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Archive for March, 2012

Mussels – Simple and Delicious

Posted in French Flavors, tagged , on March 28, 2012 | 1 Comment »

Sometimes I cannot believe there was a time when I didn’t eat mussels. They’re just so delicious and when they’re fresh it’s like you get a mouthful of the ocean. Mmmm.

There are many ways to eat mussels but my all time favorite is the classic Moules Marinieres.

The mussels are cleaned and checked for only live ones. You can do this by gently tapping them with the back of your knife or with a fork. They should open and if they don’t close again then discard.

Chop garlic and shallots. Soften in a large pot with butter, dash of oil, bay leaf and some sprigs of thyme. Add wine and bring to a boil. Add the mussels, cover and let steam for 3-4 minutes. Remove the bay leaves and thyme. Add some cream and chopped parsley and serve! A side of fries with mayonnaise dip are a perfect complement.. Along with a very cold pint of beer! Yum yum!

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Onion Soup That’s NOT French?!

Posted in British Cuisine, tagged , on March 16, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Seeing as it’s still a bit chilly here in the UK, soups are still a lunch time staple. A week or so ago I noticed that the soup of the day in the cafe at work was Onion Soup. Being that traditional French Onion Soup was a childhood favorite of mine, I was completely shocked to see that the soup at work was white and creamy!

So last weekend (as I wrote about yesterday) I made a huge batch of chicken stock. I was craving soup for a light weekend lunch (as dinner was going to be heavy). But I didn’t really have many fresh vegetable options. Plus you can have only so much curried carrot soup before you get sick of it. So I thought of this mysterious cream of onion soup. And really there’s hardly much to it and yet full of flavor! And don’t worry – there’s no smelly breath from this soup. The onions are quite sweet so go easy on the sugar! There are a couple recipes out there but here’s a straight forward one for my Creamy Onion Soup.

Recipe for 4

INGREDIENTS

3 medium or 2 large yellow onions
~3-4 tbsp butter
Fresh thyme if you have it
Sea salt
Pinch sugar
~heaping tbsp flour
~1-2 cups milk
~2 cups Fresh chicken stock

DIRECTIONS

Peel and slice onions. Heat half the butter in a pot on moderate heat. Add the onions, leaves from a couple sprigs of thyme and a pinch of salt and sugar. Cook until the onions are soft for about 5 minutes. Tip into bowl and set aside.

Heat the rest of the butter on low/medium heat until foaming. Sprinkle the flour in and combine well. It should be equal parts butter and flour. Cook for about a minute, stirring constantly. Slowly pour in the milk a little at a time. Combine until smooth before adding more each time. Add enough milk so it’s like a thick gravy. Add enough stock until it’s a soup consistency you’re happy with. Add the onion mixture and let cook for a couple minutes. Then blend with a hand blender. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired. Serve hot with some bread and enjoy!

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Quick Dinner: Portuguese-Style Chicken & Spicy Rice

Posted in Latin American Cuisine, Reducing Waste, tagged , , , on March 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

If you’ve never heard of Nando’s, you’re missing out. It’s a global restaurant chain that specialises in flame-grilled Peri-Peri chicken with a variety of sauces to go with it. With the introduction of the African bird’s eye chilli to the Portuguese, Peri-Peri was born. It’s a spice blend of African bird’s eye chilli, dried oregano, paprika, dried cardamom, ground ginger and onion powder. In the UK you can buy packets of the dry rub or you can make your own by combining a tsp of each dry ingredient except the chilli powder (only half tsp) and adding a half tsp salt. You can’t really go too wrong!

Heat the oven to about 450F/230C. Rub the spices over a few chicken legs and wings. Spread onto a baking tray (flat but with slight lip on edge to catch any juices) and drizzle a little oil all over.

While the oven heats up, get started on the rice and finely chop one red onion (yellow would be fine too) and 1-2 chilli peppers. On moderate heat, cook in a pot with a bit of oil and butter until soft.

The oven should be hot now, so add the chicken into the oven on the top shelf. With a fan assisted oven this should take about 25-30 minutes. Pierce a thick part of the leg to check if juices run clear.

