Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for April, 2011

Our last recipe for a short while

Posted in Fish, Food, tagged , , , , , on 17 April 2011| 7 Comments »

We’re moving house this week and next week we’re getting married so we don’t reckon there will be much cooking done. Don’t worry we’ll be back mid-May after eating lots of great food and drinking lots of wine in Tuscany. In the mean time enjoy this cause we did!

Baked salmon with smoked pancetta – to serve 4

  • 4 pieces of salmon fillet, about 540g in total
  • 12 thin slices of smoked pancetta
  • 4 bay leaves
Heat the oven to 230C/fan 210C/Gas 8.
Take the skin off the salmon and wrap each piece in 3 slices of pancetta, tuck the ends underneath.
Lay the fish in an ovenproof dish and tuck a bay leaf between the fish and pancetta.
Lightly brush with olive oil and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the pancetta is golden.
Serve with minty peas and new potatoes.
Simple and the salmon stays wonderfully moist and picks up the smoky flavour.
(Original recipe from Nigel Slater, printed in Sainsbury’s magazine).

Read Full Post »

Sunday ‘Boeuf au Riz’

Posted in Beef, Food, tagged , , , , , on 10 April 2011| Leave a Comment »

Steaming hot in the casserole … this is so tasty and shows you how flavours can intensify with slow cooking. This has very few ingredients, but the three and a half hours cooking makes the flavours burst on your tongue and the beef melt (we carved it perfectly with a blunt knife). We’ll definitely be doing this again. The recipe come from the French answer to Delia: “I know how to cook” which is published by Phaidon and celebrates the tradition of cooking rather than the celebrity and glamour: tasty dish after dish using simple ingredients. Classic French cookery for the home cook rather than the chef.

Boeuf au riz (Beef with rice) – serves 6

  • 30g butter
  • 900g stewing beef, in one piece
  • 100g onion, chopped
  • 1 bouquet garni (we raided the herb garden and bundled up some rosemary, thyme, bay, parsley and oregano)
  • 750ml stock
  • 250g long grain rice

Heat the butter on medium-high heat in a heavy-based casserole.

Add the beef and brown all over.

Add the onion and bouquet garni and season generously with pepper and a little salt.

Pour in the stock, cover and cook on a low heat for 3 hours.

Rinse the rice well and add to the casserole and cook for another 30 minutes.

That’s it – enjoy!

Wine suggestion: A full-bodied Pinot Noir from Hawkes Bay in New Zealand (or somewhere else in the New World). Ours was from Morton Estate which you can pick up in Mitchell’s (say hi to Jono while you’re there).

Read Full Post »

Speedy Gaucamole

Posted in Food, Side dish, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , on 10 April 2011| 2 Comments »

This guacamole takes minutes to make and is delish! Avocados are in season now too so you should have no bother picking up some nice ripe ones. Another side that we pulled from one of Jamie’s 30 minute meals. It’s so good we’ve made it twice in 48 hours!

  • 4 scallions
  • bunch of fresh coriander
  • 1 red chilli
  • 1 clove of garlic, peeled
  • 1 lime
  • 2-3 small ripe avocados
  • a handful of cherry tomatoes

Put the scallions into your food processor with the coriander, whole chilli (remove the stalk), garlic,  the juice from the lime and a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Whizz while you stone the avocados and quarter the tomatoes.

Stop whizzing and put the avocado flesh into the processor. Add the tomatoes and pulse until chunky (don’t start whizzing again or it will go smooth which you don’t want here).

Scrape it out into a bowl, season and add a bit more lime juice if you want.

Serve with tortilla chips, chilli or whatever you like.

Read Full Post »

Chocalong Chicken Mole

Posted in Chicken, Food, tagged , , , , , , on 9 April 2011| 3 Comments »

This month’s Irish Food Bloggers’ Association Cookalong theme was chocolate.

Anyone who follows this blog will know that we don’t do too many desserts but we got the Green and Black’s Chocolate book – Unwrapped – out with enthusiasm anyway. Flicking through the many fabulous looking desserts we came across this Chicken Mole, a savoury South American dish with chocolate sauce.

To be honest we weren’t too sure if we’d like the result and to be really honest we didn’t. I’ve used a square of chocolate in a big pot of chilli before and there is no doubt it can add a bit of character. This recipe uses 75g of dark chocolate and was a bit much we thought.

Having said that all four of us cleared our plates and two even had seconds so it wasn’t that bad, maybe just not quite to our tastes. Interesting nonetheless and we made a cracking guacamole to serve on the side (which we shall blog about later) with some tortilla chips which pleased us more.

Here’s the recipe if you’re feeling brave.

Chicken Mole – to serve 4

  • 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 2 large onions, sliced
  • 2tsp smoked sweet paprika
  • 8 pieces of chicken on the bone (we used thighs and drumsticks)
  • 400g tin of red kidney beans
  • 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
  • 75g dark chocolate, minimum 60% cocoa solids

Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas mark 2.

Crush the garlic and slice the onions.

Seal the chicken in some olive oil in a big casserole pot that can go in the oven. When the chicken is lightly browned add the onions and garlic.

When the onions are lightly browned, add the tomatoes and kidney beans (including the juice), plus the paprika and 50g of the chocolate.

Bring to simmer and put in the oven for 1 hr 30 minutes.

Skim the surface to remove any chicken fat. Taste and adjust seasoning – you’ll need some salt. Add another 20g of chocolate to taste.

We served this with pilau rice, tortilla chips and guacamole.

Wine suggestion: This went well with a rich Tempranillo/Garnacha blend from Toro in Spain.


