 10/15 minutes

Serves: 4

Level : Easy

Method

Add the cup of rice to the lidded pot. Add the oil , butter and seasoning. Add the hot water. Cover and leave to cook. Last few minutes of cooking add the spinach. Maybe another splash of hot water and leave covered for the spinach to wilt. Do not be tempted to stir it. If you want to mix it up use a fork and fluff the rice a little. Serve along with your beef stoganoff . 

Gnocchi With Sausage Meat

Gnocchi , is a sort of potato. Looks like pasta. Is bought ready made fresh in a packet. This is my first time trying them. I have been seeing them for a while in the supermarket, and always made me curious what they would taste like. So I got finally around cooking them. They are very filling, so you will only need a small portion . They go very well with a plain red sauce, but I don't really enjoy my dinners without any sort of meat in them , so for the recipe I bought some  good quality spicy sausages . You could use any type of sausage meat , but I am the sort of person that find s food a bit bland without any spice in it. I like it a little bit of kick to it. 

For the sausage sauce

Ingredients

6 spicy sausages meat (Squeezed out of their skin) 

1 glass of red wine

2 handfuls of baby spinach

500 g passata

Single Cream

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

500g gnocchi

A pinch of sugar

Seasoning

Olive oil

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Serves: 3/4

Level : Easy

Method

Get everything ready to start cooking, Chop the onion and garlic. Squeeze all the sausage meat out of their skins. Warm up some oil in a frying pan. Add the onion garlic and sausage to the pan. When cooked through  add the wine bring to a boil and leave to simmer for 5 minutes before adding the passata and a pinch of sugar. Bring everything back to boil and leave to simmer for another 3 minutes, then add the spinach and cover for 5 minutes . So now you have time to start boiling the gnocchi. Mine only needed 3 minutes to cook in boiling water. Follow instructions on the packet. Time to plate up, dived the gnocchi in 4 plates, pour over some of the sauce and drizzle a little single cream on top along with some parmeasan cheese . serve with some garlic bread .

 

Fusilli With Chicken (Pasta Dish)

This is what I call a good dish for fussy kids. Most of the kids like to pasta, but not good friends of vegetables. So what I done, is chop it all very finely with a food processor . It won't even show in the pasta. Good way of tricking them and get them to eat more veggies .

Sauce

Ingredients

2 leeks

2 carrots

2 celery sticks

1 courgette

2 jarred peppers

1 chilli

1/2 a bulb of garlic cloves

Olive oil

2 bay leaves

1 tin passata

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato purée 

1 tsp sugar

500 g of chicken breast

4 rashers of bacon

A handful of pine nuts

2 Crushed garlic cloves

1 red chilli

Any dried pasta

Parmeasan to serve 

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Serves: 6

Level : Easy

Method

Get all the first seven ingredients on the list. Trim them and put in a food processor. So it's all chopped finely.

transfer to a deep frying pan. With some olive oil. Fry for five minutes. Add the bay leaves, chopped tomatoes, passata, tomato purée and sugar. Bring to a boil. Leave to simmer for another ten minutes.

In the meantime in a non stick frying pan, add the chicken and bacon and fry , half way add the crushed garlic and maybe a drizzle of olive oil if you fancy. When nearly ready add the pine nuts, fry for a further minute. Add all the chicken mixture to the sauce. Serve with some pasta and parmeasan .

Beef Kofta Curry With Rice ( sort of meat balls)

I done this another time with lamb mince instead of beef. So this is just an idea. you could try it out with some lamb mince instead. I even made mine like giant meat balls , but the shape isn't an issue , you can make them look like burgers or even sausages . it's all up to you , how creative you wan to be. I choose the easier option. Roll them into a ball .

For the Beef Balls

Ingredients

700g of minced beef

1/2 a chilli

Puy-lentils (optional) I used the ready to eat one in sun-dried tomato and basil 

2 tsp garam masala

4 chopped spring onions (You can use normal onions, but need to be sautéed and cooled before mixed with mince.

Seasoning

2 garlic cloves crushed

Olive oil

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 12 minutes

Total Time: 17/20 minutes

Level : Easy

Serves: 4

Method

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, Scrunch it all up . Start shaping it up . I made mine quite big. I calculated about 4 each. Drizzle some oil in a non stick frying pan. Brown on all sides and leave to cook well. They need a bit of time as they are quite big. If you are not sure that they are cooked through , take one out and half it. If it's not pink , then it's cooked. When ready put them in with the curry sauce you made to simmer for 2 minutes.

