Easy risotto: bacon & pea baked risotto

This is another recipe off the BBC good food website. I do love that website. You can always find something on there that fits what’s in the cupboard, suits what you fancy and will be ready in the amount of time you can tolerate. Plus there are loads of reviews on there so you can quickly find something you know will be a winner.

Many people, myself included, are afraid of risotto. Don’t be. It’s not difficult and once you’ve done it once or twice you’ll feel much more confident. It’s all those fancy chefs on tv scaring people with cooking times and ‘al dente’ nonsense. Well, if you’re worried, try this recipe. It’s super simple – you just mix it all together and shove it in the oven, no worrying about stiring or not stiring and how ‘al dente’ it is. And it was beautiful – I am contemplating the leftovers for lunch tomorrow, right now!

You can find the original recipe here: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1120679/ovenbaked-leek-and-bacon-risotto

Again, this is a good one (I reckon anyway!) for the kids as there’s nothing really for them to object to, it’s good for midweek as it can be all ready in 40 minutes and it’s good for the dieters, under 500 calories. You can even make a vege version if you want. This is another milder, more subtler tasting recipe, so it’s perfect for those afraid of spice. If you like it spicy, just add some chilli flakes with the stock.

The original recipe has leeks in it, but I don’t have any of them, so I used 2 medium onions instead and just bunged in a few more peas. I also added some wine before the stock (I had a bottle of chardonnay that I don’t like to drink, hanging around the fridge, which is why every recipe recently has had wine in it!). But apart from that it’s pretty much the same.

Bacon and pea baked risotto

Serves 4 (ish)

• 1 tbsp oil (I used oil)
• 2 medium onions, finely sliced
• 4-6 rashers of bacon, chopped
• 250g risotto rice
• 70-80ml white wine
• 650-700ml chicken or vegetable stock (I used chicken as it has more flavour)
• 150g peas or petit pois (frozen and defrosted)
• 1 tbsp butter
• 30g parmesan
• zest of 1 lemon
• salt & pepper

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.
2. Heat the oil in a flameproof, ovenproof dish on a medium heat (if you don’t have one use a high sided frying pan with a lid). When its hot, add the onion and bacon and fry until the onion is softened and the bacon cooked.
3. Add the risotto rice and stir well to coat in the oil. When the rice is translucent on the outside but opaque in the middle, add the wine and allow to bubble and reduce.
4. Then add all the stock, stir well, cover the dish and place in the oven for 20 minutes, stiring half way through.
5. When the water is mostly evaporated and the rice cooked, add the peas. Leaving the lid off, cook for a further 2-3 minutes in the oven.
6. When the water is evaporated and the rice is tender, add the butter and cheese, stir well to mix and return to the oven for a further 2 minutes with the lid off.
7. Remove from the oven, add the zest and seasoning to taste. Stir well and serve.
8. Eat with the satisfaction of having mastered something supposedly complicated and metaphorically stuck your finger up to the celebrity chefs and all their scary talk.

Food glorious (christmas) food

We’ve been eating…lots…but as I say, that’s what Christmas is all about.  This is a medley of photos and food I’ve cooked and eaten over the past few days.  I kept forgetting to take photos, so they’re all a bit random!

My husband and I are in Scotland, renting a cottage with friends, as we couldn’t cope with the idea of another family Christmas where we try to please everyone, and fail, and only end up making ourselves miserable!  After an argument that lasted all of boxing day last year, we decided we wouldn’t be doing the family thing again.  And so far, I have to say a cottage in Scotland is the way forward!  We’ve not been entirely without family, we visited my lovely Scottish relatives.  But a few hours with some relatives you rarely see is not the same as all day with family we see all the time.

Food wise, I have been indebted to the Hairy Bikers and their 12 days of Christmas recipe book for all the delicious food.  Without them I would have been lost and panicking, but with the book, whilst it was lots of work, we produced lots of delicious food, with Christmas dinner being one of the best we’ve ever had.  Although they didn’t have capon roasting directions, but they were easily enough found on the internet.

