Pranks

I’m not a fan of pranks. I’ve only ever participated in two “proper” pranks in my whole life and to be fair, I am pretty old by now.  One was to order a shit load of catalogues for crap like catalogues and Stannah stair lifts brochures to a mildly annoying girl when I was a teenager.  The other was to help distract my boss while my friend and colleague rigged up a tape loop of Crazeee Horses WAHHHHHH in the ceiling above his desk in his office.  Too quiet to be wholly apparent but loud enough that when the PC fan shut up for a second it drove him nuts….that was quite funny actually, but yeah not a fan of pranks.

Someone tried to prank me today.  It made me mad.  Perhaps I am humourless.

Chicken Minestrone

Ingredients

For the stock

• Chicken carcass + legs and wings
• Leek
• Celery
• Onion
• Carrots
• Garlic
• Pepper
• Water

For the soup

• 2 chicken stock cubes
• Onion
• Carrots
• Celery
• Leek
• Celeriac
• Garlic
• Tinned tomatoes
• Tin of Cannellini Beans (drained)
• Broken up angel hair spaghetti
• Oregano/Rosemary/Sage/Parsley
• Salt and Pepper

Method

1. Make the stock by boiling (or pressure cooking) the chicken carcass, legs and wings with the stock ingredients until the chicken is falling off the bone.
2. Remove the chicken carcass/legs and wings.
3. Strain the liquid into a large pan and squish the vegetables and garlic through a sieve till all the liquid is through and then discard the veg.
4. Take all the chicken off the bone and put back into the liquid with 2 stock cubes.
5. Add the chopped veg and boil for 10 more mins.
6. Add the tomatoes and cook down, seasoning to taste.
7. Add the canellini beans and the spaghetti and cook for another 5 mins till spaghetti is all cooked.
8. Add the chopped fresh herbs and finish off with a sprinkling of fresh parmesan and a dollop of creme fraiche if you like.

Jayn-i-us (genius) Cod with bizarro sauce – dead tasty though :-)

Ingredients

• 1 onion finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 75g  sundried tomatoes
• 1 tin chopped plum tomatoes
• peel of one orange grated
• pepper
• Pasta
• meduim sized piece of cod portioned per person

Soak the sundried tomatoes in boiling water for 30 mins

Marinade the cod in the juice of half an orange, a twist of ground pepper and a tablespoon of olive oil for at least 30mins

Meanwhile gently fry off the onions and garlic in a little olive oil, add the grated orange peel and fry for 2 mins.

Add the tin of tomatoes amd stir, leave to simmer fgor 5 mins.

Add the sundried tomatoes and the liquor that the sundried tomatoes have been steeped in.  Reduce by about a quarter.

Grill the cod for about 4mins per side, put pasta on to boil for about 4 mins…

When it all comes together serve and eat!

Beef Stir Fry

Ingredients:

For the marinade

• Rump steak thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic crushed
• Thumb sized piece of ginger  chopped to a paste
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon fivespice

For the stir fry

• 1 clove garlic sliced
• half a chilli sliced
• small piece of ginger sliced
• 2 spring onions sliced
• mixed stir fry vegetables such as  peppers, sugar snaps, leeks etc
• splash of nam pla (fish sauce)
• large splash of dark soy sauce
• dash of sweet chilli sauce
• Sesame oil

To serve

• noodles
• sesame seeds

Method:

1. Marinate the meat in a large shallow bowl with all the marinade ingredients for at least 20 mins.
2. Heat a large wok and add some sesame oil.
3. Add the ginger, garlic, spring onion and chilli to the wok.
4. Then add the beef over a really high heat and stir fry till lightly browned.
5. Add the vegetables and stir fry for a couple of minutes.
6. Add the soy sauce, nam pla, sweet chilli sauce and stir fry for a minute or two longer.
7. If the sauce is too dry add a dash more soy sauce, it it is too wet you can thicken it with a teaspoon of cornflour mixed with a little bit of water.
8. Serve with noodles stir fried in sesame oil and sesame seeds.

Lemon and Ginger Warmer

This isn’t my idea.  I didn’t make it.  Anderoo did. And it is good!

Ingredients:

• half a lemon
• a thumb sized piece of ginger roughly sliced
• a good spoonful of honey
• a pint of boiling water
• a rather large splash of vodka (optional, could also use rum or brandy – also optional!)

How to:

Put all the ingredients except the alcohol  into a jug, pour over boiling water. Allow to steep for about 10 mins, and if you want add the vodka. Strain and drink either hot ot cold.

