Carry on Cooking

Well, the next day brought a return invite from the Heslop's to sample roast pork in Mat's baby, the home-made pizza oven in their garden. The pork was delicious as was the rest of the food.
Ice cream for pudding and the stuff had been put into the box in a rather rude fashion..

We are all on our hol's now, Stonehenge on Friday then Tankfest so expect a few posts soon unless we are turn into hippies at Stonehenge and run away to a commune!

Chicken Paprikash

Hi all,

Saturday brought a full house with a visit from the Heslops and the Wallaces and their pesky kids.. pesky because my garden was ruined when I looked at it the next day! BUT I have to say in their defence that it was more than likely my Blixa's fault..he was going nuts with excitement.

I woke up with an urge for chicken (cue rude joke from Deano), mainly because my guests were meat eaters, but didn't know what to cook. A cup of coffee and a read of the guardian brought the magical recipe...Paprika Chicken, a Hugh Fernley Whittingstall recipe. The dish was really nice and I served with chunky white bread and roasted baby potatoes but I used supermarket smoked paprika not La Chinata which is my favourite. Let this be a lesson, don't skimp on quality! I think the dish would have been 100 times nicer with the good stuff. Anyway, fairly easy to do and tasty.

1 free range chicken, jointed. (I actually used free range thighs and drumsticks)
S&P
1 tbsp olive oil and 15g unsalted butter
2 onions diced
1 clove garlic minced
2-3 tbsp sweet paprika
1 tsp hot paprika
1 tbsp plain flour
3 tomatoes, cored, deseeded and chopped
350ml chicken stock
2 red peppers - cut into think strips
Handful chopped parsley
140ml sour cream

Season the chicken and brown in a large, heavy bottomed, hot pan with the olive oil then set aside, you may need to brown in batches.
In the same pan saute the onions for about 15 mins until soft then add the garlic, flour,paprika, and stir. Then stir in the tomatoes and stock.
Return the chicken to the pan and simmer for about half an hour. Add most of the peppers and parsley and simmer for another 30 mins.
Finally take a scoop of the chicken broth and add the sour cream, mix well and the pour back into the pan.

Moroccan Fare

I had a funny experience going down the market on Friday, I bumped into a a local trader who offered me his wife in exchange for a goat, well I didn't have a goat so I gave them dinner and he gave me his word that he would stop offering his woman out for livestock.
Then as the night progressed a strange handsome dealer came into town, shook hands with the trader and before I knew it I was married and we eloped into the sunset.
Moroccan night at the Holden's brought Lisa and Christian,some friends who we haven't seen in ages and what a grand night was had!



I'd been given a Moroccan cookbook for my birthday and I haven't had chance to use it yet so was dying to try it out. I chose well, recipes that were quick and easy.

Carrot and orange salad- lovely, fresh and aromatic
Sardine sandwiches - deep fried with chermoula
Baked eggs - delicious

All served with tomato salad and home made babaganoush (see recipe from another post)

Carrot & Orange Salad
3 x sweet oranges
1 lb carrots
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1 tablespoon orange flower water
Small mint leaves to serve
Cut off the tops and bases of the orange, peel ensuring all the pith is removed then segment into pieces.
Peel and julienne the carrots.Add the lemon juice,cinnamon,sugar,orange flower water, and a small pinch of salt. Cover the carrots and refrigerate until required.
When ready to serve, place the carrots in the middle of a serving bowl and arrange the orange around the side.

Sardine sandwiches
8 sardines gives 1 sandwich each so just double up as required
Olive oil for frying
1 tablespoon grated white onion
1 garlic clove
3 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley
3 tablespoons chopped coriander
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp lemon zest
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp olive oil

Have the fishmonger butterfly the sardines
To make the stuffing take the onion, add the garlic,parsley,coriander,cayenne pepper,paprika,black pepper,cumin,lemon zest, juice and oil- mix well.
Place the sardines skin side down, spread the stuffing evenly and then cover with another sardine. Place in seasoned flour.
Heat the oil to a depth of 5mm,get the oil really hot and then place the sardines in the oil and cook until evenly brown but don't cook too long, about 3 mins.

