Seafood Tagliatelle

Feeling in a somewhat fishy mood following the crayfish dish I decided to go the whole hog and knock up seafood tagliatelle. Anyone who knows me will tell you that fish and I don’t usually share the same space. I don’t know why, I just don’t like the taste of fish, perhaps it’s because I’m a Pisces and it’s almost cannibalism, well it would be if you believed in that nonsense. Anyyyy-wayyyy, the dish.

It’s pretty basic recipe but brings out the flavour of the seafood, which wasn't too fishy, very well and the best thing is, its really simple to make. The seafood itself was a supermarket medley of Prawns, mussels and squid

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 Shallot Finely Chopped

2 Cloves of Garlic finely Chopped

2 Packets of Sainsburys seafood mix

2 Handfuls of soya beans or peas or skinned broad beans

Good glug of dry white wine (about 150ml)

Couple of handful of flat leaf parsley roughly chopped

Lemon Juice

Salt

Pepper

Enough Tagliatelle for four people

Put a large pan of water on to boil

In a large frying pan heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil then gently fry the shallot and garlic.

Add the seafood and beans then sauté for a couple of mins

Pour in the wine bring to boil and simmer for until the sauce thickens

Seasoning to taste as you go

The important bit here is timing your seafood with your pasta, if the pasta isn’t cooked yet, turn off the heat on the sauce. When the pasta is cooked add a little pasta water to the sauce, drain the pasta and add to the pan with the sauce and stir through until all the pasta is coasted

Chuck in your parsley and stir through, serve in pasts bowls add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and its ready.

Serve with lemon wedges for extra zing

Crayfish Salad

I'd had crayfish once before in a restaurant somewhere or another (obviously made an impression on me) and was really surprised by the meaty taste. Apparently it's akin to lobster.
I've looked for ages around the supermarkets of the Potteries with no joy, until last week.For a paltry £2.99 (2 for £5 if you're feeling flush) from Sainsbury's you can get a packet of the tails.

Having read up a bit, it appears our indigenous British Crayfish is under threat from a much more powerful and disease carrying American invader, so you'd think we'd be pushing more people to eat it.

If I'm honest they weren't exactly fresh and had a much stronger fishiser taste than the ones I'd had before. Still it wasn't red meat and it was water dwelling creature that wasn't a prawn. I'm varying my diet, so go me!

Right then, the recipe is loosely based on or blatantly plagiarised depending on your view, from a basic prawn cocktail, either way it was rammed to the gills (or whatever crayfish have) with complementing flavours.


Serves 3 as a starter (was meant to be 2 but Chris came round so I padded it out)
Ingredients

Salad
1 Packet of cooked Crayfish tails
Handfull of lettuce or leaves from a bag per person
1 Ripe Avacado skinned and sliced
2 Medium sized tomatoes de-seeded and diced
Pinch of Paprika for dusting at the end

Sauce
6 Tablespoons of Mayonaise
1 Tablespoon of Ketchup
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
Dash of Tabasco
Lemon Juice
Pinch of Cayenne Pepper
Salt


I don't think you can find an easier dish to make than this, but easy as it  may be, you have to trust your taste buds
To make the sauce, bring all the ingredients together except the salt and lemon juice. Once mixed well, add lemon juice and salt to your own tastes.
It really is up to you, I tend to add more tabasco and cayenne because I like the extra kick, you may want more lemon or more ketchup. Give it a go mix , taste , mix, taste ... I think you get the idea


 Arrange your salad or leaves in bowl, layer on top the slices of avocado followed by the crayfish, drizzle the sauce over your dish until you're satisfied each person has enough.

Then for the finishing touch dust over with  some Paprika and your done. Turn on your lava lamp, dust of your flares and serve with buttered brown bread for that 70's feel.

Cheese and Marmite Scones

Many thanks to the Marmite Facebook page for pointing out these brilliant little flavour bombs from Lesley Waters Recipe

This took very little effort and the results were amazing. I like a cheese scone as much as the next man but the addition of the Marmite added a delicious savoury twang, yessss, twang, that's the word I'm looking for.
If you're wondering what that weird marbled stuff is it's Irish Porter Cheese 

This makes around 10 or so scones depending upon the size of your cutter.

Now I just need to work out how to keep them upright in the oven, Lisa reckons flouring the cutter will work

Ingredients

• 140g self-raising flour
• 140g wholemeal flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 50g cold butter , cut into small cubes
• 85g mature cheddar , grated
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp Marmite
• 2 tbsp Greek or natural yogurt
• 3 tbsp milk , plus extra to glaze 

 
 
 
Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Mix the flours and baking powder in a mixing bowl with a pinch of salt, if you like. Add the butter and rub with your fingertips until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (or use a food processor). Stir in ½ of the cheese and make a well in the centre.