For the Curry Sauce

Ingredients

3 big ripe tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato purée

2cm piece of ginger

2 garlic cloves

1 red chilli

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp clear honey

3 tsp of mild curry paste (heaped) 

1 tin coconut milk

4 spring onions

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Total Time : 25 minutes

Serves: 4

Level : Easy

Method

This is really easy. I just got all the ingredients ready and put them all in a food processors . Whiz it all up and you got a loose curry. Put in a pan , bring to a boil and leave to simmer until it reduces by a quarter, and thickens a little. Last 2/5 minutes bring the meet balls to pan . I served the curry with rice and popadoms.  Done the as normally and just added some frozen peas in the last 5 minutes .

Super Moist Yummy Roast Chicken

I haven't done a roast chicken in ages. I forgot how nice it tastes. How easy it is to make, and how quick to cook. Chicken is very common , and is used a lot in a lot of everyday cooking. Which unfortunately can be a bit boring sometimes. Roast chicken, if not cooked properly or over done can be quite dry. This is a really simple recipe, with easy everyday kitchen ingredients. So lets roll our sleeves up and start cooking.

Roast Chicken

Ingredients

1 whole chicken 1.5kg

Garlic bulb

1 onion

Lots of seasoning

Rosemary

Olive oil

Sweet paprika

Lots of butter

1/2 a lemon

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time : 1hour 35 minutes

Total Time: About 2 hours

Level : Easy

Serves: 4/5

Method

Start the oven on first, on 180 degrees. So it will nice and hot for when you finished preparing the chicken and can go straight in the oven. Put the chicken in a roasting tray. Rub some olive oil all over the chicken. Use your hands for better results. Season well all over. Dot butter all over. Get the garlic bulb , loosen them all and cut the heads off. Don't really need to remove the rest of the skin. Stick the garlic everywhere in the chicken. Ex: Between the thighs, the wings , underneath and everywhere you find. This won't burn the garlic and will give a nice flavour to you chicken. Then do the same with the rosemary like you done with the garlic. Cut a round slice out of the lemon and put on top of your chicken, and with the rest of the lemon. Squeeze it onto the chicken from a hight. only a few drops. Cut the onion in half and put on the side of the tray. Stick in the oven for an hour 35 minutes . 

Take out the oven and leave to rest on a chopping board for 10 minutes covered with foil until you start the gravy

Perfect Chicken Gravy

Ingredients

1 tbsp of plain flour

1 chicken stock cube

The garlic used in chicken squeezed

500ml of hot water

Preparation Time: 2 minutes

Cooking Time: 5/6 minutes

Total Time: 7/8 minutes

Level : Easy

Serves: 4/5

Method

After the chicken is left to rest on a chopping board. Take the roasting tray and empty as much of the fat out of it as you can. Put on the hob. From a bit of hight sprinkle over the flour. With a spatula scrape all the flavours of the tray. Crumble up the stock cube. Pour the water in , bring to a boil and leave to simmer for 5 minutes. Take off the heat and pass trough a sieve before pouring it into a gravy bowl.

Spaghetti With Bacon And Chorizo Carbonara

No fuss, but yet tasty . Quick and hardly any ingredients used. Good value for everyone. I used spaghetti but you can also use any pasta shape you desire for this dish.

Spaghetti With Bacon And Chorizo Carbonara 

Ingredients

4 cloves of garlic

Olive oil

1 chilli 

150g of chorizo sausage

Rosemary ( chopped )

Seasoning

4 rashers of streaky bacon

1 beaten egg

100ml of double cream

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Spaghetti

20g of butter

Parmeasan to serve 

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 8/10 minutes

Total Time: 15minutes

Serves: 3

Level : Easy

Method

Heat up some oil in a non stick pan. Add the chorizo, rosemary , garlic, chilli and bacon all to the pan.Leave to cook on a high heat , but make sure to keep an eye on them so they don't burn. In the meantime put the spaghetti in some boiling water. In a small bowl, crack and beat an egg, season , add the cream and lemon juice to it and set aside. Lower the heat on the chorizo mixture if it's nearly done. Drain the spaghetti and in the same pan , add the butter with a splash of olive oil.  Bring the spaghetti back to the pan, stir in with the butter, add the egg mixture. Turn the heat on very low. Stir for a minute and add the chorizo mixture. Serve with some parmeasan cheese and a wedge of lemon. 

