Wednesday 29 August 2012

Creamy but Healthy Chicken Curry



This is one of my favourite Chicken Curry recipes from Anjum Anand, I have to say it never looks that great but tatses fantastic and is quite healthy but don't use low fat yoghurt as it will curdle! I use Total Greek Yoghurt.

http://www.anjumanand.co.uk/2010/12/recipe-of-the-month-yoghurt-chicken-curry/

Tuesday 21 August 2012

Lakeland Lunch


We often call at Lakeland on our way back from working in Keswick. Today we had time for lunch!
I had a very tasty Wild Field Mushroom and Cheese Bruschetta served with Rocket, Sun Dried Tomatoes and Smoked Tomato Chutney, easy enough to make at home too! Dunc had an Open Sandwich of Prawns and Smoked Salmon - looked delicious!

My favourite purchase today is a Temperature Probe, as recommended by Heston. I tried his method of cooking fish in oil or stock by temperature (using my sugar thermometer) and it keeps the fish amazingly moist so I've treated myself to the proper gadget for the job :-)

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/12333/Digital-Thermometer

Bagels!




Watching Great British Bake Off - anyone got a tried and tested recipe for Bagels - they look a bit tricky but would like to try!

Monday 20 August 2012

Veggie Quesadilla

My last post with a Quesadilla recipe is proving to be really popular so here's another!





Veggie food is not my speciality but for those of you who aren't meat eaters this does sound really tasty!

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2320654/grilled-courgette-bean-and-cheese-quesadilla

Sunday 19 August 2012

Jamie's Restaurant Tried & Tested - Union Jacks Covent Garden




Today's post is not a recipe but a tried and tested restaurant -Jamie Oliver's Union Jacks in Covent Garden

http://www.unionjacksrestaurants.com/

We shared a few starters of Chicken Livers, Bloody Mary Mussels and Smoked Trout with Baby Yorkies - all delicious. The livers were very tender served on toasted bread, the mussels served in a spicy thai style sauce and the trout with yorkies - inspirational! Main for me was a flatbread pizza the 'Woodman', a crispy base with mixed mushrooms, Westcombe Cheddar, red onions, chervil and tarragon and Marc chose the Empire Chicken -Indian spiced chicken with Bombay potatoes, Carrot salad and coriander yoghurt - both delicious. I abstained from a dessert but had a little taste of Earl Grey Ice Cream and Rhubarb Ice Cream both almost a cross betwwen an ice cream and a sorbet, might have a full portion next time!

Jamie uses local produce as much as possible and has a few English wines on the menu, the Chapel Down Rose was great!

Friday 17 August 2012

"The Best Salad I've Ever Eaten"!!

So a few days a week I make lunch for the lovely couple I work for, sometimes it's a ready made salad from M&S but quite frankly I'm sick to death of buying the same old same old so I guess they must be bored of eating them. The last few weeks I've been experimenting a bit more and today I made a Salad of Radish, Figs, Walnuts and Blue Cheese, they said it was the best salad they've ever eaten and believe me they eat in some very nice places !




The recipe was courtesy of the great Delicious magazine but unfortunately it's not on their web site yet but this is pretty much it!



For the English Cream dressing mix 3 tabespoons English mustard with 50ml white wine vinegar, add 225ml single cream and a couple of pinches each of salt and sugar, this makes quite a lot of dressing but can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.



For the salad, place a mixture of rocket and salad leaves in a bowl with thickly sliced radishes, quartered figs, chopped walnuts and chopped mint, mix in enough dressing to coat the salad leaves. Arrange salad on plates, scatter over Roquefort or other creamy blue cheese, a few more walnuts and a tablespoon of crushed coriander seeds.

Wednesday 15 August 2012

Chicken inYoghurt & Harissa with Rice Salad



Made this for lunch today with a few minor changes, I used skinless chicken breasts and baked in the oven. I also left out the wild rice as it's not my favourite thing! The dressing for the rice salad was really fresh, overall a very nice lunch dish.

http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/yogurt-and-harissa-chicken-and-rice-salad

Monday 13 August 2012

Foodie TV

Loving all the foodie tv tonight, Masterchef, Lorraine Pascal and Simply Italian - not seen that before!

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Gratin of Fish with Cheese, Tomatoes and Herbs


Made this tonight with a few changes. I lined the dish with some sliced cooked new potatoes, added the fish with the halved cherry tomatoes and then put all the cheese and cream mixture on top - quick, easy and tasty! Thanks for the inspiration Rachel Allen.

http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/573824




Sunday 5 August 2012

Raymond Blanc's Chicken Liver Parfait

I first posted this recipe last April and it's had the most page views, I need to buy this terrine from Lakeland before I make it again! Think I'll try the Salmon Terrine that's in their latest brochure too!

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/16035/Lakeland-Terrine




Thursday 2 August 2012

Chorizo, Potato & Thyme Quesadillas




Here's another Quesadilla recipe I came across in my box of recipes to try:

http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/529187/chorizo-potato-and-thyme-quesadillas

Squid & Potatoes

I've had Ravinder Bhogal's 'Cook in Boots' book for a while now and a couple of months ago made a list of recipes I wanted to try. Squid and Potatoes was one of them but I've not been able to buy squid for ages - don't know why! Anyway today I bought some and was not disappointed. It's a really easy recipe which just involves boiling chunks of waxy potatoes until fluffy round the edges and then frying (!) them in olive oil and butter with some bashed garlic cloves and bay leaf,quickly chargrill prepared squid, put in pan with potatoes, add a couple of teaspoons of sweet paprika and juice from half a lemon, add some chopped parsley and serve drizzled with a little more olive oil - DELICIOUS!