17 April 2011 by jonoandjules
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).
Posted in Fish, Food | Tagged Cooking, Fish, Nigel Slater, Recipe, Salmon, Spring | 7 Comments »
10 April 2011 by jonoandjules
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).
Posted in Beef, Food | Tagged Beef, Cooking, French, I Know How to Cook, Recipe, Wine suggestion | Leave a Comment »
10 April 2011 by jonoandjules
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.
Posted in Food, Side dish, Vegetarian | Tagged Avocado, Cooking, Guacamole, Jamie Oliver, Recipe, Side, Starter, Vegetarian | 2 Comments »
9 April 2011 by jonoandjules
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.
Posted in Chicken, Food | Tagged Chicken, Chocolate, Cookalong, Cooking, Mole, Recipe, South American | 3 Comments »
7 April 2011 by jonoandjules
… 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)
Posted in Food, Healthy, Vegetarian | Tagged Cooking, Easy, Frittata, Low fat, Pasta, Peppers, Recipe, Scallions, Sweetcorn, Vegetarian | 2 Comments »
6 April 2011 by jonoandjules
… 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.
Posted in Food, Healthy, Pasta, Shellfish | Leave a Comment »
5 April 2011 by jonoandjules
… 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)
Posted in Food, Healthy, Vegetarian | Tagged Cooking, Easy, Quick, Recipe, Tortellini, Vegetarian | Leave a Comment »
4 April 2011 by jonoandjules
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.
Posted in Barbecue, Fish, Food, Healthy | Tagged Barbecue, Cooking, Gruner Veltliner, Healthy, Jamie Oliver, Marlborough, Recipe, Red Mullet, Tinpot Hut, Tomato Salsa, Wine suggestion | Leave a Comment »
28 March 2011 by jonoandjules
We got some cheap lamb chops at the weekend and so looked for something fresh to accompany them. This looked good and went really well with the chops, which we barbecued. Dress the couscous when it is still warm to get the flavour in.
Herby couscous with citrus & pomegranate dressing – to serve 4
- 200g couscous
- 150 pomegranate seeds (you can buy a packet of seeds in the supermarket or just buy one pomegranate)
- handful of chopped mint and coriander
- juice of 1 orange
- 2 tbsp each of white wine vinegar and olive oil
Put the couscous in a shallow dish and pour over 200ml boiling water. Cover with cling film and leave for 5 minutes. Rough it up with a fork to separate the grains and stir through the pomegranate seeds and herbs.
Mix the orange juice, vinegar and olive oil and stir into the couscous. Season well with salt.
Tip: If you buy a whole pomegranate cut it in half and bang it with a wooden spoon to get the seeds out. It’s very easy so we don’t really get why the seeds come in packets.
(Original recipe from BBC Good Food – http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9841/herby-couscous-with-citrus-and-pomegranate-dressin)
Posted in Barbecue, Food, Side dish | Tagged Barbecue, Cooking, Couscous, Lamb chops, Pomegranate, Recipe | 2 Comments »
23 March 2011 by jonoandjules
Yes it’s another chicken recipe but we’ve made a pact not to cook anymore chicken for a while. We got all over-excited when we realised M&S had skinless, boneless chicken thighs and bought tonnes of them and now we’re sick of chicken. Still, this was quite nice with a nice tang from the wine and as we’d opened the bottle we felt we had to have a glass to drink too. Another healthy one and quick to make after work.
The healthy mid-week recipes are going to be non-chicken for the forseeable future.
Braised chicken & flageolet beans – serves 2, but easily doubled
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 300ml white wine
- 400g can flageolet beans, rinsed & drained
- handful of flat parsley
Heat the oil in a wide pan with a lid, add the chicken and brown it all over. Tip in the onion, garlic and thyme, then fry for 2 minutes.
Pour in the wine, 150ml water and season with salt & pepper. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 20 minutes, covering half way through, until the chicken is cooked.
Stir in the beans and warm through briefly. Roughly chop the parsley and stir it in to serve.
