Devon Pasties

Devon Pasties

Technically we can't call them Cornish pasties because they aren't in Cornwall, so Devon pasties it is!

The pasty tax as been thrown out and thank god! But if you want to save a little bit more money why not have a go at making your own pasties?

Ingredients(4 pasties)

Shortcrust pastry - 500g
 
Pack of Beef Mince - 400-500g (You could use steak strips or any kind really, just make sure you cook it thoroughly before adding it)

Potato - 3 large ones should do

Swede -  half

Carrot - 4

Onion - 2

Rosemary, Salt, Pepper

Oil for cooking

Method

 Peel and chop the potatoes into small chunks, do the same with the swede and carrot. Now place in a large pan and boil for 10 minutes in salted water.

Fry the onions in the oil and add the meat once the onion starts to soften. Now brown the beef mince. If you are using any other kind of beef cook the meat through before moving on. (Casserole beef will take considerably longer and it is recomennded to use left over casserole beef from a casserole rather than starting with it fresh).

Now toss the potatoes and veg in butter and rosemary, add the two mixes together and stir it all up.

Roll your pastry to a thickness of a pound coin and then cut the dough into ovals as shown below.

Spoon a handful of mixture into the centre of the pastry and fold over, pressing in the edges. Now use a fork to mush the edges together, then roll them up and finally use either water or a beaten egg to rub on the join and seal properly.

Bake in the oven for about 10-14 minutes or until the pastry is starting to go golden.

Serve with plenty of ketchup!

SANTA IS IN TOWN!

Today we are having our flat meal and it promises to be a feast for all!


I'll try and post a picture and a short how to on each bit so look out for the update tonight or tomorrow!

Easy-Peasy Pesto Bean Pie

Easy Peasy Pesto Bean Pie

Hey guys and girls, this is such a simple recipe, cheap and tasty! Great as a side dish if you are stuck for ideas!

 

Ingredients: 

• Beans - Butter, or plain old baked beans

•  Table spoon of pesto

•  Garlic butter - Follow a recipe soon to come! (or use a packet)
  
• Some cheese (if you wish)

• Puff or Shortcrust Pastry (Use a packet, or follow a recipe soon to come!)

 

Method

 Line a small pie dish or oven proof bowl with the pastry and paste a small amount of pesto around the bottom. Now melt the garlic butter in a pan and throw in the beans, add some cheese. If you are using butter beans then add some tomatoe puree and cream. You could also use chopped tomatoes or passata. Now put in the rest of the pesto with the beans, give it a stir and pour into the pastry lined bowl.

 Cover the pie with pastry and then bake until the pastry goes golden brown.

You could adapt this recipe to make lots of little individual bean pies, why not give it a go?

 

 

Christmas Shortbread Tree

Christmas Shortbread Tree

Do you like shortbread, christmas and trees? Well then you'll love this recipe!

You'll need:

Flour: 260g

Butter: 225g

Sugar: 60g Caster or Icing sugar is better

Vanilla Extract: 1 sploosh

Chocolate for covering!: 50-70g

First beat the sugar and butter together until creamy.

Now stir in the flour rather vigourously.

Chill for 1 hour!

Roll flat and press out shapes using a biscuit cutter or using your hands make a big tree and about 10 small baubles.

Bake for 10 minutes or until the edges start to go golden brown.

Remove from the oven and melt your chocolate.

Drizzle the chocolate over your tree and cover a few baubles too.

Carefully and tasefully decorate your tree!

Admire, then devour!

 

Chicken in a Bag

Chicken in a Bag...

Made from foil.

So today I made a lovely, succulent and easy meal! Like the sound of that? Follow the recipe below!

For the chicken you will need:

Chicken - On the bone is nice but you could use breast pieces too.
Spices - What ever you fancy with the chicken, I used cumin, chilli powder, garam masala, splash of turmeric and some garlic.
Foil.
Baking Tray
Oven. - 170-180C

Chuck it all in a bowl with a bit of oil and make sure all the chicken is covered.

Now put it all in the foil and fold it over like so:

Make sure you seal the edges nice and tight.

Now just throw it in the oven for about half an hour to 40 minutes.

For the potatoes

Meanwhile peel, half and slice your potatoes fairly thin. Boil for around 30 minutes. Drain, toss in butter and then fry with onion, garlic herbs and sugar for about a minutes. Now open up your chicken foil parcel, tip the potatoes over the top and put it all in the oven for about 5-10 minutes or until nice and crispy.

