Easy Musrooom Stroganoff

Hi there, yes I know I'm like a bus, nothing then 2 posts in one evening! I've been busy... Our band was great the other night, The Jim Jones Revue... rock and roll tastic... 40 year old men all with died black hair, as my friend said, made us look like natural black heads! Brilliant band, check them out on the tinternet.
Well the bank holiday is upon us and I have grand plans to paint our garden wall blue, I've been meaning to do this for about a year so this weekend definitely has to be P - day! We are also going jousting at the Leeds Armouries, well just watching but blix will love it, I can't wait.
I have loads of veg left this week as my cooking has been a bit lazy and a veg box due on Thursday so I'd expect a few recipe's this weekend.
Deano shock horror may be cooking tomorrow night so I'll post it if he does ....

For now here is another easy tea that tastes good and can be knocked up in a few minutes.

Chopped fresh parsley
Lots of mushrooms - I used shitake and portobello
Chopped red onions - chop in thin half moons
2 crushed cloves of garlic
1 chopped tin of tomatoes
Smoked paprika
S&P
Chili flakes
Creme Fraise

Fry onions in olive oil until soft but not browned then add the mushrooms and garlic, continue to fry until mushrooms are soft.
Add tomatoes, 2 tsp paprika, pinch of chilli's to taste and S&P
Add 2 tablespoons of creme fraise and a handful of chopped parsley then simmer for about 10 mins until reduced.
Serve with rice

Aubergine with Fresh Pesto & Feta

Hello,
I urge you to make this. If you can't be bothered to make your own pesto then try and buy the fresh stuff from the chiller, not the jarred stuff... I find aubergine quite a good substitute for meat, no really I do, especially when you add the pesto. You could serve this as a starter with just one slice but I like a few as it's soo delicious. It's really just a posh cheese on toast!

Pesto
Approx 2 handfuls of basil
2 cloves of garlic
A good glug of olive oil but you may need to add more
A handful of grated Parmesan
S&P
2 aubergines
Feta cheese

Throw the basil, oil and garlic into a blender and whizz - check the consistency and add more oil if necessary. When just right then add the Parmesan and season.

Slice the aubergine length ways and liberally sprinkle salt over the slices then leave for about 10 mins - this draws out the moisture. Then just wipe the salt off with kitchen towel. Heat a griddle pan or frying pan until smoking hot then throw on the aubergine. Cook for approx. 3 mins each side.

Spread the pesto over each slice and then cover in sliced feta (not too thick) then place under a grill until browned.

Tom Yum Soup

Yummy Tom Yum!

Hi all, hope everyone who reads this is ok, we are all fine. Dean's leg is on the mend, I am busy at work and Blixa is a cute little monkey as always! I am getting excited as we are going to see The Jim Jones review on Sunday who are rock n roll-tastic! it's keeps us happy to see a band every now again and reminds us of our hey days when beans on toast was the best meal we had and Jack Daniels was better than a cuppa! Blimey we sound old...

Tonights tea is a one pot wonder and boy was it delicious! It's dead easy to make my cheats version but I bet the 'real' cooks out there would shake their heads...

I tend to use a pre chopped stir fry mix which includes mushrooms, beansprouts, waterchestnuts and a selection of veg but you could chop up peppers, shitake mushrooms or any veg you think would go and then all the other bits.
1 tin of coconut milk
About 2 inches of fresh, grated ginger
2 crushed cloves of garlic
Sprinkle of dried chillis to taste
2 tablespoons of fish sauce (nam pla)
Pepper and salt but wait until the end to add salt as the fish sauce is already quite salty
Vegetable stock
Noodles (rice or egg) - about 2 layers
Fresh chopped corriander or tonight I used some basil leaves or chicken
Tofu or you could use prawns

Simply stir fry the veg then add the coconut milk and about a litre of stock.
Throw in the ginger, chilli and garlic and then the fish sauce along with the tofu and leave to simmer for about 10 mins then throw the noodles in. Once the noodles are cooked then it's ready.
Finally add the herbs and season to taste

Tuna Nicoise

Hello everybody, sorry for the lack of posts and yes we have eaten but some of the food I have already posted so thought it might be boring and some of it was just plain boring! I do however have alot of ingredients to cook this week so hopefully there will be more to come.
We are all ok, Dean's pot came off today but it still might be a while before he can get back to normal. Blixa is lovely and would still recomend Scooby Doo pasta as his greatest delicasy!
Tonight's tea is tuna nicoise or tuna salad and I love this, it's really easy and really delicious. It's really just putting components togeather. You should also use green beans put I didn't have any. I'm adding bits and pieces like cheese and capers but you don't need them, I just like em!