Add about 2 cups of rice and coat with a bit more butter. Add a heaping tsp of cumin, large pinch of salt and a good couple tbsp of ketchup. Mix well and add about 3 to 3.5 cups of chicken stock (or just a bit more than 1.5 times volume of rice depending on how you like it). If you don’t have homemade, add a stock cube and hot water direct to rice. Let simmer on low/moderate heat covered. Stir occasionally so it won’t stick to the bottom. As the liquid is nearly evaporated, keep the lid on without peeking for a couple minutes so it can steam. Stir to fluff the rice and add a drained can of corn. Taste and season as necessary. This should take about 10-12 minutes (may vary on how high a heat you cook it!).

Once the chicken is done, plate them. While they’re resting take the baking tray and put on a very low heat. Add a small splash of stock or water and gently scrape up all the good bits. Pour into a small bowl for a bit of sauce on the side. Serve up your rice with a little bit of chopped coriander/cilantro and enjoy!

The chicken should be moist and full of flavor. If possible, marinate the chicken overnight or as long as possible. I used chicken legs and wings that I had carved from whole chickens earlier in the week. It really is such better value for money. I bought two medium sized chickens over the weekend and carved them into breasts, legs and wings. Just got it all done with plastic wrapped the different portions. I used the carcasses to make stock with 1 carrot, 1 celery, half onion, bay leaves, whole peppercorns and sprigs of thyme. And I just let it go on low simmer for about an hour and a half although it probably could’ve done with 45 minutes. So from 2 chickens, I made a dinner for 4, a dinner for 2, lunch for 2 and have enough stock to make soup for 8-10 people. All of that for £6! Add to that low cost ingredients like pasta, rice, canned corn, olive oil, onions and carrots! It’s such a great way to have several homemade meals and save money. Happy cooking!

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Quick Dinner : Crispy Spicy Chicken Melt

Posted in American Cuisine, tagged , on March 12, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

While shopping for dinner on Friday I was a little shocked at how expensive chicken breasts are. A packet of four breasts was the same price as 2 whole medium chickens (which were 1/3 off). Not only was I getting way more meat but also the breast pieces I carved off were bigger than what I would have bought separately. So next time you want chicken for dinner don’t be afraid to do a little butchery. It will be worth your money.

After using the chicken breasts for Parmesan crumbed cutlets with spaghetti and marinara I had the chicken tenders (or goujons) and legs left. So for a quick dinner I made Spicy Breaded Chicken Tender Melts.

Seeing as I didn’t have any breadcrumbs I improvised. I toasted a slice of plain sandwich bread and blended it until it looked like breadcrumbs. Do let the toast cool a bit or there will be too much moisture when you blend it. I lightly seasoned them with garlic salt and pepper and spread them onto a large plate. On two other plates I put plain flour and hot sauce (buffalo sauce to be exact). Heat up a large frying pan with enough oil to coat the bottom on a medium heat. Also heat up your oven or grill. When the oil is shiny but not smoking (a couple minutes), take your chicken tenders (using one hand) and lightly coat in flour, then hot sauce, then breadcrumbs. Do all of them before putting in the pan. Very gently add them to the oil and clear your counter. Using a spatula check the first piece which should be nicely browning after about 2-3 minutes. (I used heat #4 out of 6) gently turn them over to cook for a further 3-4 minutes. If they’re starting to brown too quickly turn the heat down. Touch with your finger and it should be pretty firm. If you’re not sure cut into a piece.

If you’re having these with bread, lightly toast in the oven. Add a little bit of mayonnaise and top with the chicken pieces. Add slices of a good melting cheese like Swiss, mozzarella or Jarlsberg and melt in the oven. Serve with extra hot sauce on the side if you’d like!

Overall it was a pretty quick meal to make – probably about 15 minutes. I’ve seen this method before in other recipes where you “replace” the egg coating with a different liquid, so I wanted to try it. For the coating it worked perfectly. From a flavor perspective it didn’t ave AS much punch as I would have liked. Next time I might add spices to the flour or maybe double coat in flour, hot sauce, flour and sauce again. Either way though the chicken was very moist and the homemade breadcrumbs were a success. You could easily serve this with a salad or some sweet potato fries. Enjoy!