Whisk the remaining ingredients together and pour into the well. With a cutlery knife, bring the mixture together to make a soft, but not sticky dough. Add a little more milk if the dough is too dry.

Turn onto a floured surface, then roll out to about 2cm thick. Stamp out 4 scones using a round cutter, then gather the trimmings and repeat until all the dough has been used. Put on a baking sheet, brush with milk and scatter over remaining cheese. Bake for 10-12 mins until golden. Cool on a wire rack. 

Server with whatever you like, although beer does go especially well 

Irish Porter Cheese

Courtesy of a trip to Tescos I found this unusual cheese.

Irish porter cheese is made by blending traditional Cheddar cheese with Irish Porter Beer.
The cheddar is delightufly tangy which goes very well indeed with the darker beery taste of the porter

It looks impressive too with the stunning marbled effect the porter beer lends to the cheese.

If you like your cheddar mature then I think you'll love this

It's all a bit Wallace and Gromit

A grand day out and some cracking cheese made Saturday a most enjoyable day.

Spurred on by the reappearance of the big orangey thing in the sky we decided to go out for the day. One of the great things about Stoke On Trent is, that it’s fairly near to lots of other places that aren’t Stoke. So with a hankering for the great outdoors the three of us (Lisa, me and Freddie the dog) headed west to Wales and in particular Llandudno. Obviously there was a food twist to our trip out in the shape of farm shop selling welsh produce, in particular Lamb

The Journey was enlivened by a detour courtesy of TomTom through Towyn where we experience the local tradition of two spherically challenged women wandering down the main road in their pyjamas.

Despite the best efforts of the roadworks on the A55 we made good time and within a couple of hours we found ourselves on  beachcombing for rocks and Sea Glass (No I didn’t know either)

Llandudno if you’ve never been, is a quaint little place full of Victorian sea front properties, a pebble beach and sea so clear it wouldn’t be out of place in the Med.

Lunch was provided by the contents of the ever trusty cool box whilst sheltering from the wind in the car

After a morning wandering up and down the beach we headed in land in search of some serious countryside. This was abandoned when TomTom, which was supposed to be guiding us to a place of local interest, started directing me up a track with grass growing in the middle. So we cut our losses and drove to the always reliable Betwsycoed.

Again for the uneducated, Betwsycoed is a beautiful little town at the edge of Snowdonia. There are more walking equipment and Woollen  Mill shops on the high street than is healthy, it has crystal clear river running along side it and is surrounded by some breathtaking mountains, forests, hills and more idyllic things than you can shake a .whole bundle of sticks at.

It felt so good to be outside and enjoying the fresh air and made a great change from the usual weekend.

At last the real reason for the day out (not really Lisa, honest) Min-Y-Morfa Farm Shop. Located just off the A55, the shop was packed full of locally produced goodies. As well as the expected Beef, Lamb Chicken and Veg etc…. they had good array of cheeses and fair amount of wild venison. I opted for a shoulder of Lamb and some wonderful Little Black Bomber Cheddar from the Snowdonia Cheese Company oh and a bag of spuds.

The Lamb was OK, that taste was fairly rich but I have had better and there was little meat on it. For £10 I expected to make more than 5 portions

The cheese though was brilliant and would definitely have it again

Pork and Comte Escallops

Having got a shed load of breadcrumbs left over from yesterday’s successful haggis adventure I wanted to make sure they didn’t go to waste. As I was in a retro frame of mind  a frozen food classic hoved into view and that noteworthy classic is the “cheese hamwich”. This (in case you missed out) was a ready made, chuck in the oven, midweek meal, it consisted of processed ham (hmmm nice) with layer of cheese flavoured stuff on top all coated in breadcrumbs. As with most oven ready feasts in my youth I thought they were great.

Now older, wiser and wrinklier I’ve adapted the pre-packaged gunk into something passable for an evening meal.

So I popped into Sainsbury’s looking for a flavoursome cheese that would slice easily and melt to gooey goodness when cooked. I opted for some French Comte, I’d never even heard of it before so it was a bit of a gamble and fortunately it paid off as the cheese has strong-ish taste without overpowering the pork

It’s important not to over cook the pork as it can become tough and chewy. If you can’t get pork loin, chops or other steaks are OK but not as tender.

2 Pork Loin steaks

2 Slices of French Comte Cheese

Breadcrumbs

2 Eggs Beaten

Seasoned plain flour

Trim the fat from your pork and place between two sheets of clingfilm.