Wine suggestion: We used a Chilean Chardonnay in the dish which tasted good to drink with it too. Chardonnay and chicken are nice together.
(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)
Posted in Chicken, Food, Healthy | Tagged Chicken, Cooking, Flageolet beans, Food, Recipe, white wine | Leave a Comment »
20 March 2011 by jonoandjules
We’ve been away all weekend, so after 2.5 hours in the car we needed a tasty treat: this delivered the goods really well and was quick and easy. The recipe is from our favourite pasta book, The Silver Spoon: Pasta, which never ever fails.
Conchiglie’s great for creamy sauces as all the cheesey goo gets caught in the shells.
Conchiglie con Gorgonzola e Pistacchi – serves 4 but easily halved
- 50g pistachios
- 100g Gorgonzola, diced
- 2 tbsp double cream
- 300g conchiglie
- 40g Parmesan, grated
Put the pistachios into a heatproof bowl and pour boiling water over. Leave to stand for 3 minutes. Drain well and rub the skins off with your fingers – don’t burn yourself! Chop the kernels and set aside.
Cook the conchiglie in plenty of boiling, salted water until al dente.
Meanwhile put the Gorgonzola and the cream into a small saucepan and stir constantly over a low heat until smooth. Set aside until your pasta is done.
Drain the pasta and tip into a warm serving dish. Toss with the melted Gorgonzola, chopped pistachios and Parmesan.
Serve right away and enjoy.
Wine Suggestion: If we’d had one we would have drunk a Greco di Tufo with this – a full-bodied but crisp and minerally white from southern Italy. It also has a nutty character which would compliment the pistachios nicely.
Posted in Food, Pasta, Vegetarian | Tagged Cooking, Food, Gorgonzola, Italian, Pasta, Pistachios, Recipe, Silver Spoon, Vegetarian | 2 Comments »
15 March 2011 by jonoandjules
This is a good everyday recipe and a really nice way to cook boring old skinless boneless chicken breasts. We’re hoping the leftovers will make nice lunch boxes for tomorrow too.
Chicken with lemon and courgette couscous – to serve 4
- 200g couscous
- 400ml chicken stock
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 4 courgettes, grated
- 2 lemons, 1 halved, 1 cut in wedges
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Put the couscous into a large bowl and pour over the stock. Cover and leave for 10 minutes, until the stock has been absorbed.
Heat 1 tbsp of oil and fry the courgettes until softened and starting to crisp at the edges. We used very big courgettes which gave out loads of water – it this happens just drain the water off in a colander and put the courgettes back in the pan to crisp up a little.
Tip the courgettes into the couscous and stir in plenty of seasoning and a good squeeze of lemon juice from one of the halves.
Halve the chicken breasts horizontally and put them on sheets of cling film. Cover with another sheet and beat them out with a rolling pin to make them thinner. We had escalopes in the freezer which worked well without bashing. Season.
Heat the other tbsp of oil in a large pan and fry the chicken for 2 minutes on each side. Squeeze over the juice from the other half lemon and serve with couscous and lemon wedges.
Hardly any fat or calories which can’t be bad either.
(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)
Posted in Chicken, Food, Healthy | Tagged Chicken breasts, Cooking, Courgettes, Couscous, Food, Healthy, Recipe | Leave a Comment »
12 March 2011 by jonoandjules
We were so enamoured by the Keralan Prawns two nights ago we looked for more lighter Indian dishes and found these in our newest cookbook: “I love Curry” by Anjum Anand. We admire Anjum’s style as she makes traditional dishes lighter, but never loses flavour or authenticity; these are no exception.
As with all Indian dishes (and any other that we cook when we have the time) we like to prep the ingredients before we start cooking. It really helps in this case; the recipes aren’t difficult but there are many elements and sometimes quick additions with the spices. We have little bowls to gather each bit together which makes it easy.
Our other suggestion is to blanch the vegetables for the Curry, then prepare the rice. As the rice simmers you can then prepare the rest of the curry.