My Take On A Lamb Briyani

Curries are my passion, I love eating them as much I love cooking them. Very easy to make and really good with left overs. Especially since they have all those spices added to them . You can make it as hot as you like, or even maybe sweet. This is a combination between both. I'm sure you will like it. I was reading different recipes on this style of curry. I did take a few notes and ideas, bit non of them were exactly to my palate , so I arranged it and twisted it. The result was extraordinary  . So lets get cooking.

Lamb Briyani 

Ingredinets

1/2 a cauliflower 

1 onion diced

2 garlic cloves

Olive oil

1/2 a chili chopped

1 tin chopped tomatoes

2 tsp turmeric

2 tsp chilli powder

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

5 cardamom pods

300g of ready cooked lamb (leftover from roast dinner) If you want you can buy ready cubes of lamb and cook from scratch on the day .

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time : 30 minutes

Total Time : 40 minutes

Level: Easy

Serves : 2

Method

 

Get all the spices ready measured . Heat some oil in a pan. Add the onions , garlic and all the spices. Bash the cardamom pods first . Then remove them just before serving. Cook for about 2 minutes and add the cauliflower . Cook everything for about 8 minutes on a low heat. Add the chilli and cook for a minute. Add the chopped tomatoes along with 100 ml of water. Add the lamb . Bring to a boil and leave to simmer uncovered for about 20 minutes. If it goes to dry before serving add another splash of water.

Coconut Fluffy Rice

Ingredients

1 can of coconut milk 400ml

1 cup rice

1 cup water

2 tsp turmeric

1 tin chickpeas drained

Seasoning

A good knob of butter

Olive oil

A handful of toasted almond flakes

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time : 15 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Level : Easy

Serves : 4

Method

To make fluffy rice. Soak the rice in some cold water for about 30 minute and then drain . Put the rice in a lidded pot, add all the ingredients to the pot with the rice . Cover the pot with some foil and then the lid. Leave to cook for 15 minutes and serve. Fluff the rice with a fork .

Cajun Chicken and Mash

This is quite easy and quick to make this dish, the flavours work really nice together. Looks nice and colourful to .

Cajun Chicken

Ingredients

2 fillets of chicken breast

Seasoning

Olive oil

Cajun spice

Golden bread crumbs

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Total Time :20 minutes

Level : Easy

Serves: 2

Method

put the chicken down on a chopping board, and with a sharp knife, half each breast lengthwise . Like this they will be quite thin , therefore easier and quicker to cook. Season well each side and rub some cajun spice on the breast, drizzle with some olive oil and the cote with the breadcrumbs. No need to add any more oil to the pan, but you can if you want to. Transfer the chicken onto a non stick frying pan , and cook well on high heat both sides. Serve and eat straight away, while still hot. You can serve with some lime on the side if you fancy.

Sweet potato Mash

Ingredients

3 medium sized sweet potatoes
4 tbsp of sweet chilli sauce
A good knob of butter
Seasoning

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Level: Easy
Serves: 2

Method

Peel and chop the potatoes, as smaller cubes as you possibly can. This helps it cook quicker, the smaller it is. Take off the heat drain, and mash. Add the butter, season and the sweet chilli sauce. Stir all to combine and serve .

A Quick Tomato Salad

Ingredients

1 ripe tomato

5 cherry tomatoes

1 juice of a lime

3 spring onions

Extra virgin olive oil

Seasoning

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

NO Cooking Time

Level: Easy

Serves : 2

Chop the tomato and the cherry tomatoes and put in a bowl. Chop the spring onions finely and add to the bowl. Drizzle some oil and the juice of the lime. Season and ready to serve.

Meatloaf And A Tomato Sauce

Well this is basacailly a giant burger in the shape of a big sausage. Quite tasty and different , to make a bit more interesting then just doing a normal burger. It does take a bit of time to do it , but worth a shot. Espacially if you like to try new things.