Using a meat mallet or in my case a rolling ping, gently bat it out so it becomes about 3mm thick and repeat for your other pieces of pork

Top each piece of pork with a slice of the Comte cheese.

Get three bowls and in each one put separately, the flour, egg and breadcrumbs.

First coat your pork/cheese thing in the flour, tapping slightly to remove the excess

The dip in the egg and again coat fully.

Now place into the breadcrumbs and coat thoroughly

Place back in the egg and cover again

Then back into the breadcrumbs to finish the prep of your escallops

(The repetition of egg and breadcrumbs is optional; I like it as it gives a much nicer crust and crunch)

Repeat for all your pieces and place in the fridge for 30 mins.

Heat a non stick frying pan and add a large knob of butter plus a glug of olive oil.

Put each escalope gently into the pan meat side down, fry gently for 3 mins or until golden brown. Very gently, using a Platte knife if you have one, turn the escallops over and fry again for 3 mins.

When both sides are golden remove from the pan and place on a sheet of kitchen paper whilst you put your accompaniments on the plate

Breaded Haggis with spiced plum sauce and apple salad

Totally inspired by Masterchef and Tom Kitchen on this one. I’d got vague memories of haggis from childhood. I think I’d only had it once and that was on Burns’ Night at Cubs. I seem to remember I was surprised by the taste which I actually quite liked, despite that I never tried it again until now. Much like a lot of dishes from this island Haggis now seems to be undergoing a renaissance and as such it’s been brought up to date by a lot of our skilled kitchen artisans.

If you’re not familiar with haggis it’s quite spicy not so much in the heat but more in the fragrance, the best way of describing it I think is it’s quite peppery. To cut through this I needed something sharp and sweet, this led me to the sauce and the salad. The plum sauce is very Chinese in its essence with the Star Anise and Cinnamon additions. The Salad gives a nice fresh balance to the dish with the apple adding a little extra sweetness. I used a very light dressing for the salad as I didn’t want to detract too much from the plum sauce

If you’re put off by thought of what haggis is made from, don’t be, you eat sausages don’t you?

The recipe below is not exact as I’ve only cooked it once so have yet to measure and weigh etc …

Serves Two as a starter

Ingredients

Breaded Haggis

Some Haggis … about the size of a snooker ball or slightly larger x2

Breadcrumbs … I used the Japanese breadcrumbs for extra crunch

1 egg Beaten

2 Tablespoons of plain flour

Sauce

4 Plums skinned and quartered

3 Tablespoons of Caster Sugar

1 Star Anise

½ Cinnamon Stick

150 ml water

Splash of white wine vinegar

Salad

1 Carrot cut into very thin batons

½ Apple cut into very thin batons

Salad Leaves

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tablespoons of Olive oil

Tiny splash of white wine vinegar

Open your haggis, take a small hand full and shape into a burger like shape. I found it quite tricky to keep it in one lump as haggis is quite dry, therefore you may want to wet it somewhat with water or even egg.

Once you made your two shapes your ready to bread up. Get three bowls and in each one put separately, the flour, egg and breadcrumbs.

First coat your haggis shape in the flour, tapping slightly to remove the excess

The dip in the egg and again coat fully.

Now place into the breadcrumbs and coat thoroughly

Place back in the egg and cover again

Then back into the breadcrumbs to finish this stage

(The repetition of egg and breadcrumbs is optional; I like it as it gives a much nicer crust and crunch)

Put your breaded haggis in the fridge for 30 mins

Heat the oven to 180 degrees

For the sauce put all the ingredients in a saucepan and slowly bring to the boil then simmer. At this point is a taste trial for you, obviously the plums need to turn to a mush, how sweet you like it effects the amount of sugar and how rich you like the sauce defines how much you should reduce the sauce by. When you’re happy with it, remove the cinnamon and star anise then blend until smooth.

Heat a non stick frying pan and add a knob of butter and a glug of olive oil.

Gently place your haggises in the pan and fry until the breadcrumbs are golden brown and the crust is solid, gently turn over brown the other side. Then place in the oven for 15 mins. Again you’ll need to check if its cooked, so either with a skewer or small sharp knife, test the temperature of the centre of the haggis, it should be piping hot

For the Salad dressing whisk the lemon, oil and vinegar together with some seasoning until you’re happy with it

Put your leaves in a bowl and the carrot and apple, toss together add the dressing and toss again

Place your salad on the plate, followed by the Haggis and the Sauce and your ready to go.