 
Enjoy!

Chicken Tonight!

Chicken Tonight!

What more could a man want other than coming home from a long, hard and wet day playing football and sweating in the library and be greeted with a lovely pile of chicken??

If you feel like chicken tonight, watch out for tonight's update!

 

Erm...Cookies?

Cookies!

Oh...wait...no.

BISH

   

BASH

  

BOSH

 

...whoops...

Moral of the story is, don't forget about things in the oven!

But they actually taste ok, and are quite cakey which is odd because they are meant to be cookies...maybe I shouldn't have bought a packet of cookie mix... first and last time.

 

1st Of December!

Who's Feeling Christmassy?

It's that time of year, and it always means lots of special dishes, home cooking, extra treats and lots and lots of CHOCOLATE!

What's your favourite christmas meat? Who cooks? What time do you eat? I want to know EVERYTHING! We will be having a baking bonanza in my house very soon so keep your eye out for the post!

Merry Christmas!

G-dad Curry

G-Dad Curry

This is a nice creamy curry, adapted from a recipe given to me by my girlfriend, who in turn got it from her grandad, hence the "G-Dad Curry". Technically it's a passanda so if you like a creamy, almondy curry like korma then you'll love this!

What you'll need:

• 500g of chicken, cut into small pieces or if you're using on the bone then leave as is.
• 1 tin evaporated milk
• 100g of ground almond
• 2 table spoons of flaked almond
• half a large pot of thick greek yoghurt
• 250ml of double cream
• 2 table spoons of tomatoe puree
• 3 tablespoons of mango chutney
• an onion
• 2 teaspoons of curry powder
• half a teaspoon of chilli powder
• 3 finely chopped red chillis
• 4 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped
• about two tablespoons of root ginger, grated or finely chopped
• vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric
• 1 teaspoon of garam massalla
• handful of fresh coriander

 
Method

Start by frying the onion in oil until it starts to go soft and see through. Now add the chopped chilli, ginger and garlic. Fry this for 5 minutes.

Now put the turmeric, curry powder and chilli powder in a small bowl and add a tablespoon of water to form a thick paste. Don't worry if you put too much water in, it will evaporate off anyway.

Once you've given it a good stir add the chicken and seal it on all sides. Now add the greek yoghurt, cream and evaporated milk. Bring to the boil and let it simmer. While it simmers add the ground almond, tomatoe puree and mango chutney and after about 5 minutes add the flaked almonds too.

Chop half the coriander finely and add with the garam massalla. Serve with whole leaves of coriander and boiled basmati rice. Why not have a naan too?!

Pork Schnitzel

Pork Schnitzel with Roast Rosemary and Garlic Potatoes and Creamy Mushrooms

Sound good? Here's what you'll need to serve 4 people:

•  4 pork steaks, you'll need to hammer them flat with a rolling pin or bottom of a saucepan, about half a cm thick. Remember to put clingfilm either side of the meat before hitting!
• Flour to coat the pork
• 2 eggs
• Enough breadcrumbs to coat the pork, (I used two slices of bread put in the blender)
• 7-8 potatoes, enough to serve 4, cut into 2cm cubes
• 4 cloves of garlic
• fresh rosemary
• fresh thyme
• 1 pack of button mushrooms
• About 100ml of cream, you can use less or more, or even use a roux sauce instead. 

Method

  First off, peel and chop your potatoes. Now put them in a pan of cold and salted water and bring them to the boil. Now let them simmer until they are starting to soften.

Meanwhile start preparing the pork. Hammer out the pork nice and thin, it makes the meat much more tender too so hammer away as much as you want. Now coat each steak in flour, then egg and finally in breadcrumbs and set aside.

Drain the softened potatoes and toss them around in the strainer until they go fluffy on the outside.

In a deep frying pan heat some oil and throw in the chopped garlic. Now put the potatoes in and then the rosemary and thyme. You should put some salt pepper and a good tablespoon of sugar, I used brown. Now toss the potatoes in the pan and make sure they are all coated.

Get everything into a oven dish and chuck it in the oven on about 180C for 20 minutes.

Now you can start frying the pork schnitzels. Heat a good amount of oil or butter in a pan and then put the schnitzels in, don't have a too high heat because the breadcrumbs will burn before the meat inside is cooked through.

On a medium heat keep turning the steaks over until the breadcrumbs are golden brown. You can chop the mushrooms in the mean time. Now remove from the heat and keep them warm in an oven on low or under some foil.