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Oldie But A Goodie

Posted in Italian Cuisine, tagged , on March 4, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Sometimes you just can’t beat a classic. Tonight’s classic was Spaghetti and Meatballs. It’s been raining all day and I did my best to make some comfort food without venturing out into the bad weather. Soo I had to make do with some frozen ground pork. Other items I always have in my cupboard are canned tomatoes, garlic, onions, pasta and Parmesan cheese. I know pork isn’t a traditional choice for meatballs, but it can be quite lean.

A simple recipe for tomato sauce is garlic, onion and a can of chopped tomatoes. But if you have it it’s always nice to add in carrots, celery and some bay leaves. Sometimes I feel like a chunky sauce but today I wanted one a but smoother.

If you have a small chopper, blitz one carrot and one stalk of celery. Finely chop a small onion and a few cloves of garlic. Heat a large deep frying pan (with lid). Soften the onion in some olive oil for a minute or two. Add the vegetables and garlic and cook for a couple more minutes. Crumble a couple beef stock cubes and a pinch of mixed Italian herbs. Add in two cans of chopped tomatoes. Add a pinch of sugar, pinch of salt and a bay leaf. If you have fresh thyme, add a few sprigs. And if you like spice, add some dried red pepper flakes. Let simmer on low heat for a half hour or so. Remember to taste and add more sugar if it’s too tangy!

Meanwhile, add a couple tablespoons of bread crumbs to a large mixing bowl. Add a tablespoon of milk, pinch of salt and crumble a beef stock cube. Crack two eggs and add the pork (about 500 grams or 1.1 lbs). Sprinkle some more salt or garlic salt if you have it and some black pepper. Get your hands messy and combine the mixture well. It should be pretty wet. Make small meatballs and pop them into the pan of tomato sauce. Once you’re done, slowly turn each of the meatballs and let them all simmer for another 25-30 minutes.

Cook some spaghetti al dente and add straight to a plate. Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil, spoon over sauce and meatballs and top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese!

** I have to admit these were the softest and moistest meatballs I’ve ever made! And yet they held their shape too. Think this recipe might have to come back!

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Mini Meat Loaves

Posted in American Cuisine, tagged , , , , , on March 4, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

So this week I wanted to make something new with ground beef (mince). Growing up, we would often have meatloaf which I learned this week is not a well-known dish in the UK. Or rather – it is thought of as a very American dish. Delia Smith even calls her recipe “American Meatloaf“. In my family it was always a favorite though and leftovers were used for sandwiches.

But there are so many recipes out there for meatloaf. Traditionally, it’s cooked in a loaf tin (hence the name). But doing this usually means you’re looking at at least an hour and half or 2 hours of cooking time. And with our work schedules, I knew my husband and I wouldn’t want to wait that long on a week night. So I went for a recipe for Ina Garten’s Individual Meat Loaves. My sister has made this recipe before and she’s always raved about it. But of course me being me, I wanted to put my own spin on it. I’ve been reading a lot recently about lentils being used as a meat supplement or to “beef” up a meat dish. A lot of recipes out there have half meat, half lentils. This way you get your meat flavor and you not only decrease cost but also increase the healthiness of your dish.

So instead of using the full 2.5 pounds of ground beef (mince), I used 500g (~1.1 lbs) of ground beef and about a cup of red lentils that had been soaked overnight. I only used one egg and 1 large yellow onion and chose beef stock instead of chicken. But once you combine everything, you’ll see it’s a pretty soft texture. So you may or may not need an extra egg depending on how much meat you’d like to use. Remember to season the meat directly before adding the onion mixture with a good pinch of salt and pepper. I made fairly small portions laid out on a baking tray and I baked them at about 190C/375F. As it was a week night and I was getting hungry, I actually took them out after 35 minutes and they were perfectly cooked. They were so moist and full of flavor! To make our meal a tab bit healthier, we chose to make a sweet potato mash instead of regular potato mash. I also made a beef gravy on the side.

Overall, I highly recommend this recipe! Both my husband and I ended up having leftovers for lunch, and it was just as delicious the next day. I bet this would be a big hit with kids too!

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