Meatloaf

Ingredients

1 onion diced
1 tsp ground cumin
Olive oil
Seasoning
1 tsp ground coriander
12 cream crackers crumbled
2 cloves of garlic
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp Dijon mustard
500g of mince beef
1 beaten egg

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time 35/40 minutes
Level : Medium
Serves: 4/5

Method

Start with softening the onion in a little oil for about 5 minutes on a low heat. Add the coriander and the cumin and cook for a further minute. transfer to a bowl and leave to cool. Smash your crackers to little crumbs, or use your food processor . Add the mince, crackers , oregano and mustard to the cooled onions.
Now mush everything together with both your hands. Make sure it is all well combined. Add the beaten egg, and combine it well with the rest of the mixture. season well . Transfer on some baking paper or maybe chopping board if you like. start shaping it into a large sausage. If you have time put in the fridge and cool for about 30 minutes. Then transfer on an oven proof dish. Bake in a preheated oven of 200 degrees for about 30 minutes. So you can start with your sauce.

Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

Olive oil
Seasoning
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 chili ( de-seeded if you like)
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tin chickpeas drained
1 tin chopped tomatoes
5 rashers of streaky bacon

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Total Cooking Time: 25/30 minutes
Level : Easy
Serves: 4/5

Method

Cook the onion, garlic and chili in some oil over a low heat, for 5 minutes. Add the paprika and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add a good splash of Worcestershire sauce and cook for a minute. Add the drained chickpeas and the chopped tomatoes along with a pinch of sugar. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 8 minutes.

Take the meatloaf out of the oven. Pour the tomato sauce over , put the rashers of bacon on the meatloaf vertically, and put back in the oven until the bacon is brown and cooked. Transfer to a chopping board and slice. Serve with some salad , and maybe chips, or roast potatoes if you fancy.

Cider Braised Red Cabbage, Mustard Roast Potatoes, and Broccoli Gratin.

I have to admit, I am not normally a fan of red cabbage myself. But I like to try new things . So i done this red cabbage and it just taste fantastic . Must try. I done it as a side with my Sunday roast dinner. I do like to do a roast every Sunday, keep a little bit traditional, but I don't like to be boring, and everyone knows what to expect on their plates. So trying new things and making a roast exciting , is definitely on my list.

Braised Red Cabbage

Ingredients

1/2 a red cabbage
1 red onion
3 tbsp cider vinegar
300ml apple cider
1 apple chopped
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
Lots of butter 30g
3 tbsp brown soft sugar.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hour
Serves : 3
Level : Medium

Method

Finely slice the red cabbage and the onion. I used the food processor with the fine slicer. Mix the spices together in a small bowl. Prepare everything else chopped and ready measured to use. . In a lidded pot layer out the red cabbage , followed by the red onion, apple, spices and sugar. pour over the cider vinegar . Add the apple cider. Put the butter on top. The cider won't cover all the red cabbage , that's fine .  Cover and cook on low heat for an hour, until it is all absorbed.  If it sticks or it it is all absorbed before an hour is gone add a splash of water to the cabbage.

Musted Roasted Potatoes

Ingredients

6big potatoes, halved or quatered
1 tbsp plain flour
1 tsp english mustard (powder)
Olive oil for drizziling
25g butter
Seasoning

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: over an hour
Serves :3
Level: Easy

Method

Par boil the potatoes , just half cooked to much that they break. Drain and leave to steam dry in the colander for a few minutes. Toss in the flour and mustard, season and drizzle some oil over. Put them in a preheated oven 200 degrees, for about an hour.

Broccoli Gratin

Ingredients

1/2 a broccoli (florets)
25g of better
25g of plain flour
250ml of milk
Parmesan cheese
Cheddar cheese
golden bread crumbs
Seasoning

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 20/25 minutes
Level : Medium
Serves : 4

Method

Put the broccoli in some boiled water, and cook. In the meantime, start the cheese sauce. Melt the butter in a pan, I always add a little oil to it, as it is easily burnt, and it will ruin all the flavour of your cheese sauce then. Add the flour and stir in for about a minute, Take off the heat and start adding the milk little by little and stirring well , to combine. Put back on the heat, bring to a boil , and keep stirring continuously . Add some Parmesan and some cheese stir on a low heat for a little while and take off the heat. Drain the broccoli and put in an oven proof dish. Pour the cheese sauce over, grate some more cheese over and sprinkle over the bread crumbs, put under the grill for about 5 minutes , or until it's nice and golden on top.