Creamy almond vegetable curry – serves 3-4
For the vegetables:
- 125g potatoes, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes – we used new ones which held their shape well
- 60g carrots, peeled and sliced into half moons
- 70g broccoli cut into small florets
- 60g mangetout
- a large handful of peas – frozen are perfect
For the curry:
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil plus 1 tsp
- 60g blanched almonds
- 6 cloves
- 6 green cardamom pods
- 1 tsp caraway seeds
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 15g fresh root ginger, peeled weight, grated to a paste
- 4 fat cloves of garlic, grated to a paste
- a generous tsp of ground cumin
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 1/4 tsp chilli powder
- 4 tbsp plain yoghurt
- salt to taste
- 6 tbsp single cream
- 8 cherry tomatoes, halved
Bring a pot of salted water to the boil and add the potatoes. After 5 minutes add the carrots and cook for another 5-10 minutes until cooked. Scoop out the potatoes and carrots and add the broccoli and then 3 minutes later the mangetout and peas. After a minute drain and set aside.
Heat 1 tsp of oil in a small pan and fry the almonds until nice and golden. Crush straight away in a pestle and mortar to a fine powder.
Heat the rest of the oil in a large non-stick saucepan and add the cloves, cardamom and caraway.
After 20 seconds add the onion until starting to turn golden at the edges.
Scrape in the ginger and garlic pastes and saute gently for 1-2 minutes until the garlic is just golden.
Add the ground spices and yoghurt and bring to the boil, stirring constantly. Cook for 5-8 minutes until the oil separates out.
Add 250ml of water and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for 10-12 minutes.
Add the blanched vegetables, salt, cream, tomatoes and crushed almonds. Cook for a few minutes until it all comes together.
Check the seasoning and serve with Indian bread or the pilaf below.
Aromatic rice pilaf – serves 4
- 220g basmati rice, rinsed
- 2 good tbsp of ghee (we used 1 tbsp of butter and 2tbsp of vegetable oil instead)
- 1 good tsp cumin seeds
- 10cm cinnamon stick
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 green cardamom pods
- 4 cloves
- 1 small onion, sliced
- 1/2 tsp of turmeric
- salt to taste
Tip the rice into a large bowl, cover with water, and leave to soak. (If you’re cooking the curry then prep and blanch the veg while the rice is soaking).
Heat the ghee or alternative in a saucepan, add the cumin, cinnamon, bay leaf, cardamom pods and cloves and sizzle for 10-15 seconds. Then add the onion and cook until turning gold at the edges.
Drain the rice and add to the saucepan with turmeric and salt. Cook for 1 minute, stirring.
Add 400ml of water, then taste the water and adjust for salt.
Bring to the boil, cover and reduce the heat to the lowest it will go. Cook undisturbed for about 12 minutes. Turn off the heat and serve when your’re ready. Don’t take the lid off before then!
Wine Suggestion: A dry Riesling. We had a Grosset, Polish Hill 2007 from the Clare Valley. We’ve tasted this a few times and been underwhelmed but this one was a bit older and it really comes into its own with age. So if you have a recent vintage stick it in the cellar for a few years.
Posted in Asian, Australia, Food, Riesling, Vegetarian, Wine | Tagged Almonds, Cooking, Curry, Grosset, Indian, Mild, Pilaf, Polish Hill, Recipe, Riesling, Wine suggestion | 1 Comment »
11 March 2011 by jonoandjules
A really big thanks to our neighbour Nigel for giving us these lovely steaks; we hope the BBQ smells were good for you too!
So the other bits we did were cheesy mushrooms from Jamie’s 30 minute meals and some home-made oven chips which are way better than the ones you buy in a bag.
Jamie’s Cheesy Mushrooms – for 4
- 4 large flat Portobello mushrooms (about 250g in total)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 a red chilli
- 2 sprigs flat-leaf parsley
- 1/2 a lemon
- 70g mature Cheddar cheese
Trim the mushroom stalks and put them in a small earthenware dish so they fit pretty snug.