Indian Prawns

Ingredients

1. 100g peeled, cooked prawns
2. 1/4 tsp turmeric
3. 1/2 tsp ground coriander
4. 1/4 tsp ground cardomom
5. 1 tbsp groundnut oil
6. season with smoked sea salt
7. 1/2 a lemon juice
8. 1oz butter

Method

1. Heat the butter in a small frying pan
2. Add the prawns till warmed through

Serve with Indian vegetable curry and rice

Indian Vegetable Curry

I found a recipe that sounded good for an indian vege stir fry, firstly I didn;t have all the veg ingredients so made do with what I did have , and secondly, mid cooking I decided that it needed something else.  That something was yoghurt. The result was pretty damn fine. I had it with the Indian Prawns and the Machchi Methi and boiled rice.

Ingredients

1. 1 tbsp groundnut oil
2. cauliflower broken into small florets
3. green beans
4. red pepper chopped
5. 1 chilli sliced into rings
6. 1 onion chopped
7. 3 cloves garlic chopped
8. 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
9. 1/4 tsp turmeric
10. 1/2 tsp ground coriander
11. 1/2 tsp garam masala
12. juice of 1/2 a lemon

Method

1. In a saucepan bring water to the boil and cook the cauli for 5 mins, drain and rinse with cold water to retain some crispness.
2. Heat the oil in a wok and add the onions.  Cook till lightly brown.
3. Add the spice and the garlic and chilli and fry for 3 mins.
4. Add the lemon juice.
5. Add the rest of the vegetables and stir fry for 3 – 4 mins.
6. Pour in 300ml of plain yoghurt and keep on a low heat till all the spices are mixed well and cooked to the desired consistency.

Machchi Methi (Salmon with fenugreek)

I went to Mayur restaurant in Liverpool recently and had this dish (in name) as a starter.  I’ve not found anything that comes really close to the dish I ate but this is the best substitute that I found and bastardised to make it closer to what I wanted. This will do 2 people as a starter.

Ingredients

1. 2 pieces of skinless salmon fillet cut into chunks
2. 1/ tbsp groundnut oil
3. 1 tbsp fenugreek seeds
4. 2 tsp ground coriander
5. 1 tsp cumin seeds
6. 1/2 tsp turmeric
7. 1 tsp chilli powder
8. 150ml plain yoghurt
9. 1/2 onion minced
10. thumb sized pice of ginger minced

Method

1. Mix together the spices (apart from the fenugreek seeds) with the yoghurt, the onion and ginger and 1 tsp groundnut oil and marinate the salmon in the mixture for at least 20 mins.
2. Heat the remaining  groundnut oil in  a non stick frying pan, when hot add the fenugreek seeds.
3. Reduce the heat and let let the fenugreek seeds get really dark brown quite slowly.
4. When the seeds are dark remove the seeds but retain the oil.
5. Pour the oil back in the frying pan and bring the heat up again.
6. Add the fish and the surplus mixture and cook gently for 15 mins, turning occasionally to avoid the fish sticking.
7. Serve with rice and chopped fresh coriander.

Baked eggs and smoked salmon

Ingredients

• Butter for greasing the ramekins
• 2oz Smoked salmon
• 1/2 a small tub of double cream
• chopped chives
• parmesan cheese
• eggs
• pepper

Directions

1. Grease the ramekins with the butter and line with some chives, then put the salmon in the bottom.
2. Add the half the double cream to cover the salmon in each ramekin and a little bit of ground black pepper.

Now here’s the choice part…
I make a little bit of scrambled egg still a bit runny and then put that on top of the salmon, my boyfriend prefers the whole egg on top of the salmon……

1. Then divide the rest of the cream between the ramekins and sprinkle with some more chives and the parmesan.
2. Bake in a bain marie (place the ramekins in a large dish with hot water half way up the side of the ramekins) for about 15mins @ 180 deg C.  Serve with hot buttery toast.

Very decadent.

Spanish Chicken

I’ve tried and tried to recreate a less salty version of La Tasca’s Polla al Aijillo many times but this recipe is the closest that I have come. The original recipe was posted by canarygirl on Recipezaar but I have adapted it to my own tastes and to make it more like the La Tasca version so, credit for the basis of the recipe must go to whoever canarygirl is.

Ingredients

• 4 free range organic chicken breasts sliced about half a cm thick
• 4 cloves of garlic crushed
• teaspoon of fresh oregano (but dried will do if you can’t get fresh)
• teaspoon of fresh lemon thyme (ordinary thyme will do)
• sea salt flakes
• olive oil
• large glass of white wine
• 1 lemon

Directions

1. In a grinder or mortar and pestle grind together the garlic, the sea salt, and the herbs and the olive oil, leave for a few hours.
2. Heat a little more olive oil in a frying pan, fry the chicken pieces gently for about 8 mins, add the wine and cook down till the wine is reduced by half then add about half a pint of water and cook slowly till the water has also reduced by about half. You can always add more water and cook for longer to make the chicken super tender.
3. Squeeze the juice of the lemon over it just before serving TO TASTE!!!