We decided that there wasn’t enough of us for a turkey (minimum 10lbs!) so we went for a capon instead.  Which is a castrated cockerel.  Apparently it makes them eat more, get fat, and become more juicier than chickens or normal cocks.  And I have to say, this was a delicious capon.  And more or less a perfect size for us.

If you’re interested, it was about 7lbs and I did it for 30 mins on high heat, upside down, covered in foil, then 1.5 hours the right way up, covered on a medium heat, and then 30 mins with the foil off to brown it at the same heat.

I’m not going to reproduce all the recipes, if you’re that interested – buy the book!  But I’ll tease you with a few.  We loved the brussel sprouts especially, which is odd as normally we hate them.  But the key, it seems, is frying them in maple syrup.  The sweet syrup takes away all the bitterness.  And we also added chestnuts and bacon to them which just added to the flavours.

We also loved the stuffings.  They were just great.  We made chestnut and sage and apricot and almond, both out the hairy biker’s book.  I’ve made stuffing from a packet before, but doing it from scratch makes all the difference and really turns the stuffing into something worth eating and blogging about!

I have to say though, I bought fresh chestnuts and my fingers still hurt from peeling them!  If you can get vacuum packed pre-peeled ones, then I would definitely recommend them if you like your fingers!

My friend made the brandy sauce for the pudding and it was extremely tasty…might have something to do with the quantities of cream and brandy she put in it, but hey, its christmas!  And it’s freezing cold so we need our fats and alcohol.

The other thing of note was the christmas spiced vodka.  I wrote about making it in my previous post, but we’ve now drunk it and can definitely say, it is so beautifully warming and delicious (despite being frozen!) that its worth the effort and the wait.  And really 3 days isn’t much of a wait.

Well, the haunch of venison is now marinading in the fridge, for the obligatory 2 days.  We’ll be cooking that in a couple of days.  And looking at the meat, even uncooked, I know it’s going to be beautiful.

Even just thinking about all this food makes me feel happy.  There is something about cooking and eating that can be the best thing in the world.  Yes, I’ll have to put in some serious hours in the gym, but then, that’s what January is for.  That and paying off the credit card!  But as it’s still December I won’t contemplate either for any longer here.

Since Christmas day, we’ve had the obligatory capon and ham pie and capon curry.  And we’re now making soup from the capon bones.  I might even make a ham pasta bake with the remaining ham!  But Christmas is full of traditions, especially food ones, and to break them only makes for unhappiness.

I hope you all had really lovely Christmases full of gorgeous food and lots of wine.  And are now looking forward to 2011 in anticipation of all the great food that is to come.  Here are the recipes for the stuffings and the brussels sprouts.  All out the Hairy Biker’s 12 days of Christmas.

Brussels sprouts with pancetta and chestnuts

Serves about 4-6

500g Brussels sprouts, peeled and halved

1 tbsp oil (we used olive)

125g pancetta or streaky smoked bacon, chopped

125g roasted chestnuts, peeled and halved

1 tbsp maple syrup

salt & pepper

1. Boil the sprouts in a pan with boiling water and salt for about 8-10 minutes or until they look softened.  Drain and set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a pan, add the pancetta and fry until crispy.
3. Add the sprouts, chestnuts and maple syrup to the pan and mix together well.
4. Cook for a minute or two until the syrup caramelises, then add the seasoning, remove from the heat and stick in a warmed serving dish until ready to serve.
5. Eat, and be surprised at the sweetness and lack of bitterness.  You may find you actually like sprouts for the first time ever!