1 x cos lettuce - wash the leaves
2 x hard boiled eggs - quartered
2 x potatoes- quartered. New potatoes would also be lovely but I only had old, you could also leave in their skins.
Tablespoon of capers
About 15 black olives
Sprinkle of parmesan
2 x tuna steaks - cook in a frying or grill pan and I used a dash of garlic infused oil and cooked for about 2 mins each side
French dressing - 6 tbls good olive oil and 2 tbsp white wine vinegar - S&P. Just whisk togeather.

Layer up all of the ingredienst except the tuna then cover in the dressing. Serve the tuna as whole steaks or in strips.

Yummy, yummy, yummy x

Les Filets De Merlan Vallee D'Auge

Sounds posh doesn't it? In reality it's a simple dish of whiting in a cider sauce.
I bought some whiting for the first time and didn't really know what to do with it so I consulted the fish bible by Jane Grigson called 'Fish Book'.

This is really simple and really lovely so try it. Whiting is part of the cod family so it's a firm white fish and should be cheaper than cod, it has a really nice earthy flavour. I served this with olive oil mash and creamed leaks, both were yummy but in hind site I wouldn't recommend as all together the texture of the meal was too soft and would have been better served with a really good crusty white bread.

6 whiting fillets
S&P, cayenne pepper
5 tbls butter
2 small-medium chopped onions
300ml dry cider - use good cider, I used Aspals - use cider you would want to drink, not white lightning!
6 tbls grated Gruyere cheese

Chop the onions and as normal I would recommend half moons, some how they are just prettier than chopped onions. You need to use a pan which can go in the oven or a oven dish with a diffuser on the hob.
Season the whiting with S&P and a sprinkle of the cayenne.
Melt the butter in the pan and they fry the onions until soft, don't let them go brown. Place the whiting in the pan skin side down.
Coven with the cider and then the grated cheese.
Place in an 180 oven for 5 mins but do not over cook the fish so keep checking after about 4 mins.
Et voila

This is a lovely meal and an easy dinner party winner, as ever this was a dinner for 3 and Blix had extra cider to get him off to bed, no not really I just roasted his with a bit of butter!

xx

Mama's Spaghetti Sauce

I am a mama and this is my sauce.

Tomato sauce, so simple to make and so delicious, why do people buy those jars of dolmio which taste bland and full of sugar?
This is an easy sauce that makes a delicious tea. I've been working today and travelled to Milton Keyes and back but got home to find my man and boy hungry. Deano was fuming as he bought his mum some perfume online which turned out to be from a rogue website and I had visited the lego shop in MK and bought Blixa some Star Wars men so both were occupied and it seemed didn't care if they ate or not..cue mama and her sauce!

2 sticks of celery- chopped finely
1 carrot- diced
1 onion cut into half moons
pinch of sugar
1 tin of anchovies- chopped
2 x tin of chopped tomatoes
rosemary- this is all I had but you could alternatively add thyme or bay leaf

Fry the celery, carrot and celery until soft but not brown
Add tomatoes, anchovies & the oil they came in, sugar and rosemary
Bring to the boil and then simmer for at least 20 mins but could be an hour, the longer you simmer the thicker it becomes and the flavours are more intense! I also added some chopped fresh tomatoes (could be one or as many as you like) which I find adds more juice and flavour but are optional.
Towards the end add a slug of olive oil which just adds to the flavour and gives it a glaze. You don't need to add salt as that comes from the anchovies.
You can blend and i should have but couldn't be bothered as this would give a smooth sauce.
I served with spaghetti which you want to be aldente (a bit of a bite and not sloppy), once cooked add a slug of oil and sprinkle with rock salt.

You could add the sauce to the spaghetti and toss through but I kind of like the heap of sauce on the top with the oiled spaghetti below.

Sprinkle liberally with fresh grated parmesan

I also added black olives because Blix loves them and artichokes because they were in my veg box and needed using up but these are optional and not essential.

Sorry, one more thing, whilst Blix likes wiggelly worms (AKA spaghetti) I served his with Scooby Doo pasta- much more preferable with a mystery machine or monster don't you think?

delicious

Ciao

Spinach Pt 2 or Fish Florentine

It's now tea time and that bag of spinach is still half full (or half empty depending on your thinking!) despite my efforts at breakfast! I had a fish pie mix from the fish mongers which was cubes of salmon, smoked fish and haddock and decided that somehow I had to incorporate the spinach. You could just use salmon fillets cubed or whatever fish you like.

But, just to let you know, this was a happy accident of a dinner and was lovely. Blix liked the fish and cheese sauce also, so it's good for kids!