Now fry the chopped mushrooms until they start to shrink and add the cream. I like to add a good bit of butter, some garlic and even some mixed italian herbs. Don't forget salt and pepper!

Once the potatoes are done serve and enjoy!

Risebbo (Risotto)

Risotto!

Sorry for the lack of posts in the last few weeks coursework unfortunately has been taking over my life for the past month and I'm afraid today will be the only short respite for some time...

Anyway I promised a chicken recipe some time ago and finally, here it is!

Risebbo - Chicken, Zucchini and Lemon Risotto.

What you'll need to make this recipe: (Serves 8 people so divide your ingredients accordingly!)

• 4 Chicken breasts
• 2 large zucchini (or courgette)
• An onion or two shallots
• 4 cloves of garlic
• A lemon or two (or some lemon juice)
• 1kg of arborio rice
• 3 litres of stock (chicken is best but vegetable or anything else is fine)
• Fresh basil and thyme
• Dried spices such as cumin and coriander 

1. Chop the onion and throw in a large deep frying pan with plenty of oil or butter

2. Crush and chop the garlic and add it in.

3. Once the onion is starting to soften add the chicken chopped into small bite size peices.

4. Now add the dried spices such as cumin, coriander and some salt, pepper and sugar. You can add others if you wish but this is what I used to start with.

5. Squeeze about a tablespoon of lemon juice into the pan with the chicken, remembering to keep stirring and shaking the pan to seal the chicken all over.

6. Grate about a quarter of one lemon's zest into the pan

7. Once the chicken is sealed (white all over with no pink showing) turn down the heat and add the sliced zucchini. I sliced mine length ways using a peeler and also in circles.

8. Once the zucchini starts to soften add the rice.

9. If the pan gets very full you may want to split the ingredients into two pans at this point. I used two because you add a large volume of stock which could overflow the pan.

10. Make sure all the rice is coated and shiny on all sides. Now add stock to cover the rice, bring to the boil and then turn the heat right down again and allow to simmer.

11. Once the level of the liquid falls below the level of rice, add more stock and repeat until all the stock is gone.

12. Continue to simmer, adding more lemon and seasoning to taste, until there is no stock visible and the rice is fully cooked. It should still have a slight bite to it but not crunchy at all.

13. Add some cream if you have any and grate a small amount of cheese if you wish or let your guests grate thier own. 

 14. Serve with slices of lemon and parmesan or any cheese you fancy

Remember, remember...

The 5th of November!

 A rhyme I never really understood because the bit you need to remember is the word "5th" but that doesn't rhyme with the anything else in the poem so it doesn't actually help you remember?? (Unless you remember how stupid the rhyme is)

So unfortunately there was no cooking done today due to the fireworks:

B

 Don't panic! Here's a quick recipe to get you in the mood for some cooking! (And eating)

Cornish Pasties

Now technically these aren't Cornish unless you are actually in Cornwall but its the style that counts!

Ingredients (for each pasty)

• 150g of shortcrust pastry
• 50g of beef. Use lean steak mince, cut up frying steak, or even Quorn mince!
• 50g of vegetables. Onion and potato are essential, other favourites are carrot, swede, sweet potato and butternut squash.
• 50ml of any stock
• About 20g of flour
• Half a beaten egg for brushing (I realise you can't get half an egg out the fridge but I expect you will make at least two at a time!)

Method

Start by boiling your vegetables for 10 minutes or until cooked. Now fry off the onion in oil or butter, now add the beef and brown. Remember to season well with salt, pepper and a sprinkle of sugar (brown preferably). Add the stock (beef is best but by all means use chicken or vegetable) and the vegetables, bring to boil and simmer for about 5 minutes or until the beef is cooked through. Now add a teaspoon of flour at a time and keep stirring until the mixture is fairly thick and gloopy, then take off the heat and leave to cool.

Meanwhile roll your pastry to about the thickness of a pound coin. Aim for an oval or circle shape. Now spoon the beef mix into the centre and fold the pastry over. Now using a fork press the top layer of pastry hard into the bottom layer all the way around the pastry (apart from the back). Now roll the side you have just forked with your hand up towards the beef mix, making it tight, and finally push it down. Brush over the join with beaten egg and put in the oven.

Bake at 180C for about 10 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown! Serve with ketchup or another yummy condiment. 

Lasagne!

Lasagne!