Chestnut and sage stuffing

enough for about 4-6 people

1 tbsp oil

1 medium onion finely chopped

75g roasted chestnuts, peeled and roughly chopped

115g sausagemeat

25g white breadcrumbs

zest of 1 lemon

1 bunch of sage, chopped

salt & pepper

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan, and fry the onion until softened.  Remove from the heat, put in a large-ish bowl until cooled.  It’s important its cold when combining with uncooked sausagemeat.
2. When its cold, add the rest of the ingredients to the onions, stir well so it’s all well mixed.
3. Set aside until it’s needed to stuff a turkey or chicken, or form balls with it and roast in the oven until cooked.
4. Sit down, stuff your face and let the compliments roll in!

Apricot and almond stuffing

serves about 4-6 people

1 tbsp oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

50g apricots (ready to eat) roughly chopped

50g blanched almonds, toasted and roughly chopped

125g sausagemeat

zest of 1 orange

40g white breadcrumbs

2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley

salt & pepper

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the onion over a low heat until softened.  Remove from the heat and place in a large-ish bowl until cooled.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients to the onions, when cool, and mix well to combine and set aside until needed.
3. Stuff in turkey or chicken or roll into balls and roast in the oven.
4. Eat in smug satisfaction at your cooking expertise!

And now, after all that cooking and eating, sit down with a glass of spiced vodka and tonic and let others do the washing up!  You deserve it

Pasta fabulousness

I have to say, this is one of my favourite recipes to make when I’ve had a bad day at work, or I’m feeling a bit miserable.  It’s the perfect pick me up.  The original recipe is Ravinder Bhogal’s (who else’s?!) from Cook in Boots but I’ve altered it, mostly because I can’t be bothered to turn the oven on and roast garlic for half an hour first!

But I’m sure if you could be bothered it would be delicious.  Basically, roast a whole bulb of garlic in its shell for 30 minutes in a hot oven and then squeeze the goo from the roasted garlic into the mixture just before you add the creme fraiche.

But even without it its totally fabulous.  Probably due to the bacon and the mushrooms.  It’s all that umami you see.  Its this weird substance scientists in Japan discovered in certain foods.  It enhances flavour and brings out your endorphins.  And mushrooms have it.  Along with marmite, bacon, beef broth, MSG etc.  And garlic is great too.  I know, it makes your breath smell, but really it tastes fabulous in food and boosts your immune system when you’re feeling ill (or even when you’re not).

Anyway, if you want to know more about umami, here’s the wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami

And if you don’t care about umami but want to cook this delicious dish, then here’s the recipe.

Bacon and mushroom creamy pasta

Serves 2

150g pasta shapes (your choice!)

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic finely chopped (and yes you do want to keep this in if you’re roasting garlic – the original recipe has both)

100g pancetta or streaky bacon (or whatever bacon you have), chopped

200g chestnut mushrooms (or whatever you can find – button or closed up are good too), chopped

2 tbsp low fat creme fraiche

pepper

grated parmesan to serve

1. Boil the pasta according to the packet instructions and to how you like it.  Drain and reserve
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a pan, and fry the onion, garlic and bacon together on a medium-high heat until browned and crispy.
3. Add the mushrooms to the pan and continue frying until golden brown
4. Turn down the heat to low, add the creme fraiche along with a generous helping of pepper (no need for salt as bacon is salty).  Stir until the creme fraiche is well combined with the bacon and mushroom mix.
5. Add the pasta to the pan and stir well to coat in the mixture.
6. Take off the heat and serve with parmesan cheese sprinkled over the top.
7. Eat immediately and feel your worries slip away

A hash brown fry up

I discovered about a year ago (when I did the special K diet, strangely enough!) that for whatever reason bread that has yeast in it doesn’t agree with me.  I can’t work it out.  It’s not an allergy or intolerance to wheat or gluten or to yeast (I can eat soy sauce, marmite, cakes, pasta, no problem at all!).   But if I eat bread made with yeast then I’m ill for about 10 days and it’s not fun.  So, in searching for an alternative to the great british fry up that still gave me the carbs I crave the morning after a night out, I came across Ravinder Bhogal’s great hash browns.

