#quick supper

Kale of the century

The kitchen cupboards are full of butterbeans, lentils and chickpeas and the pot-bellied white wire basket on the counter kept loaded with eggs as much possible. There is mild panic when it starts to look empty, each one being precious. If I were to list things this kitchen should never be without, eggs would be right behind onions. It may even be a photo finish.   To keep things running smoothly,…

Why you don’t need to stick to the recipe

From www.lookitcookit.tumblr.com

Recipes - and I’m not talking about cakes and pastries here - are for those who are hesitant about cooking. This is what I mean:

When you are baking it’s essential to stick to the recipe, so you get the perfect balance of the main ingredients: eggs, sugar, butter and flour.  For almost anything else - soup, sauces, marinades, seasonings - you can substitute some of the ingredients and vary what you add.

Here is an example. I found a recipe for cooking beef quickly, in a moderate oven. I had little faith that it would work as the recommended cooking time was 12-16 minutes in a 180C/350F oven. Quick cooking is usually done under a grill, or roasting at a high temperature.

I was determined to try out London Broil with date syrup and pomegranate. Only problem was I had no date syrup or pomegranate.  Also I didn’t have red onion, fresh garlic cloves or parsley, so that makes five ingredients I was missing. The original recipe suggests marinading a cut of beef called London Broil (thin and with almost no fat) in a sweet syrup and cooking it briefly in a moderate oven.  

For my London Broil without date syrup I marinaded the meat (500g) in a mixture of 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon grated ginger and 1 tablespoon golden syrup (as opposed to the 250ml suggested date syrup).  I put everything in a ziplock bag and left it in the fridge for several hours, then cooked it as instructed: 8 minutes on each side. To my surprise (and amazement) the beef came out tender, slightly pink and with a delicious flavour.

While it was cooking I steamed some basmati rice with a few slivers of cinnamon bark and boiled some fine green beans. I must admit it would have looked prettier with the pomegranate seeds, but otherwise the irreverent way I fiddled with the recipe meant that the dish I produced was more to my taste and seemed very successful.

The Chicken and Plums I put up recently was also tweaked a bit. Instead of the required fennel seeds, coriander seeds, demarara sugar and red wine vinegar with chicken on a bed of celery, I used onions instead for the roasting and a similar marinade to the one described above.

Corn Cheese Toast Recipe Kids are much fond of corn. At the same time, it is very healthy for the body. So give the toast in a wonderful taste with cheese and corn for kids who are hungry in the evening. This will reduce their hunger and they will eat with eagerness. Here’s how to make a Corn cheese toast. Prepare at your home and share with us how it is tasted. Ingredients Bread – 6 pieces Onion…

Fritter the days away

Now I’m an adult (at least physically and legally) I can choose to eat cold, soggy cheeseburgers and limp fries for breakfast in a bowling alley on a Saturday morning if I like. I didn’t really like, but seeing as the 12 children we were taking out for Noah and Maya’s birthday party were demolishing an early lunch, I thought it only polite to go down with the ship and tuck in myself.

And the…

Ingredients ( for 2 servings)

1 packet ready soaked barley, spelt

Fresh stock or ( 1 x stock cube)

1 fillet of sea trout x 2

Baby gem lettuce x 2

Tomatoes x handful (approx 8 small per serving)

Samphire x handful

Carrot x 1

Pomegranate seeds x handful /sprinkling

Salt , pepper,

Fresh lemon x 1/2

How to Make

Clean your fish pat dry and remove any extra bones – salt and pepper

Put your barley & spelt  into a pan add 50 ml of stock and 270g fresh spinach summer on low heat for 4-5mins

Make Carrot spagehtti by using a julienne peeler (cheaper than a spiralizer) no cooking as this will be kept raw

Add oil and butter to frying pan get it hot. Add your trout ,skin down ,don’t touch for 4 minutes allow skin to crispen

Add tomatoes , baby gem lettuce (you wanted it scorched not braised so let it cook for 3-5 minutes without turning)  and samphire and allow to warm through and colour slightly .

Turn fish onto flesh side and cook for 1-2 minutes

Plate up

Add raw carrot spaghetti  and pomegranate sprinkled onto plate

Add barley, spelt and spinach

Place fish on top

Grate fresh lemon rind and juice over the cooked fish

Seafood pasta

Sometimes I need a dish that’s just simple and fresh; certainly easy to cook after a day at work. Fish always falls into that category and while we know that fresh is best, fish freezes remarkably well. I’ve always got some in the freezer.

The other day, needing a quick meal, I knew I’d got some squid rings and uncooked large prawns languishing in plastic bags in the freezer. I called at the…

Yummy home-made burgers! Yum!

Being the fussy eater I am (and being wheat-free) finding food that I will eat and my family will eat is hard. (Especially as my father is going through a weird *let's make this week's shop the cheapest ever in the world ever!*)

Things I don't like:

Onions mushrooms fish seafood oranges cabbage bananas Cinnamon nutmug ginger pineapple lamb... It's actually far easier to list things i 'do' eat. And of course I can't eat wheat anymore, and have the added issue of hating to touch raw chicken (my favorite meat)...so really, its just stupidly hard to find something that i would like to eat.

Thankfully, I have these awesome burgers. It's a recipe I made up, and my dad loves it too. It's sweet and spicy, and has NO ONIONS!!

Ingredients (for 250g of mince):

mince beef (I use 250g for two people, but that makes pretty small ones) 4 tbs sweet chilli sauce 2 tsp hot chilli powder 1 tsp paprika 1 chilli cut very finely and de-seeded (green or red but they do give flavors) salt and pepper to season smush it altogether. form into burgers (patties). stick it in a grill! Don't worry about parts of the chilli falling out as you cook it, and don't worry about it being really moist, and lots of liquid coming out because its the sweet chilli sauce coming out as well as the fat.

Taken from my student days, where we used to buy sainsbury's basics salmon trimmings for under £2. This is my idea of comfort food and If you use fresh pasta, it only takes five minutes.