Crush 1/2 a garlic clove over each mushroom.
Finely chop the chilli and parsley and divide between the mushrooms.
Grate over the zest of half a lemon and drizzle well with olive oil and season.
Cut the cheese into 4 chunks and put 1 on each mushroom.
Grill on the top shelf for 9-10 minutes or until golden.
N.B. We couldn’t find Portobello mushrooms today so we used field mushrooms instead. They were nowhere near cooked in this time so we stuck them on the BBQ for 5 minutes to finish them off. If you can only find field mushrooms it might be best to cook the bottoms of them on the BBQ or griddle pan or even a frying pan first before finishing with the other ingredients under the grill.
Oven chips
Heat your oven to as hot as it goes.
Cut your potatoes into 1 cm thick slices and then cut the slices into chips about 1cm thick.
Cook the chips in boiling water for 3 minutes and drain really well.
Spread the chips out on a baking tray and drizzle with vegetable or groundnut oil and season. Make sure all the chips are coated with oil but you don’t need to use very much.
Cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
Wine Suggestion: We had an Argentinian Malbec – perfect with steak!
Posted in Barbecue, Beef, Food, Side dish, Uncategorized | Tagged Argentinian Malbec, Cheesy mushrooms, Cooking, Jamie's 30 minute meals, Oven chips, Recipe, Steak, Wine suggestion | 1 Comment »
10 March 2011 by jonoandjules
Our cooking’s been very healthy this week but tasty too so don’t despair. It’s nice to find an Indian dish which isn’t full of calories and doesn’t take forever to make. This is very nice but do add a bit of salt at the end to bring the flavours out and balance the spice. We wished we’d had some naan breads or chapatis so you might want to get some of them too.
Serves 2
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- oil
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 2 cm piece of ginger, grated
- dried red chilli crumbled or some chilli flakes
- 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 200g raw peeled prawns
- some low fat natural yogurt
Get your rice on first as this is quick.
Cook the onion gently in a little oil in a frying pan for about 5 minutes or until starting to soften.
Add turmeric, garlic, ginger and chilli and cook for another few minutes or until it smells good.
Add the tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes – add a splash of water if you need it.
Stir in the prawns and cook until they turn opaque.
Add a bit of salt to season and serve with rice, bread and some yogurt on the top.
(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)
Posted in Asian, Food, Indian, Shellfish | Tagged Cooking, Curry, Healthy, Keralan, prawns, Recipe | Leave a Comment »
9 March 2011 by jonoandjules
As well as being super-healthy this dish is bursting with great flavour; and it achieves this without the use of salt or pepper. We are usually very generous with seasoning (we take our inspiration for the pros) but this has more than enough delicious flavour without any: we were impressed and helped ourselves to seconds after scoffing the initial bowl.
Serves 4
- 6 Chicken Thighs, skinless, boneless and quartered
- olive oil
- 2 Onions, sliced
- 2 cloves Garlic, crushed
- 2 sprigs of Rosemary, leaves picked and chopped
- 1 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
- 2 tbsp Pearled Spelt (or Pearled Barley if you can’t find this)
- 500ml Chicken Stock
- 250g waxy potatoes like Charlotte, peeled and quartered
- small bunch of Parsley, chopped
Heat oven to 190C / fan 170C / Gas 5.
Fry the chicken thighs in a little olive oil until browned. Remove and then add the onions and cook until softened.
Add the garlic and rosemary and cook for a minute, add the balsamic and cook for a further minute.
Add the rest of the ingredients, including the chicken, bring to a simmer, cover and transfer to the oven for one hour.
When cooked stir in the parsley and serve in bowls with crusty bread.
Posted in Chicken, Food, Healthy | Tagged Chicken, Cooking, Healthy, Italian, Recipe, Rosemary | 7 Comments »
7 March 2011 by jonoandjules
An easy and healthy after-work dish done in under half an hour and using things you probably have in the cupboard. We had to buy a lemon, and only because the one on the shelf looked a bit past it.
