Chow-throw-it-in-the-pan-der with fresh rosemary bread

Right peeps,
Here's a cupboard bottom recipe that I've made and it ROCKS.
With the 'I've got a cold' season looming, this is a perfect concoction to fight away the bug.

Admittedly, I'm the WORST person on the planet when it comes to cooking... as far as remembering and writing down what I put in my creations.
The actual results are 9/10 amazing, if I do say so myself... I can just never make the same thing twice the same.

So, here goes... (Inevitably, I will have forgotten something but hey! It will turn out awesome anyway)

Chowder:
3-4 Handfuls of red lentils
2-3 Handfuls of aborio rice
1 Large can of sweetcorn
1 Sweet potato
2 Large onions
1 Can of kidney beans
2 Lemongrass stalks
5 Cloves of garlic
3 Medium size chillis
1/2 Handful of taragon
2 Vegetable stock cubes
2 Chicken stock cubes
1 Pack of un/smoked bacon
4 Large potatoes
Tabasco
Paprika
Cumin
Oregano
Large chunk of root ginger

Bread:
1/2 handful rosemary
40ml virgin olive oil
pre-packaged bread mix or make-yourself

Chowder:
1) Chop the potatoes into chunks, put aside 1/2 - 1 of the potatoes
2) Fill a large pan 3/4 full of cold water and put in the lentils and leave for 1/2 hour.
3) Switch gas on, a low heat for now will be fine.
4) Add the larger amount of potatoes to the pan
5) Chop the garlic, chillis and ginger then add all the ingredients to the pan.
6) Boil the 1/2 - 1 potato until soft and drain, leave in the pan.

Bread:
If you want to make the bread from scratch, start now. However, if you want a quick-fix, just use one of the pre-packaged bread mixes.
For this I used a prepack and a bread maker.

7) Put the bread mix into the bread maker
8) Add water appx 300ml or follow instructions on packet
9) Add 40ml olive oil and rosemary to the bread mix
10) Use DOUGH setting and leave until finished cycle appx 1hr 15
11) Put oven on Gas Mark Bread (appx GM8)
12) When finished, separate the dough into 6 breadroll size lumps and put on floured baking tray and put in oven for 15 mins.

Chowder:
13) By the time the bread has finished the dough cycle the chowder will nearly be ready.
14) At this point, chop up the bacon into smallish chunks and add to the pan
15) Remove lemongrass stalks from the chowder.

OPTIONAL
16) If it's too thin, spoon out some of the stock from the big pan into the smaller pan of potatoes and blend/mash.
17) Add thick potato sauce to the big pan and stir to thicken.

Serving Suggestions:
Serve.
Add a sprinkling of grated cheese or mozzarella slices.
HOT, crusty, fresh baked bread.

Spicy spicy bruschetta!!

The first of tonights food delights, this much hotter than expected italian style starter.

1 red onion
3 tomatoes
2 red chillies
a large handful of fresh basil
2 cloves of garlic
sherry vinegar
a large ciabatta or baguette

Dice the onion, tomato (removing the seeds first) chilli, garlic and roughly chop the basil. Mix this all together in a bowl and put a few shakes of the vinegar over the top, mixing it all into a salsa.

Chop your ciabatta into eatable chunks and put onto a baking sheet, pour a little olive oil on top of the ciabatta and then pile the salsa high!

Put this in the oven at gas mark pizza for about ten mins, making sure that the bread doesn't catch on the tray. Serve with good company and bottomless glasses of G and T

Caremalised red onion and goats cheese tarts

I know that everyone has their own recipe for this but I have a big thing for goats cheese, so here we go!

Puff pastry (pre-rolled if you're as lazy as me)
A large red onion
A block of goats cheese (as big as you want)
sugar
salt/pepper

Pre heat your oven to gas mark tart and then cut some circles of pastry from the puff pastry that looks bigger than they'd need to be. Butter a muffin tray and then put your puff pastry in the holes and fork them before placing in the oven to blind bake for about fifteen mins.
Chop your onion into a half and then thin slices. Place into a sauce pan with a knob of butter and cook slowly with a couple of tea spoons of sugar until the onions soften and make their own caramel.
After the tart cases have blind baked take them out of the oven and fill the bottoms with the red onion and top with as much goats cheese as you can possibly fit in. Put them back in the oven at gas mark golden brown and cook till they look amazing. Enjoy with a nice salad, good company and if your host is kind enough, some chocolate orange coffee. Noms!