 

Three Sausage Stew

I do like a stew. This is one of my favorites. All the family loves it especially my kids, as they could eat sausage everyday . I do suggest to everyone to give this a go , and you won't regret it. That's for sure. I called it three sausage stew as it has three types of different sausages in it along with nice big Mediterranean flavours . The sausages used for this recipe are, good quality pork sausages, chorizo sausage and salami sausage. The three of them together release a great big flavoured stew.

Three Sausage Stew

Ingredients

8 pork sausages
12 slices of salami Milano
100g of Chorizo ( sliced)
Olive oil
1 red, 1 yellow, 1 green pepper
1 onion
3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp dried chili flakes
2 tbsp oregano
A glass of red wine
2 tins chopped tomatoes
1tbsp tomato puree'
1 tin cannellini beans
A pinch of sugar
Crusty bread and butter to serve

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours
Serves: 4
Level : Medium

Method

In a big pot add some oil . Add your sausages and brown well all over. Set aside. Crisp the salami Milano in the same pot maybe add more oil if you want. Set aside with the sausages. Add the chorizo to the same pan and when it starts to brown and crisp , add the onions and garlic and cook until soft and they start to caramelize. Now time to add the peppers and season. Best to leave the peppers cut in thick slices. Add the oregano and dried chili flakes. Stir to combine and add the wine. Bring all to a boil before adding the chopped tomatoes, puree' and beans. Stir everything and bring to a boil once more. Add the sausages and the salami Milano to the pan. Add some water to the pan , see that everything is tuck in and covered, Don't over do it though with the water. I added about 200 ml. But it depends on the size of your pot. Cover and cook for an hour. Uncover for the last 30 minutes of cooking. Serve and eat while hot.

Turkey Curry (leftover Turkey)

It is not a spicy curry. Quite mild, anyone could eat it. Very easy to do and does not take hours to cook. After a big meal for Christmas and all the prep and hard work in it. No one wants to spend another day in the kitchen. I Am going to use my left over turkey for this recipe,as I have a quite a bit left, but you can even do it from scratch with turkey breast or maybe chicken if you like.

Turkey Curry

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
2 red pepper

1 tbsp hot curry powder

2 tbsp tomato purée

500ml chicken stock

1 tbsp mango chutney

1 tin chopped tomatoes

250g basmati rice

200g baby spinach

300g of cooked left over Turkey 

 

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Serves : 4

Level : Easy

 

Method

Soften the onions and peppers in some oil. Add the curry powder, the mango chutney and the tomato puree'. Stir well and cook for a further minute. Add the stock and the chopped tomatoes. Bring to a boil and add the turkey. Leave to simmer until turkey is warmed up. Add the spinach and leave to wilt. Serve with the rice and poppadoms .

A Quick Soup (Maltese Brodu)

Hello to all my readers, and a Happy New Year 2013. I must say I have missed my writings in the past week. I had a little holiday form everyday life , but now it's all back to same old, same old.
I am doing a quick soup today for lunch time . Quick easy and healthy. I am going to use some left over turkey in my soup today, I normally do it with chicken legs , it comes nicer! Well lets get cooking.

A Quick Soup

Ingredients

2 carrots
2 small potatoes
1 celery stick
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 ripe tomato
600ml of hot chicken stock
1 bay leave
1 tbsp tomato puree'
1 tsp mixed herbs
Seasoning
A handful of shredded leftover turkey ( or 4 chicken legs)
Any pasta you like ( I am going to use tortellini)

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time :  30 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Level : Easy
Serves: two

Method

Get you carrots, potatoes, celery, onions and garlic and put in some oil over a medium heat . Cook for 5 minutes and add the mixed herbs, bay leave and seasoning. Stir well and cook for a further minute on a high heat. Add the tomato puree' and the stock. Bring to a boil and lower the heat to simmer. Add the turkey and the tomato. Leave to simmer until everything is cooked. Add the pasta , and cook some more until the pasta is well cooked. Serve in a bowl , maybe with bread if you want. I decided not to this time as we have been eating so much over the holidays.