Recipe: Coconut Prawns with Basmati Rice

This dish has two of the boxes ticked on my "Is it a Good Curry" checklist

1: Lisa, who doesn’t really like the majority of Indian curries (i.e. earthy flavours) will eat it and I think she actually quite enjoys it, although she does pick out the curry leaves

2: Chris, who is a connoisseur of balti house offerings, also rates it

It also requires quite a diverse store cupboard so you may have to hunt around for some of the seeds, leaves etc … I usually get mine online from the Asian Cookshop

As for the dish itself, it is wonderfully fragrant, the fennel seeds and cardamom give it a constant background note rather than a full on flavour, I’d have this every week if I could

Ingredients

 4 tbsp Ground Nut Oil

 2 tsp mustard seeds

 2 tsp black onion seeds

 4 green cardamom pods, seeds only

 1 tsp fennel seeds

 2 Red Birds eye chillies, chopped seeds removed

 1 cloves garlic, chopped

 1 cm ginger, chopped

 10 curry leaves

 2 shallots, chopped

 2 tsp turmeric

 4 tbsp water

 1 x 400 ml tin coconut milk

 Packet of Prawns either cooked or uncooked

 Steamed or boiled rice, to serve

 Coriander leaves, to garnish

1lb of rice

Heat a wok and add the ground nut oil. Throw in the mustard and onion seeds and let them splutter before adding the cardamom and fennel seeds. Add the green chilies, garlic and ginger and cook for 1 minute, stirring.

Add the curry leaves and sauté for a minute. Add the chopped shallots and cook for a further minute, before adding the turmeric. Stir well and add then add the water.

Pour in the coconut milk and simmer for 5 -10 minutes or until to thicken. Taste for seasoning and if its not seasoned enough for you

Now, you’re supposed to cook the raw prawns for about 2 Mins, I cook a little longer but on as lower heat as you can get. This, I think, helps the prawns take on more of the flavour of the sauce and at its best, try and use the raw prawns as they seem to have a greater capacity for taking on flavour. So in essence, the time for cooking is a guideline and you should use your own preference for thickness of sauce and texture of the prawns.

Serve with rice and garnish with a little coriander

I’ve not described the rice method here, everyone has there own preferred method for boiling or steaming rice and I have mine

Staffordshire’s 2nd best Brassiere – 99 Station Street, Burton Upon Trent

This nearly ultimate accolade was awarded by that renowned culinary digest “Taste of Staffordshire”, no me neither! 

The aforementioned website does actually have a Foodie feel to it, in that it recommends restaurants and other purveyors of top notch grub as well as local delis etc .. add to that, the facts that Taste of Staffordshire’s Patron is no less than Sarah Willingham (you know, her from Raymond Blanc’s the restaurant, the one that looks a bit like Karen Brady if you squint) and it was my Birthday, we couldn’t not eat at 99 Station Street really could we?

So as this was a special occasion and to prevent major stress incidents with Lisa in the Kitchen we opted to don our finest and let someone else do the cooking. If I’m honest I wish I hadn’t

My first restaurant review and it’s full of negativity, well no actually there were some positives

Location : Hard to find, especially as I’d lost the Sat Nav and its situated in what appears to be a converted terrace house. However the location gave it a unique style so that if felt warm, comforting and enveloped you with an overall quality rustic feeling.

Service : Spot on, could not fault it, the waitresses were friendly , extremely helpful and possessed an in depth knowledge of the food and wine available.

Food : Here’s where the disappointment starts

Starters

Seared pigeon breast carved onto an onion puff pastry tartlet with chive sour cream and herb rapeseed oil

Verdict: I’d never had Pigeon before and was pleasantly surprised with the taste not too gamey and seasoned well, such a shame it was over cooked and very tough. The little tartlet was nice though and the dressing was also good

Main

Roast rack of Stockley Park lamb with sautéed spinach, rosemary roasted

fondant potato and red wine reduction sauce

Verdict: The Lamb was way too fatty, hardly any meat on the cutlets. OK Lamb is fatty but if your going to serve it make sure the fat is cooked well. Well cooked fat but perfect meat is difficult to achieve and on this occasion they failed. The spinach wasn’t washed properly so it was gritty. The wine reduction was amazing. The Fondant potato was undercooked and almost raw in the middle. The accompanying veg whilst cooked well, was a little uninspiring.

Desert

            Caramelised Cambridge cream (crème Brule) with sugar biscuits

Verdict: Hard for me to judge as I’d never had this before. That said the initial few tastes were very creamy but I found about halfway through I was struggling and needed the biscuits, which were by the way were excellent, to add some texture and help me finish the dish

Cost: Meal for two including 3 course each and bottle of red wine the bill came to £77.