When I mention hash browns to people their immediate reaction is one of surprise and uncertainty.  They’re thinking of the horrid pre-made things you buy in the frozen section of the supermarket, or the kind you get at macdonalds.  Let me reassure you, these are nothing like what you think of when I say ‘hash browns’.  These are freshly made, a fusion of English and Indian that Ravinder does so well, and absolutely gorgeous especially with sweet chilli dipping sauce.

Everyone loves these, veges and carnivores alike.  After I serve these to people for the first time they fall in love and adore them.  Their thoughts of weird little potato triangles are banished.

Although I use normal flour to bind, I would imagine the gluten allergic and intolerant could eat these too, just use gluten free flour.  Not sure about vegan – the idea of a fry up is a little anti-vegan!  But if you are vegan you must know what you use to bind instead of eggs, so just use that!

Being a carnivore, I serve this with bacon and fried eggs (and sometimes baked beans and sausages too, but its best with bacon and eggs) and of course a large dollop of sweet chilli dipping sauce.  My husband likes brown sauce with them too.

So here is my take on Ravinder’s hash browns, to be honest, they’re pretty much exactly how she makes them – you can find the original recipe in my favourite recipe book Cook in Boots.  The only difference is, my recipe is for 2, hers if for 4 but I use the same quantities as for 4, except in the amount of potato.  Also, if making for 4 I try to find a medium sized onion and may add another chilli.  So if making for 4 you don’t need to add more coriander, cumin, flour or egg.  I found when making for 2 if I reduced the amount of flour and egg they didn’t bind as well but it works just fine for 4 as well.

A hash brown fry up

Serves 2

250g potatoes, peeled and grated

1 small red onion, grated

1 green chilli finely chopped (de seed if you don’t want it very spicy – to be honest I don’t find there’s a kick with this, more of a flavour)

handful of chopped fresh coriander

1 tsp cumin seeds

salt and pepper

1 tbsp plain flour

1 egg (for binding)

3 tbsp olive oil (or groundnut or peanut)

4 rashers bacon (your choice, I used unsmoked dry cured)

2 eggs (for frying)

1. Soak the grated potato in cold water (I usually put it in a bowl of cold water as soon as it’s grated and then prepare the rest of the vegetables) to remove the starch and make the potatos crunchy.
2. When the onion, chilli and coriander are prepared, drain the potato (I usually do this into a seive) and squeeze out as much of the water as possible.  Return the potato to the bowl and mix in the onion, chilli, coriander, cumin and seasoning.
3. Add the flour and mix well, then add in the egg and mix again.
4. Heat the grill on a high setting and place the bacon under it.  Keep an eye on it as it cooks and turn when it reaches the level of cooked-ness that you like (I like it crispy).
5. Heat about 1 tbsp of the oil in a flat frying pan on a medium heat.  When it’s reasonably hot, form little patties with the potato mix.  I use about 1 tbsp of the mix and form patties in my hands before dropping in the pan.  I find if you use too much more than 1 tbsp they don’t cook as well and also tend to fall apart.
6. You don’t want the oil too hot or they’ll burn and not brown, and you need quite a lot of oil or they’ll burn and not brown, you want to hear a good sizzle.
7. When they’re brown and crispy on one side, turn over.  You may want to add a bit more oil – I find that in turning them over this is most likely when they’ll burn and not brown.  They will absorb a lot of oil.  Which is why, when they’re done, turn them onto kitchen towels on a plate.  I keep them warm under the grill below the bacon.
8. Repeat (adding more oil as needed) until all the potato mix is used – I get about 6 – 8 potato hashes out of the mix.  Don’t forget to check your bacon and turn off the grill when it’s done.
9. When all the hashes are made, take the pan off the heat and wait until it stops smoking.  Then return it to the heat and crack the eggs into the pan.  I don’t normally add more oil as there’s normally enough from the hashes in there.  On a medium heat, fry the eggs until done on top and crispy underneath (or however you like them).
10. Pile everything onto plates, with the hash browns on the bottom, followed by the bacon and toppped off with eggs.
11. Serve with your favourite sauces and feel the hangover receed.