Read Full Post »

We didn’t think this would be good enough to blog, but …

Posted in Food, Healthy, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 7 April 2011| 2 Comments »

… it was. You know when you read a recipe and it looks tasty enough, but nothing special; good for a weeknight. Well this looked like that, and then had such great balance of flavours it had to make the blog. It did take longer than we expected, but the pizza-like aromas from the oven had us salivating and it was worth the wait. More like a veggie pasta bake than a frittata we reckon.

Easy oven frittata (serves 4, or less if you’re hungry)

  • 1/2 tsp oilve oil
  • 85g fusilli, macaroni or small pasta – we used conchigle
  • 1 bunch of scallions, chopped
  • 85g frozen peas
  • 85g frozen or tinned sweetcorn
  • 1 red pepper, seeded and chopped
  • 2 large eggs
  • 150ml milk
  • 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
  • 50g good Irish cheddar, grated (Bandon Vale worked well)
  • 2 tbsp parmesan, finely grated
  • a green salad to serve

Preheat oven to 190C / fan 170C and grease a 1.2 litre baking dish with olive oil

Cook the pasta in salted boiling water for 8 minutes. Add all the veg and cook for a further 2 minutes. Drain and tip into baking dish.

Beat together eggs, add thyme and milk and beat a little more. Mix in most of the two cheeses and some black pepper and a sprinkle of salt. Pour into the baking dish, stir, then scatter remaining cheeses on top.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until golden and set. Cool for a minute or two and serve with the salad leaves.

Surprisingly tasty and low fat too! What more could you ask for?

(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)

Read Full Post »

So we don’t have much time for cooking at the minute …

Posted in Food, Healthy, Pasta, Shellfish on 6 April 2011| Leave a Comment »

very quick, easy pasta

… but dinner is still a top priority. Flung together pasta dishes are therefore all the rage in our house. Here’s another one with just a handful of ingredients but still tastes nice and fresh. All sorted in 10 minutes and beats a ready meal any day!

Tagliatelle with prawns, cherry tomatoes and basil – (serves 2)

  • 10 cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 red chilli, finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 200g large raw prawns, peeled and deveined
  • 225g dried tagliatelle
  • 25g fresh basil, leaves torn

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta for 8 to 10 minutes.

Heat oil in a frying pan, add the prawns and toss until cooked pink in colour. Stir in the garlic and chilli and cook for a further minute or two until softened.

Drain pasta and return to pot. Toss in the prawn mixture, cherry tomatoes and basil over some heat. Drizzle with olive oil and season if you like.

Read Full Post »

Jono & Jules’ How to Cheat (just like Delia …

Posted in Food, Healthy, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , on 5 April 2011| Leave a Comment »

… ONLY BETTER!)

Here’s something we do when we know we’re going to get in late and hungry. To call it a recipe might be pushing it but it tastes good and requires virtually no effort.

10-minute tortellini – to serve 2

  • 250g pack fresh spinach and ricotta tortellini (or something similar – we try to avoid the meat filled ones as there is something a bit dog food like about them)
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 250g pack cherry tomatoes
  • a big bunch of parsley, leaves roughly chopped
  • 3 tbsp finely grated parmesan

Boil the past for 2 minutes until just cooked.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the tomatoes until they start to blister.

When the pasta is cooked, drain it quickly, reserving some of the water.

Tip the pasta, parsley, a splash of the cooking water and most of the Parmesan into the tomatoes and bubble it all together. Season with black pepper and salt.

Serve with the rest of the Parmesan.

Hey presto.

(We learned this from some other cheaters – BBC Good Food)

Read Full Post »

Emergency Red Mullet Recipe

Posted in Barbecue, Fish, Food, Healthy, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on 4 April 2011| Leave a Comment »

Our local fish counter (in Caviston’s, Glasthule) had Red Mullet today, which we never see, so I urgently called Jules to find a recipe. She found this in 2 minutes flat and we went with it as there wasn’t too many ingredients. The salsa tastes absolutely amazing. Now that the evenings are longer we’ve been dying to use the barbecue more so we’re very pleased with ourselves for a Monday night (especially as we’d planned to have  salad!) Very full and satisfied now.

Barbecue red mullet with a hot salsa (to serve 4)

For the fish:

  • 4 red mullet, scaled, cleaned and gutted
  • small bunch of fresh oregano, leaves picked

For the salsa:

  • a handful of black olives, stoned and roughly chopped
  • 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
  • 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
  • a few sprigs of fresh rosemary
  • 6 ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
  • juice of 1/2 a lemon
  • a small bunch of flatleaf parsley, leaves picked and torn

Get your barbecue hot.

Slash the fish all over on both sides, about 1 cm deep, to help it cook through.

Roughly chop some oregano on a big board and spread it out. Sprinkle with a generous amount of salt and black pepper.

Roll the fish over the board and rub all the flavourings into the slashes you made.

Barbecue the fish for about 4 minutes on each side until you have crispy skin and soft cooked flesh inside.

Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and add the chopped olives. Warm them through for a minute or two and add the garlic, chilli and rosemary sprigs. Fry gently until the garlic is soft.

Remove and discard the rosemary and toss in the chopped tomatoes. Squeeze in the lemon juice and add the parsley.

Taste for seasoning (you probably won’t need salt as the olives will be salty) and warm through.

(Original recipe from Jamie Oliver)

Wine suggestion: We had a glass of Gruner Veltliner from Marlborough in New Zealand. Very unusual as this grape’s home turf is Austria. Quite peachy with bit of typical white pepper spice. If you fancy something different you can buy it in Mitchell and Son for about €15.95. A refreshing change from Sauvignon Blanc.

 

 

Read Full Post »