Serves 2, but easily doubled
- 200g risotto rice
- 850ml hot vegetable stock
- 50g frozen peas
- 50g Parmesan, grated, plus a bit more for over the top at the end
- juice and zest of 1/2 a lemon
Heat a large saucepan over a medium heat, then toast the rice, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.
Add one ladle of hot stock and keep stirring until absorbed. The first ladle will be really quick.
Add the rest of the stock, a ladle at a time, until the rice is almost cooked, keep stirring it all the time. It will take about 20 minutes for you to stir in all your stock.
Stir in the peas and cook for 3-5 minutes and remove the pan from the heat.
Add the cheese, lemon juice, seasoning and then stir. Stick the lid on and let it rest for a minute.
Serve in bowls with the zest and a bit more Parmesan over the top.
(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)
Wine suggestion: Have a glass of something white if you have some leftover from the weekend.
Posted in Food, Healthy, Vegetarian | Tagged Cooking, Easy, Healthy, lemon, peas, Quick, Recipes, Risotto, Vegetarian | 2 Comments »
6 March 2011 by jonoandjules
This was delicious. We were a little apprehensive about whether we’d manage to untwist a string of sausages and curl them up like a catherine wheel but it was surprisingly simple. Another roaring success from Jamie Oliver with real depth of flavour.
Bubble and squeak with sausages and onion gravy – Serves 6
- 750g floury potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
- 600g mixed winter vegetables (we used Savoy cabbage, carrots and leeks), peeled or trimmed and chopped into equal-sized chunks
- olive oil
- 2 knobs of butter
- 200g vacuum pack of chestnuts
- 6 good quality pork sausages in a string
- 6 good quality venison or beef sausages in a string (we just used pork as they were all we could find in a string)
- nutmeg, for grating
- bunch of fresh rosemary, leaves picked and chopped fine
- 3 red onion, peeled and finely sliced
- a few bay leaves
- 1 tbsp flour
- 125ml balsamic vinegar
- 300ml good quality vegetable or chicken stock
Cook the potatoes and mixed veg in boiling water for 15-20 minutes. When they’re cooked right through drain and put aside.
Heat a glug of olive oil and a knob of butter in a big frying pan and add the chestnuts. When they start to sizzle add the potatoes and veg, roughly squash the veg in the pan, mix and then pat into a thick pancake shape. Fry on a medium heat for half an hour, checking every 5-10 minutes. When the bottom turns golden, turn it over bit by bit and mash it back into itself. Pat out flat again and continue cooking.
Preheat oven and a roasting tray to 220C/425F/Gas 7. Unravel the sausage links and squeeze the filling between them until all the sausages are joined together. Pat them to flatten a bit. Drizzle with olive oil and massage in. Sprinkle a pinch of pepper, rosemary and nutmeg. Put one sausage on top of the other and roll up into a wheel. Poke two skewers through in a cross shape to hold them together.
Take the preheated tray out of the oven, drizzle in some olive oil and add the onions. Season, add a knob of butter and stir. Place the sausage wheel on top of the onions and stick a few bay leaves between the sausages. Drizzle with more oil and roast for 40 minutes.
When the sausages are done your bubble and squeak should be done too. You can brown it under a hot grill for 5 minutes for extra colour if you like. 
Remove the sausages to a plate and put the tray with the onions on the hob, over a high heat. Stir in flour, balsamic vinegar and stock. Bring to boil and thicken to a nice gravy, then season.
Take the skewers out of the sausages and cut into wedges. Serve bubble and squeak with a portion of sausages and some onion gravy.
(Original recipe from Jamie at Home)
Wine Suggestion: A southern French red – we had an inexpensive Minervois which worked really well.