Overall: It would have been value for money compared to the average restaurant if it wasn’t for the quality of the food which let the whole side down. I’m sure the good people at Taste of Staffordshire knew what they were doing when they handed out the awards and the night we went was a bad day at the office. That said, based on my experience I wouldn’t want to try the 3^rd best Brassiere in Staffordshire

Recipe : Sausage and Borlotti Bean Casserole

This is a great winter midweek dish; the cider gives it a slight fruity tang to counterbalance the beans which always go well with some quality sausages

I adapted this from Rosie’s original recipe by reducing the quantity of onions and increasing the liquid and cooking it more slowly

Ingredients

8 pork sausages

olive oil

1 onions , peeled and diced

8 juniper berries

2 bay leaves

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp cornflour

500ml cider

200g rindless pork belly or streaky bacon, diced

2 x 400g tins borlotti beans , drained and rinsed

 Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Divide up the sausages but do not prick. Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in an ovenproof casserole on a medium heat. Add the sausages and brown, turning from time to time. When they are burnished and crisp, remove to a plate.

 In the same pan, add the onion and cook until turning transparent. Now add the pork belly or bacon and cook for a couple of mins.Now add the juniper berries, bay leaves, cumin seeds and cornflour, mixing thoroughly to coat the onions. After a few moments, add the cider and turn the heat up to high. It should begin to take on a silky, slightly thickened texture.

Bring to a simmer, cover then put in the oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Fold in the borlotti beans, season and return to the oven for 20 minutes to heat the beans through.

Server with Mash or just with crusty bread

Recipe: Farfalle With Prawns

Unbelievably simple, in fact the most time consuming thing is waiting for the water to boil for the pasta, so if you use the kettle it’s even quicker

I thought the taste would be limited but the small amount of ingredients produce a dish full of flavour, however despite it's simplicity be careful not to overcook the prawns or you'll end up with pasta a fish flavoured rubber.

Serves 2

120g Frozen Peas or a couple of handfuls

2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil

1 Shallot finely chopped

1 Packet of Cooked prawns

100ml dry white wine

Enough Farfalle for two, measure it out in the bowls before hand, remember it expands slightly

Good handful of chopped flat leaf parsley

Good slug of extra virgin olive oil

Put the pasta water on to boil

In a wide frying pan heat the oil then gently sweat the shallots for a couple of mins

Add the prawns and peas then cook for a couple of mins

Stir in the white wine and bring to the boil and simmer whilst the pasta is cooking, remember to season to your taste

To the pasta water add a good deal of salt and then cook the pasta to packet instructions

When the pasta is done, drain and add to the pan with the prawns, stir well so that all the pasta is coated. Now stir in the chopped parsley

Finally dish into the bowls add a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and that’s it , no really that’s all there is to it

Recipe : Pan Fried Venison with Juniper Sauce

A sumptuous post Christmas treat brought about by the usual special offer at Sainsbury's £5 for two steaks, can't go wrong really can you?

Sorry about the photo I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture of the food , so this is what it looks like before I cooked it. Ok not much help but at least you know what to look for if you want a go

Venison gives a deep and somewhat gamey flavour and it's much leaner than beef, the sauce adds wonderfully rich and fruity note that complements the venison perfectly.
I adapted the recipe from Mark Hix in which he suggest serving with Parsnip Drop scones, this sounded all to sweet to me so I opted for a simple potato dauphinoise instead

I love the simplicity of this dish, it sounds extravagant but really its not, there's very little prep to do, of course that depends on what you serve this with

Steaks
2 Holme Farmed Venison Steaks
Olive oil for frying
Salt and Pepper

Sauce
A good knob of butter
2 Medium Shallots peeled and finely chopped
6 Juniper Berries crushed (These can be tricky to find so you may have to order on line)
1 Teaspoon of plain flour
2 Teaspoons of Redcurrant Jelly
About 300 ml of Beef stock

To make the sauce heat the butter and a little olive oil in a wide pan and gently fry the shallots and juniper berries for a couple of mins.
Stir in the flour and add the redcurrant jelly. Gradaully stir in the stock, if you chuck it all in in one go you will get a lumpy sauce.
Bring to the boil and simmer gently for about 10 mins, not forgetting to taste for seasoning of course

The steaks couldn't be simpler, heat a heavy based frying pan and add your oil and butter, when sizzling add the steaks and cook over a medium high heat for around 6 -7 mins, keep turning them for an even cook and keep spooning the juices over the steaks. This way you get a nice even colour.

Take the steaks out when done and let the rest for a few mins.

Slice the steaks and place them on a plate then drizzle over your wonderful sauce.