For the fish
Spinach & nutmeg
Fish - about the equivalent of 2/3 salmon fillets - cubed and whatever fish you want to use.
Milk
Cheddar
Flour
Butter
S&P

Start by roasting the fish in some olive oil - heat the oil up first then just put the cubes of fish onto the oil and roast for about 10 -12 mins.
Get a frying pan and heat up, place a good handful of spinach into the pan and let it wilt in the heat, grate some nutmeg into the pan (not too much as it will taste soapy). Once cooked then place into a oven proof dish.
Take the fish and place on top of the spinach.
Meanwhile make a cheese sauce. Making a cheese sauce is easy. Melt a knob of butter in a pan, once melted then add about 1 tablespoon of flour to make a paste, then gradually add milk a bit at a time so it isn't lumpy. Once you have added all the milk then add the grated cheese, I used cheddar then season. Do you know what, add as much cheese as you like, you could also leave as a white sauce if you wish? Poor the sauce over the fish and then add more grated cheese, place in oven for about 10 minutes.
I served this with buttered cabbage ( I have sliced my thumb off in the process of this!), peas, roast parsnips and potatoes.
My top tip for roasties is part boil then rough them up in the pan getting all the edges bashed. Place on a baking tray of hot oil and sprinkle with semolina.

Spinach Pt 1

Hi all,
Hope you are well and enjoying yer food! I've had alot of nice dinners this week but haven't posted any...sorry! blue cheese risotto, artichoke pasta ....yum
Anyway, I have a rogue bag of spinach in the fridge as I thought I might make a lasagna but haven't so what to do before it turns?
Breakfast - I love Sunday breakfast that's a bit like a brunch and carries you through. We also have an abundance of eggs so scrambled eggs is definitely on the cards. This is easy but tastes fresh and really nice as a brunch. It doesn't need a recipe just put a knob of butter in the pan and scramble the eggs. Add the chopped tomatoes at the beginning and spinach at the end along with the basil.
Eggs
Milk & butter
Spinach
Chopped tomatoes
S&P
Fresh basil leaves

Sunday Dinner

I love Sunday dinner, it's my absolute favourite meal and if I had to choose it would definately be my last supper!

It's been pretty busy here lately and quite exhausting, I've had a bad, bad cold and Deano still has the pot on (but a lighter one, it was changed today, I nearly posted a picture of his stiches but I thought it would put you off yer tea!). My mum has been helping out alot lately so I wanted to cook her a nice Sunday lunch, and a meaty one at that! I woke up on Sunday with a caveman type yearning for a pork chop! I consulted the books and came up with a recipe by Elisabeth David. Now, E.D. is a cooks cook and the one you will hear all of those TV cooks citing as one of their influences. I once saw on the TV that Delia taught herself to cook by giving dinner parties entirely from her cookbooks! Soo, I'm serving spiced pork chops with potatoes dauphinois, honey carrots, slow pan-fried fennel (Nigel Slater) and peas and absolutely yumptuous it was too. I like to give my mum veggies she doesn't normally eat, mainly because it secretly makes me laugh at her pretending she likes it 'mmmm, interesting' but I have to say she never stopped about the fennel, it was a winner.

PS- I posted another picture of Blix cos he looked so cute in his knight's helmet, sheild and sword which I made him today...I didn't cook him or anything!

The spices for the chops are easy but as E.D. says well worth the time it takes.
3 tsps white peppercorns
1/2 small nutmeg
1 tsp juniper berries
1/2 tsp of whole cloves
If you have a spice grinder then place everything in and wizz, if not and I don't then use elbow grease and a pestle and mortar. Then liberally cover the chops (both sides) in spices (don't think you have to use it all, you can place in a jar and save for another time and use on lamb chops). I cooked the chops on a grill pan for about 4 mins each side.

The Fennel was easy but tasted delicious
2 Fennel bulbs, quartered
Butter
Water
S&P
Parmesan

Put a generous knob of butter in a large fry pan, put fennel in and fry for a few mins then turn the fennel over and cover in water, up to about 1/4 of the height of the fennel.
Allow to boil then simmer gently with the lid on for about 1/2 hour.
Take lid off and let the water reduce then sprinkle liberally in Parmesan and serve.

carrots - I used those posh baby carrots and placed in a oven dish, a slug of olive oil and a good squidgy of honey then some sea salt and roasted.

Potatoes Dauphinois
About 5 lrg potatoes - peeled then cut very thinly, I used the processor.
A big pot of cream, about 250ml and about 1/2 pint whole milk
Garlic

This is my fave potato dish and dead easy. Put the cream and milk in a jug and then put about 3 cloves of crushed garlic into the cream along with some sea salt and freshly milled pepper.
Place the potatoes into an over dish and pour the cream mixture over - mix it about a bit to disperse the garlic then place in a 180 oven for about an hour.

For pudding Deano made a lovely fresh fruit pudding which he liberally immersed in evaporated milk...I by this point was asleep!