Lasagne is a classic Italian pasta dish, made with bolognese sauce and cheese sauce layered between sheets of pasta. It's really easy to make once you have the two sauces sorted in your head so if you're a spag-bog god then move onto LASAGNE!

 Ingredients

• Bolognese Sauce
• 500g of mince
• an onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• Tin of chopped tomatoes
• Tablespoon of tomato puree
• Fresh basil
• Herbs and spices to taste

• Cheese Sauce
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 350ml of milk (just under 3/4 pint)
• Tablespoon of flour, heaped and sifted
• A handful of cheese

• Lasagne sheets (usually one pack isn't enough so buy two or three, they are so cheap!)

Method

Make the cheese sauce and leave to cool. Here's how:

Whack the butter in and wait until it melts, now add the milk in and wait about 30 seconds, finally sift in the flour and use a hand whisk (use a plastic one if you have a non-stick pan) to mix it in. Add the cheese and keep stirring until it starts to thicken and then immediately take off the heat.

Now make the bolognese sauce;

Chop the onion and garlic and add to the frying pan with some oil. Fry until soft and translucent. Now add the mince and brown it. Throw the tomato puree and chopped tomatoes in, give it a stir and add the spices, herbs and fresh basil. Now leave to simmer while you sort out the lasagne sheets.

Get a caserole dish and grease it if you wish. Put enough bolognese sauce in to just cover the bottom. Now place the sheets on top, don't be afraid to snap them into shapes to fit the dish, you should cover the sauce and try to overlap the sheets just a little. Now pour over the cheese sauce and again cover in sheets of lasagne, repeat until you run out of something or fill the dish. Finally top with cheese sauce and a sprinkle of cheese and put in the oven at about 180C for roughly 10 minutes or until the cheese on top is browning.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Tart

Chocolate Tart

This evening I rustled up a chocolate tart and it was delicious! Yet again an incredibly simple dessert that packs a powerfully chocolaty punch!

What you'll need to make this amazing dish:

• 500g of shortcrust pastry, roll to about 3-5mm thickness
• 200g dark chocolate
• 75g butter
• 4 eggs
• 100g golden caster sugar (normal caster will do)
• 50g of plain flour, sifted
• cocoa powder for dusting

 Start of by lining the pie dish with the pastry and baking for 12 minutes at 170C. You can cover it with a smaller dish, rice or ceramic balls if you wish but it's not necessary.

Next melt 150g of the chocolate with the butter and leave to cool. 

Now beat the eggs into the sugar, add in the flour, then the chocolate mix and whisk it all together.

Finally bake for about 8 minutes or until it's just set. I like mine slightly runny inside, if you're the same increase the temperature to about 190C and decrease the time to about 6-7 minutes.

Dust with cocoa powder and drizzle the last 50g of chocolate over the top!

Squidgy Battered Sausage and Hand-Cut Lovely Chippy Chips

Squidgy Battered Sausage and Hand-Cut Lovely Chippy Chips...

 

...Is officially the longest title of Student Cookery history!

This an easy meal and a bit of a treat as it's not toooooo healthy, but you don't feel too guilty, there are ways to trim down the calories and make it a healthy treat too!

The Chips

OK start of by washing your potatoes (no peeling necessary!) cutting into chip shapes about 1-2cm square ends. Chuck them in a pan of salted water, bring to boil and simmer for 10 minutes or until they are just soft when you give em' a poke.

Now heat up a good amount of oil in a pan, you can use low fat oil to reduce the calories, but really any will do the job. Try not to use a strong flavoured oil like olive as it will transfer the taste to your chips...

If you have a cooking thermometer about 140C should do the trick, chuck in the chippy chips and make sure they are all covered, now make sure you keep a close eye and don't over heat your oil!

Once the chips are turning golden brown they should be ready to go! Crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, just like me.

The Squidgy Sausage

For the sausages, you want to get about 3 sausages per person and remove the skin. Chop a spring onion, thyme, basil and throw a minced garlic in too if you fancy it. Get your hands in there and get them all mixed together, then shape into thin sausage shapes.

In a bowl mix about half a mug of flour with an egg, a tea spoon of baking powder and a splash of milk. If the consistency is too thick add milk, too thin add flour. You want it to be fairly thick to stick to the sausages.

Roll the sausages in flour then coat in the batter, throw (carefully) into the pan of hot oil and remove once they are golden brown, make sure you check the inside of each one before eating! (This is why we make thin sausages!)

If you are a brilliant person serve with mayonnaise with a bit of ketchup mixed in!