Pete's veggie burgers

Odd for me to do something without meat in, but here we go.

1 large courgette
2 medium potato
flour
1 tea spoon peanut butter
2 small chillis
1 clove of garlic
salt/pepper etc

Grate the courgette and the potato and then use some kitchen towel to soak off the excess water.
Chop the chilli and the garlic into small pieces and fry in a little oil.. Add the courgette, potato and chilli and garlic into a bowl and then the tea spoon of peanut butter. Squish this all together in the bowl mixing well. the next bit is more art than science. Add some flour, a desert spoon at a time till it makes a gloopy mess in your bowl thick enough to hold a spoon. Heat your frying pan with a little oil and then make small pattys in the frying pan and cook on each side till golden.
I put mine in the oven for ten mins just to make sure they were cooked through, topped with cheese and scoffed like a burger. Enjoy!!

Pomegranate Martinis

• 1.5 shots vodka
• 1 shot triple sec/cointreau
• 2 shots pomegranate juice/cordial (made up with water)
• 1 pomegranate

Fill the glass with ice or place in freezer.

In a boston shaker, put in ice, vodka, triple sec and pomegranate juice, and using a mexican elbow squeeze half the pomegranate to add juice and then shake until the outside of the shaker is becoming condensed.

Strain into the chilled glass and add some of the pomegranate seeds.

Plum and ginger crumble

• 16-20 plums, halved, stoned and chopped
• 160g sugar
• 1 tblsp lemon juice
• half jar ginger preserve

Crumble top

• 175g plain flour
• 50g caster sugar
• 50g muscovado sugar
• 100g butter chilled and cut into cubes
• 50g porridge oats
• 50g ginger biscuits crushed
• 1 knob grated ginger

Put the plums, sugar, lemon juice and ginger preserve in a pan and simmer gently until the plums start to soften and liquid forms.  Leave on simmer for around 15 mins.  

Put the flour, sugars and butter in a bowl or mixer, if using your hands rub the butter through your fingers until the mixture forms a breadcrumb style mix (not a dough), then finally add the oats, grated ginger and ginger biscuits.

Put the plum filling in a greased dish and cover with the crumble mix and then cook in an over for 35-40mins at 170 degrees until golden brown on top.  Serve with cream or custard.

Chicken in a mushroom and tarragon cream sauce

Very nice recipe for a dinner party, easy to do and keep an eye on :)  Can remove all the mushroom parts if wanted and just do tarragon cream sauce.

• 6 large chicken breasts
• 500ml good white wine
• 500ml good chicken stock (Knorr gel stock or fresh stock if possible)
• 2 tblsp fresh tarragon (or dried if no fresh)
• 500ml double cream
• 4 baby leeks, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 250g mushrooms chopped
• 1 tin Campbells condensed mushroom soup
• 2 tsp mustard powder
• salt and pepper

Place the raw chicken breasts in a large saute pan (I bought my brilliant one from a Indian cash and carry near my house) or casserole dish which can go on the hob.  Pour over the chicken the stock and the wine and add the tarragon.  Bring the liquid to the boil, then simmer and cook the chicken for 30-40 mins until well poached.  Remove the chicken with a slotted spoon and set aside on a plate.

Add the double cream to the stock and wine and leave on quite a high simmer to begin to reduce.

In the mean time saute the leeks and mushrooms with the garlic in a frying pan, just to cook them lightly and them add them to the cream sauce.  Mix in the tin of condensed soup and the mustard powder and simmer for 15-20 mins until the sauce is reduced by at least a third.

Add the chicken breasts back into the sauce and gently simmer for 15-20 mins to warm through before serving.  I serve with green veg and duchess potatoes.