Bambi never tasted so good

Recipe: Lemon & Thyme Roast Chicken, Soya Beans and Cherry Tomato Stuffed Pittas

A sudden flash of inspiration lead me to this whilst I was cooking a completely different dish. I had a more chicken breasts than I needed and came up with this idea to make sure they didn't go to waste

Ingredients
3 Chicken Breasts (Or how ever many you want)
2 Slices of Lemon per Chicken Breast
1 Sprig of Thyme per breast
2 Spring Onions chopped
6 Cherry Tomatoes Sliced
Good Handfull of Frozen soya beans defrosted

Pre-Heat the oven to 180 degrees
Take Each breast and slice open with a sharp knife
Season the cavity with salt and pepper
Inside each breast put two lemon slices and a sprig of thyme
Close up the breast and put onto a piece of foil
Drizzle with olive oil and season a little more
Close the foil around the breast to make an air tight parcel, but with room inside, sort of like a Cornish pasty shape
Put the foil parcels on a baking tray and bake in the center of the oven for 30 mins

Eat Now ?
At this point you can serve them up with some lovely new potatoes or some salad

For the Pitta
Leave the parcels as they are, out of the oven, to cool inside their foil bags
Once cool remove each breast and put to one side careful not to spill the gorgeous juices
Tip all of the juices into a small jar (one with a lid you'll need it later)
Remove the lemon and thyme sprigs from your breast and then break up the meat into pieces.
Put the Chicken pieces, Tomatoes, Soya beans and spring onion in a bowl

Mix the juices with about 2 tablespoons of Rapeseed oil (Good olive oil will do ) add a little salt and pepper , put the lid on the jar and shake well. If you dont have a jar you can whisk up the juices and oil in bowl.
Taste your dressing now and add more oil and seasoning if you want to.

Pour the dressing over your chicken mix , get your hands in and mix everything up so that all the ingredients have a decent covering of the dressing

Open up your Pittas (Perhaps toast them lightly first) and cram full of the good stuff, then you're good to go.

This may work well with wraps instead of Pittas but not tried that, yet!

Recipe: Winter Warmer with Beery Goodness

What with the current cold snap taking forecasters into unparalleled levels of excitement and idiots panic buying bread, I thought it opportune to share with you this cockle warming (No cockles were harmed in the making of this dish), comforting and downright tasty dish with you

Lamb Stew With Dumplings

Ingredients


Stew
500g of Lamb cubed (Neck or Shoulder should do)
1 Onion finely chopped
2 Cloves of Garlic Finely chopped

3 Large Carrots cut into big slices
1 Bag of new potatoes halved
500ml Can of your beer of choice (please note beer not lager, I used London Pride this time but I find the creamier beers are better)
300ml Lamb Stock
80g Flour
2 Bay leaves
Sprig of Thyme
Sprig of Rosemary
Large Pinch of Chili flakes

Dumplings (From Leiths Cookery Bible)
200g Plain Flour
3 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Dry English Mustard (powder)
1/4 Tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/2 Tsp Salt
55g Suet
150ml Iced Water

To Make the stew ....
Pre-Heat the oven to 160 degrees
Put the flour in a bowl and season well with salt and pepper
Dredge the lamb pieces through the flour so all bits are nicely coated

In a flame proof casserole dish add a little olive oil and heat
Shake of excess flour and fry the lamb until nice and brown all over then remove from the pan
Turn down the heat slightly and add the onions and sweat for a couple of mins

Turn the heat back up, add the Garlic and fry for one min.
Chuck in the potatoes and carrots, fry for another min
Put the Lamb back into the pot together with the remaining flour from the bowl
Pour in the lovely beer bring to the boil using a spatual to remove the tasty bits at the bottom
Now add your stock, herbs and chili flakes, season well and place in the oven with the lid on

Cook for around 2-2.5 hours , check every now and then to makes sure it hasn't dried out, if it has add a little water or stock , stir well and put back in the oven oh and don't forget, keep tasting


Dumplings
Sift the flour, baking powder, mustard, cayenne and salt into a large bowl and add the suet
Pour in the water and use a knife to mix together
Once it starts to form a single mass e.g now powder left get your hands in and start to form into a dough.
Divide into 8 even sized pieces and shape each one into a ball
Take your stew out of the oven , gently place the dumplings onto the stew put the lid back on and cook for another 15 mins. The dumplings should be firm to the touch. Put back in the oven uncovered for a further 5 mins to get a nice crust on the dumplings

 

You can serve with Mash or thick crusty bread, I occasionally use Parmesan mash with this and the flavours matched perfectly

Two Kids, 3 Pizza's and a bottle of wine later ....