Easy weekday pasta dinner

I found this recipe because I had some bacon and broccoli in the fridge and wanted something quick.  The recipe that inspired me was on allrecipes.com but it was so boring, I had to instantly make it more interesting!  It is quick, tasty and perfect for a weekday dinner, especially for after a gym workout.

The allrecipes.com recipe suggested it’s a good way of getting kids to eat greens, and I think that as you’re using passata rather than chopped tomatoes it would go down well with kids (not having any of my own, I wouldn’t actually know!).  Anyone that’s got them and tries this on them – let me know.

You could also add a chopped red chilli to it with the garlic if you wanted something spicier, or you could also use chilli oil instead of olive oil.  I think it would also work just as well with spicy sausage like pepperoni or chorizo.  Or even prawns.

Bacon and Broccoli pasta

Serves 2

150g pasta shapes (any will do – I used penne)

250g broccoli florets

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion chopped

100g (or about 3 rashers) bacon (of any sort) chopped

2 garlic cloves minced

handful of fresh basil or parsley chopped

150ml passata

50g (or a heaped tablespoon) mascapone cheese (or cream cheese – can us low fat if you want)

30g parmesan (optional) to serve – omit if dieting

salt & pepper to taste

1. Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions.  About 3 minutes before it’s ready add the broccoli florets to the boiling water.  Drain and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, the oil in a pan and fry the onion on a low heat until softened, then add the garlic and fry for a further minute.
3. Add the bacon to the pan, turn up the heat to medium and fry until crispy.
4. Stir the fresh herbs into the bacon mix and then add the passata and cheese.  Stir until combined and of a saucy consistency.
5. Add the pasta and broccoli to the pan, mix well
6. Serve in bowls with the grated parmesan on top.
7. Enjoy the warm tasty creaminess!

Carbonara: simplicity and glamour

Carbonara has to be one of the easiest and quickest things to make.  It’s so tasty, always pleases and somehow manages to be glamorous and comforting all at once. Its not one for the dieters but you’ve got to fall off the wagon occasionally, and if you use reduced fat creme fraiche it really does reduce the calorie content.  But don’t use weight watchers – it’s like water.

I love it for dinner after work and the gym.  It’s quick and filling and sorts the post workout carb requirement.

This time I went traditional and did spaghetti but really any pasta shape is good.  I don’t put mushrooms in as I feel this actually makes it a different dish but I won’t object if you want to!

I’ve tried carbonara with cream, cream cheese and with yoghurt but I find nothing beats creme fraiche.

The other great thing is, you can get all the ingredients in Aldi.  They’re all good quality and cheaper than elsewhere. I’m no food snob – give me anything so long as it tastes good!

Spaghetti carbonara

Serves 4

300g spaghetti (or any kind of pasta)

1tbsp olive oil

1 onion finely chopped

100g pancetta bacon (or any kind of bacon – use 8 rashers if using other bacon) cut 1inch strips

60ml (or about 4tbsp) creme fraiche

4 eggs

pepper

60g parmesan cheese plus extra for sprinkling.

1. Boil your spaghetti in salted water until done (however you prefer, you have my thoughts on al dente already!  Drain.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil on a low heat in a high edged frying pan or saucepan.  Fry the onion until softened.
3. Add the bacon to the onion and fry until crispy.
4. Beat the eggs with the creme fraiche.  Add lots of pepper and the parmesan.  Don’t add salt because the bacon is salted.
5. Add the drained pasta to the onion and bacon, mix well.
6. (now this is the important bit to get right).  Turn off the heat and immediately add the egg mix to the spaghetti and bacon.  Mix well.  The egg will just cook with the heat from the pan.  Leave the heat on and it will all fragment and turn into scrambled eggs.
7. Serve immediately with a sprinkling of parmesan.
8. Suck up and enjoy like lady and the tramp (although with carbonara not meatballs obviously!)