Posted in Food | Tagged Bubble and squeak, Cooking, Jamie Oliver, Minervois, Onion gravy, Recipe, Sausages | 2 Comments »
6 March 2011 by jonoandjules
We were in a local Italian restaurant just after Christmas and tasted these amazing sausages. When we asked where we could get them the waiter said they import them direct from Siena but the chef might let us buy a few. So we now have a stash of them in the freezer and this is the first recipe we’ve tried. If you live near a good Italian restaurant we highly recommend you try and blag some sausages off them. If you can’t get good Italian sausages get the coarsest ones you can find for this. Not exactly virtuous but comfort food at its best.
Baked Savoy Cabbage – to serve 6
- 1kg Savoy cabbage, cored and cut into strips
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 250g Italian sausages, skinned and crumbled
- 2 tbsp tomato puree
- 300g mozzarella, sliced
- 200ml double cream
- 40g Parmesan cheese, grated
Cook the cabbage in boiling water for 5 minutes, then drain and refresh in iced water. Drain well again and spread out on a tea towel.
Heat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
Brush an ovenproof dish with olive oil.
Put the sausages in a saucepan with the oil and heat gently. Stir in the tomato puree and 5tbsp water, season and cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes.
Make a layer of cabbage in the dish, season, add a layer of mozzarella, add a layer of sausage, top with another layer of cabbage and season. Continue making layers, seasoning each layer of cabbage, until the ingredients are used, ending with a layer of cabbage.
Pour the cream over the top, sprinkle with the Parmesan and bake for 40 minutes.
Serve with some crusty bread as you will want to mop your plate at the end.
(Original recipe from Silver Spoon)
Wine suggestion: We had a glass of Domaine Brusset, Cairanne Blanc 2010 which is dry, savoury and worked well but we thought it might also be nice with a dry Sherry like a Fino or Amontillado.
Posted in Food | Tagged Cooking, Italian, Italian sausages, Recipe, Savoy cabbage, Silver Spoon | Leave a Comment »
5 March 2011 by jonoandjules
It’s another Irish Food Bloggers Association Cookalong and this time the theme is Irish. We were tempted to do an Irish stew but thought that was a bit obvious, we thought about beef and Guinness but that’s not all that original either and then to make things more difficult we invited a vegetarian for dinner. It was then that we thought about using some Irish cheese as the base for a dish and after eating many variations of cheese and pastry all week we came up with this. Irish potatoes, leeks and a west Cork Cheddar all baked up in a pie. Delicious!!
Serves 4-6
- 650g waxy potatoes
- 750g leeks
- 50g butter
- 200ml creme fraiche
- 180g Bandon Vale Vintage Cheddar, grated
- freshly grated nutmeg
- 500g puff pastry
- beaten egg for glazing
Heat the oven to 200C.
Peel the potatoes and cut them into slices. Boil in plenty of salted water until tender (it’s ok if they go a bit mushy).
Meanwhile, throw away the very green bit of the leeks and slice the rest into rings. Wash really well in cold water to get rid of any grit.
Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the leeks. Cover and cook over low-medium heat until tender – about 20 minutes.
Mix the leeks, potatoes, creme fraiche and cheddar and season well with salt, pepper and a little bit of nutmeg.
Roll the pastry into two rectangles (about the size of your baking sheet).
Pile the potato mixture into the middle of one sheet and leave a good rim around the edge. Brush the edges with beaten egg and lay second piece of pastry over the top and press the edges down, pinching firmly to seal. Trim off any excess.
Brush all over with the egg and cut 3 or 4 slits along the width of the top.
Bake for 40-45 minutes until golden.
(Original recipe from Nigel Slater Tender Vol 1 – A tart of leeks and cheese)
Wine suggestion: A full-bodied white was nice with this. We had a Santenay Blanc followed by an oaked Semillon from the Clare Valley.
Posted in Cheese, Food, Irish Food, Potato, Vegetarian | Tagged Cheddar, Cooking, Irish, Irish Food, Leeks, Nigel Slater, Pastry, Potatoes, Recipe, Vegetarian | 2 Comments »
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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!
Jono & Jules do food & wine 