You know being a self confessed foodie you tend to take for granted the pleasures that creating you're own grub can bring. It wasn't till the kids and I made pizza that I realised how much fun you can have all mucking in and its a great way to spend time together, whilst each being able to create something simple and to your own liking

I have tried to make pizzas before with a modicum of success but that was back when I had yet to fully explore cooking as a hobby. Ready made pizza bases and jar of sauce really only scratches the surface of what you can achieve with a little investment in time and a few ingredients

If you're feeling brave and want to get the kids involved then be prepared it gets messy, very messy or maybe that's just my kids

The Dough

300g Strong Bread Flour
1 tsp Instant Yeast
1 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Olive oil

Put the flour into a large bowl, then stir in the yeast and salt. Make a well, pour in 200ml warm water and the olive oil and bring together with a wooden spoon until you have a soft, fairly wet dough. 

Turn onto a floured surface and knead for 5 mins until smooth, the kids loved this bit although it took a bit longer to get the desired smoothness, the important thing is not to over work the dough. Cover with cling film and leave to rise slightly. I don't have tried an tested airing cupboard so placed it on a box next to the radiator and that seemed to do the trick

The Sauce

500g Passata

1 Shallot Finely Chopped

3 Cloves of Garlic finely chopped (Really this is up to you add more or less, it's your pizza)

Handful of basil leaves chopped

Splash of red wine

Gently fry the shallot and garlic with some salt and pepper until nice and soft, add the passata and wine then bring to a boil and the basil leaves stir and then leave to simmer for around 10 mins until the sauce thickens, then season again to taste

Rolling and Saucing

So time to start assembly. Take your dough and knock it back slightly (Gently knock out the air ) then divide into however many pizzas you want to make. Take each piece and roll out to your desired thickness. If you've got a pizza stone , then oooh get you, if you haven't then do what I did and use baking trays, you get some odd shapes and some interesting crusts but then hey it makes yours individual doesn't it?
Place the dough on your tray or stone.

If you're not sure how to shape the dough this guy here shows you how Shaping Pizza Dough

You can get all artisan and try twirling it around above your head, however bits of dough can get stuck to the floor, ceiling, door, dog etc ... so be careful

Top it all off

Here's where you get creative , you know what you like so go with that. This bit really is simple, if you want some inspiration here's what we did.

Heat the oven to about 180 degrees

First of all smear a decent layer of the sauce over your base and then sprinkle with grated Cheddar then let your taste buds guide you

Lisa's Pizza - Chicken, Sweetcorn and Mushroom

1 Chicken breast , chopped into bite size chunks, marinated in olive oil, thyme and seasoning for 30 mins.

2 Mushrooms sliced finely

1 Tin of sweetcorn

Torn Mozzarella 

Grated Cheddar

Quickly fry the chunks of chicken in  pan until golden all over, then liberally distribute across the pizza with mushrooms, sweetcorn and Mozzarella 

Charlotte's Pizza - Fishy Feast

Cooked Prawns

Tinned Tuna

Sweetcorn

Mozzarella

As before just distribute all over the pizza

Mine and Liam's - Man pizza , lots of meat

Salami - I had some wild boar Salami in the fridge but up to you really

Pepperoni

Chorizo

Mozzarella 

Jalapenos

Dont think you need me to tell you what to do, do you ?

Cook

When you're finished being all creative and stuff simply pop into the oven for 10-20 mins , keep an eye on this as you don't want to overcook your masterpiece.

When done leave to cool slightly , cut into pieces and your ready to go

I can thoroughly recommend  this to anyone who wants to entertain the kids whilst teaching them a useful skill.

Recipe: Moroccan Chicken with Lemon Couscous

Moroccan Chicken with Lemon Couscous

First time for me on this one as I’ve never really tried couscous, I followed the couscous part of the recipe to the letter and had to add extra seasoning to get it to my tastes.

Overall, mixed verdicts Lisa said it was ok but a bit acidic for her tastes, where as I liked it and would happily make it again. My mate Chris was equally impressed and so much so he had a fair helping despite having eaten at home before he came round.

I think what sold me on the dish was the aromatic cumin and cinnamon with the underlying background freshness of the lemon. If I did it again I may add a little heat just to raise it up a level

This takes about 30 mins to prep and cook and apparently it’s fairly healthy as well

Adapted from Good Food Magazine

250g Couscous

Zest and Juice of 1 lemon

Splash of Olive Oil

1 Tbsp Clear Honey

4 Chicken Breasts cut into large strips

1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

2 tsp Ground Cumin ( I like cumin so 1tsp might do you)

400g Can of chopped tomatoes

200 ml Chicken Stock

Splash of dry white wine

200g Fine green beans, trimmed

Put the couscous, half the lemon zest and half the lemon juice in a bowl and pour over 400ml of boiling water, cover with cling film and leave to soak whilst cooking the rest of the dish

Heat the oil in a pan drizzle the honey over the chicken breasts and season them then add to the pan, fry all over for 5-6 mins until golden all over.

