After having caught up on BBC's Saturday Kitchen I was inspired to make the Irish potato bread recipe that was featured. In the spirit of St.Patrick's day as well, I thought it was appropriate! Using the delicious left over mash (about 175g of potato) from our pie, I simply added one egg, and about enough plain flour until you get a 'dough' like consistency. This takes quite awhile, but it's enjoyable. Keep adding the flour, mixing it in using a wooden spoon, at first it may seem too runny because of the egg, but keep adding! Then once it starts to form a firm ball, roll it out on to a floured surface. (Bare in mind I was making this up as I went along!) Then I simply rolled this out in to two neat balls. I assumed you can't fiddle with it too much like actual bread, so avoid the temptation to knead it. Then using the palm of your hand flatten until about 1cm thick. Then take a ramekin or cutter and neatly make two discs. Then heat up a small frying pan, dry, with no fat, and cook the potato breads for about 3 minutes on each side. Depending on how thick they're made, they'll need longer. Have a go! They would go super nice with a poached egg!
This is my Mum's homemade chicken and mushroom pie. For this she made a shortcrust pastry (from scratch!) Left it in the fridge to chill for awhile. Meanwhile we cooked the chicken and mushrooms in a pan with all the herbs and lovely bits. At the same time I (sous chef) made a white sauce to mix in with the chicken and mushrooms. Once the chicken had browned and the sauce had thickened we mixed the whole lot together and left it to chill. We then rolled out our pastry to fit our pie dish. We then placed the cooled mixture in to said dish topping it neatly with the pastry crust, and a few decorations. Lastly giving it an egg wash, and placing it in to a pre-heated oven until golden and delicious. We served ours with the best mashed potato, made with a ricer, and some broccoli & leeks! Yummy. :)
This pizza was heavenly. As I've decided to give up pork for lent I'm being strict with myself in making things that don't obviously include it. So I've recreated a simple classic. Pizza Marghertia, but because I like it, I added some sliced onion on top too. :) The pizza dough was a basic one, except I like to add olive oil for extra flavour and elasticity. I also used tomato puree for the topping, whereas in my Dad's recipe before, we used passata. I topped it off with buffalo mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, dried oregano and fresh basil. Bella!
Now, in the title of this post it says homemade spaghetti and meatballs, but obviously I should confess, I didn't make the pasta in this dish. :) However, I did make the tomato sauce and the meatballs. I made the meatballs beforehand, as I knew that it's best to leave them to firm up and absorb all the flavourings added. For the meatballs I used: minced beef, salt, pepper, tsp of honey, thyme, a little olive oil, and mixed it together, making 10 meatballs in total. I placed the meatballs in the fridge for later. After some time, I fried off some onions and garlic, placed them in a baking dish. I then fried off the meatballs in the same pan, and once golden added them to the onion and garlic mixture. I placed these in to a pre-heated oven, whilst I made the tomato sauce. The tomato sauce was made up of fried onions and garlic, tomato puree, a little water, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and fresh basil. Once the sauce was finished I poured it over the meatballs and let it bubble away in the oven. I then put on my pasta. Once the pasta was almost done I added some grated cheese on the top of the meatballs and sauce, then mixed some of the sauce with the pasta and added it all together with some more fresh basil. Done!
These were possibly the most perfect boiled eggs I've ever made. I'm strangely proud. I had the aid of a handy egg timer that my sister bought me for my birthday. It's a fun little device that you put in the water with the eggs whilst they are boiling, and it changes colour in accordance to the cooking of the egg, i.e. soft-boiled or hard boiled. :)
Recently my housemates have both been buying chicken Kiev's. I have not, or rather had not, had one in ages! I had however already bought a lot of things for my fridge and freezer so therefore had no room for chicken Kiev's... I realised though that I did have some chicken breasts in the freezer, garlic in the cupboard, along with a nice pot of herb crumb (from M&S fancy) and regular breadcrumbs. I decided if I really wanted one, I could make one myself. Which obviously, I did. :) I mixed some chopped garlic with some butter. Flattened out my chicken breast (which I defrosted earlier), cut a pocket into the side of the chicken and spooned in the garlic butter. I then coated it in flour, beaten egg and the combo crumb mixture. I repeated the coat of egg and crumbs a second time for extra crumbly-ness. I then baked it in a preheated oven for about 40 minutes. It was really tasty. I had mine with mash and steamed vegetables. It would go nicely with lots of other things to though! Try it. :)
There were just too many nice looking photos of this dish. However, I rather enjoy this one a lot. Where do I begin. This was my oven roasted lamb steak (in the far left!) marinaded in honey, with roasted courgettes, roast potatoes (these were amazing!), honey-roasted parsnips and even roasted carrots! I have adopted this style of Sunday 'Roast' cooking from my Dad. It is so much easier, more relaxing and actually tastier than all the nonsense of frying, boiling and steaming! Granted I parboiled the potatoes and carrots first, that is still only one extra pan though. :) I roasted the potatoes, parsnips and carrots together in a nice amount of olive oil, in order to get those really crispy yet fluffy vegetables. I roasted the courgettes part way through the cooking, placing them underneath the lamb. My only disappointment with the dish was that I didn't have any rosemary or mint sauce to go with the lamb. Oh well, another time!
You can tell that I had bought prawns this week! This dish was so simple and so good. I marinaded the prawns beforehand, the same as the sweet and sour recipe, in garlic and finely sliced chilli (seeds removed). I then fried off my sliced courgettes in some olive oil. I added the prawns to the pan and let the whole lot mix together. I then put my quick cook spaghetti on. Once the spaghetti was ready, I drained off most of the water reserving a little, and then added it to the pan with the prawns. I mixed the whole lot together and then added a dollop of soft cream cheese! (Naughty.) I stirred the whole lot through letting it all get coated, placed it in a bowl and then finished it with some fresh basil leaves. This was such a simple and satisfying dish. Really worth a try!