Baked eggs- another Yottam Ottolenghi!
300g rocket
2 tbls olive oil
4 free range eggs
1 garlic clove crushed
50g unsalted butter
pinch sweet paprika and dried chili flakes
6 shredded sage leaves
Maldon sea salt

Place the oil in a pan and add the rocket and a sprinkle of salt, cook until wilted.
Transfer to an oven dish and make 4 wells in the rocket, brake the eggs into the wells. Cook for 15 mins.
Mix yogurt and garlic
Melt the butter in a pan until foaming then add the paprika, chili and sage leaves
Take eggs out of the oven cover in the yogurt then the butter and serve.

Falafel

So its the day after glamping we have just done our what feels like 100'th wash and put everything away, blimey does it stop and really all that fun is bl**dy tiring!
So an easy tea was required and mighty tasty it was too! Easy because I built up the component parts in the ad breaks of Goks fashion fix!

Roast some tomatoes and peppers with olive oil, salt and balsamic vinegar, about 3/4 hour should do it. Then the easy bit, cut up an avo, add herby salad, some humus (we had lemon and coriander) and some falafel.

Deeelicious

xx

Cowboy Food

Hi all,

Well a lovely weekend was had in Oxfordshire, camping, playing, walking (just a bit) and cooking. Now my new book the gourmet camper is a long while off at the moment as I really only got as far as bacon and eggs but we did have a lovely BBQ with sardines marinated in chili, lemon and parsley along with tuna steak and BBQ asparagus which you toss in lemon juice and maldon sea salt. So no real recipes but some nice pictures to show you. Note my new hur do which I was sporting, its glamping not camping don't you know!

Just had to show you this it was the funniest thing a camper van full of kids dancing!

Blackened Tofu

Hi all,
1000 apologies for being rubbish and not posting for what seems like ages. For those of you that don't know me that well my job can get a bit busy at certain times of the year and this has been one of them. I put together the Argos catalogue, well about 150 pages and together with my colleagues we put together about 800 pages of it! at this time of year the book is starting to go to print so it has meant long days and weekends so I simply haven't been cooking that much of interest. Anyway, here I am again with a new recipe. I think Yotam Ottolenghi is my favourite cook at the moment and he should pay me for putting all his receipes on this blog or give me a signed book at the very least...! (Deano if you are reading this a meal at his restaurant for my birthday please?)
Tofu, that pesky stuff you get with your Chinese and tastes a bit bland...I like tofu, always have and love it in the Tom Yum or in a curry but I was pleased to find this new recipe where I could try something new. Its easy and would be great for the vegetarian option if you are cooking a meal for mates. I didn't have any spring onions...
You need a glass of water with this and my lips were burning for ages...

serves 4
800g firm tofu - cut into cubes
Veg oil for frying- fill the pan up to about 5mm height
Cornflour- for dusting the tofu
150g butter
12 shallots- finely sliced
8 mild red chillis - thinly sliced
12 garlic cloves - crushed
3 tbsp chopped ginger
3 tbsp sweet soya sauce
3 tbsp light soys sauce
4 tbls dark soya sauce
2 tbsp caster sugar
5 tablespoons crushed black pepper
16 sm spring onions cut into 3cm segments

Pour oil into pan, toss tofu in cornflour and deep fry until golden brown, if you have a small pan then do in batches to avoid stewing and mulching together. Once cooked transfer to kitchen paper to drain.
Melt the butter in a pan and add the shallotts, chilli, garlic, ginger and saute on a medium low heat for about 15 mins.
Add all the soya sauce and sugar and finally the black pepper.
Add tofu back to the pan along with the spring onions and cook for about a minute then serve with steamed rice. The rice is lovely with this as it's so bland. Yummy!

We are going camping this weekend so I'm hoping to post some cowboy food recipes

Pirate food

Mamas Pasta

Give me the badge, give me the badge!! I finally got the pasta maker out and it was easy! Blix and I made pasta, or rather I made pasta Blix made some weird mixture and then threw Spider Man in there for good measure!
Deano and I sat there quite cheesily saying 'mmm, tastes so good and so much nicer than the bought stuff' but for a first atempt my tagliatelle was lovely. I served with home made pesto and some courgette muffins. Deano did take a picture of the pasta making but it was sooo unflattering that I'm not going to show it...

The muffins were delcious and I used a receipe by Dan Leppert- check out the link below
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/apr/10/courgette-mozzarella-muffin-recipe