Mix in the spices, then deglaze with the wine. Add the tomatoes and stock with the remaining juice and zest of the lemon. Bring to the boil and simmer uncovered for 8-10 mins or until the beans are tender.

Fork through the couscous to fluff it up, taste the couscous and season if you think it needs it then serve with the chicken

Man Cannot Live By Bread Alone But Toast Is a Different Matter

Toast. Its a ruddy marvel. It transforms the humble slice into a crunchy, warming, comforting and downright tasty snack.

Toasting your bread is only just beginning of what can be the most complex or the simplest of culinary adventures. Once your slice of golden magic emerges from under the grill (or toaster if you prefer carbon dark one side and hardly warmed the other) a world of choices await you.

Eat it there and then just as dry toast (hangover anyone) or top with, well, just about anything. Lovely melting butter is of course the true staple of any toast devotee but it doesn’t stop there. Jam, Marmalade, Marmite (one of my favourites especially post pub), baked beans, eggs in all guises, chocolate spread, dripping, mushrooms, kidneys, toast toppers (remember them), of course cheese, pilchards, sardines …. I could go on

Rub it with garlic and drizzle with olive oil and you have the base for any number of bruschetta connotations.

Cut it into soldiers for egg dipping is there anything you can’t do with toast? Some people and really I’ve seen this, dip it into their mug of tea.

Kids love it, grannies love it even the dog is partial to morsel.

You can have it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper as a snack whenever you want.

Why am I enthusing so much about toast, it’s because I’m sat here with a cup of tea and a couple of rounds of the good stuff what more could you ask for.

So to whoever discovered that waving a piece of bread in front of a flame made the ideal snack, hats off to you sir (or madam)

  

Recipe : Paella

It seems that like Bolognese, everyone has their own Paella recipe, so not being one to shirk convention here’s mine

OK, so I developed this one by looking at various recipes for paella, taking those basic principles and then adding ingredients that I liked.

As you’ll notice from the picture attached I have a paella pan, woo get me.

Anyway this caused me much consternation as my first attempt to cook with it brought about the realisation that a massive pan requires a burner of equal capacity.

Not being blessed with a burner the size of a tractor wheel I have to frequently move the pan around my wok hob. This approach works well if you’re standing in the kitchen whiling away the worries of the world with a mate and a glass of wine. Of course you can cook this in a normal frying pan equally well but having “proper” pan induces suitable ooh’s and ahh’s from your guests when you plonk it on the table and they can all dig in.

Ingredients – please excuse approximations as I have yet to weigh and measure the precise amounts.

Serves 6

2 Shallots chopped finely

2 Garlic cloves chopped finely

2 Tomatoes de-seeded and diced

80g Chorizo sliced

2 Chicken breasts cubed (bite size)

100g Green Beans cut to desired size

200g King Prawns – Cooked or Raw, have to be peeled

6 Handfuls of paella rice, I cup my hand and then fill the palm, although I do have big hands

1 Glass of dry white wine

1 Teaspoon of Paprika

Pinch of Saffron

Pinch of Chilli flakes

600 ml of Chicken stock

Water for topping up

Brown the chicken on all sides then remove from the pan.

Gently fry the shallots and garlic until soft in a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper

Add the tomatoes and continue to gently fry for a minute

Add the Chorizo turn up the heat and fry until the oils are released

Now add the rice, cooking for a couple of Mins stirring all the time

Add the wine and reduce till hardly any liquid is left

Add the paprika and stir so that everything is coated

Add the stock, bring to the boil and reduce to simmer.

Add Chilli flakes and saffron and stir to distribute

TASTE – add more seasoning and or spice if required

Now reduce the heat so that it’s barely simmering.

So now you leave it to simmer and please don’t stir, this causes the rice to release its starch and that’s now what you want, unless you want a plate of mush.

This should take now around 15 Mins, you’ll know when it’s cooked because the rice is still firm but not crunchy or chalky tasting.

Important: keep an eye on the pan if it looks too dry then top up with water, you may have to do this several times.

Once you’re happy that the rice is cooked place your prawns on top on the rice, dotted about the pan.

Finally when the prawns are cooked, top off with a good dash of chopped parsley.

Serve with lemon slices for those who want the extra zing

Apart from a bit of prep this is quite simple, you can add what you like really, some fish for example or as they do in some regions of Spain, snails!

Whatever it is you put in, so long as you follow the basics and season properly, you’ll have a guaranteed crowd pleaser