Category: recipe

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Rhubarb Crumble

Rhubarb

Over the last year or so I have been attempting cooking more deserts. One that has worked well for me has been rhubarb crumble.

The way I make this is I take some nice fresh rhubarb, cut it into half inch chunks, place in a saucepan, add a glass of white wine and some sugar and cook for about ten minutes.

The recipe I did look at talked about using port, well I didn’t have any port, but I did have some white wine in the fridge so I used that.

In terms of sugar, a lot depends on how sweet you like your crumble, I personally prefer a slightly more tart fruit filling over a sugary sweet one, so add sugar to taste.

Leave the fruit mixture to cool and make the crumble topping (or cheat and buy one).

Place the fruit mixture into a dish and top with the crumble mixture.

At this point, if I have made a few, I will place the spare ones in the freezer. If I want to eat it now place in a medium oven for 20 minutes or until the crumble starts to brown or the fruit bubbles through.

Serve with custard (or cream if you are that way inclined).

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Persian Jewelled Rice

Persian Jewelled RiceI’ve had a jar of Tesco Persian Jewelled Rice Paste in my cupboard for a while. Having a little time today I decided to go ahead and use it.

I took some onion, pepper, courgette and mushrooms and sauted them off in a frying pan with a little butter and oil.

I then added the Jewelled Rice Paste and cooked it off for a couple of minutes. I then added 200g of basmati rice and 400ml of boiling water.

Placed a lid on the frying pan and let the rice simmer for 15-20 minutes until the rice had absorbed the liquid and was tender.

With spices and citrus flavours, it was really very nice. It was quite dry so you might need some sauce or chutney to go with it. According to the jar it recommended having chicken in the dish, I didn’t I went with vegetables instead.

It’s not “cheap” at £1.99, but the thing is with a dish like this, that you have basically cooked yourself, it does taste a lot fresher than reheating a chilled ready meal from the fridge. I think in the future I might have a go at making my own version of the paste using the ingredients as a guide.

Orange Juice From Concentrate (26%),Carrot (25%) ,Sultanas (10%) (Sultanas, Sunflower Oil) ,Lemon Juice From Concentrate (7%) ,Onion Purée ,Orange Zest (5%) ,Butter ,Vegetable Oil ,Sugar ,Cinnamon Powder ,Cornflour ,Sea Salt ,Roasted Cumin Seed ,Black Pepper ,Ground Cardamom ,Ground Saffron.

Overall I found it an easy dish to make and it was really nice to eat.

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Spicy Linguine

Though I am calling this spicy, it isn’t that spicy, you could of course make it more spicy, if you like your food really spicy.

What I do like about this recipe is that it is very quick and easy.

In a large pan of boiling water cook some linguine. I use De Cecco Linguine as it cooks well, tastes great and works with a range of sauces.

Whilst the linguine is cooking (takes 10-11 minutes) in a large frying pan I cook off some onions and pancetta, to which I then add slices of cooking chorizo.

I ensure that the chorizo is cooked before removing from the heat. There will be a fair bit of fat cooked off from the chorizo and the pancetta, so you might want to drain off this before adding the contents of the pan to the cooked linguine.

Once the lingine is cooked, drain and add half a jar of red pesto and the cooked onion, chorizo and pancetta.

Serve.

You could add red pepper to add some more spice and chilli if you want heat too.

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Lemon Bars

Last week I made Toffee Nut Slices using this recipe. In the same copy of BBC Good Food Magazine and using the same base was a recipe for Lemon Bars.

These are simple to make and really tasty and lemony. Someone who ate mine described it a bit like eating lemon meringue pie.

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Toffee Nut Slices

I made some toffee nut slices that were really tasty, so tasty that I forgot to take a photograph.

However all is not lost as you can see a picture on the recipe that I used. I did alter the recipe slightly in that I added fruit and nuts from a fruit and nut mix. My “slices” were also much thicker than the ones in the picture.

First time I had ever used Carnation Caramel and thought it wasn’t that bad and quite easy to use.

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Lentils with Chorizo

This is warming dish, usually suited for winter, but also ideal for those cold wet autumn days.

In a large frying pan, saute some diced onions, pepper and pancetta. I added some stock and tomato puree and simmered for about ten minutes before adding the sliced cooking chorizo. This I cooked for a further five minutes.

The next stage was to add the lentils, I usually use tinned green lentils. I finished the dish with some basil, though parsley would have been better. I did in fact (as you can see from the photograph) serve this with some cooked sausages, but this probably isn’t necessary.

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Steak with Peppercorn and Mushroom Sauce

A simple but delicious recipe for steak. In this case I used rump steak, but generally I now prefer ribeye.

I seasoned the steak with crushed peppercorns.

I took a heavy based frying pan and placed it on the heat. I put in a splash of olive oil and once this was hot placed the steak in the pan.

Cook the steak to your liking, I cooked mine to medium.

Once the steak is cooked, remove to a warm plate and let it rest.

Add the mushrooms to the frying pan and cook on a high heat. After cooking the mushrooms, remove and then remove the pan from the heat and then add some creme frache or cream.

I sliced (carved) my steak and then added the sauce and mushrooms.

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Grilled chicken on green lentils

 Grilled chicken on green lentils

For the grilled chicken, take a chicken breast, I used a free range corn fed chicken breast which I flattened with my hand (though you could take a rolling pin to it). I seasoned the chicken with seasoning and olive oil before placing under a hot grill for 15-20 minutes.

For the lentils eat a frying pan and add some chopped pancetta. There is no need to add any extra oil as there is usually sufficient fat in the pancetta.

Pancetta

Finely chop an onion. Add the onion to the frying pan with the pancetta.

I softened in a frying pan, the finely chopped onion with the pancetta. When the onion was nicely soft I then added some red wine and beef stock before simmering it down.

I use beef stock over chicken stock just because of the colour rather than flavour. I then reduced and reduced this.

Then add some sliced mushrooms.

I then added the green lentils, I used a tin, for convenience and speed. Once the lentils had heated through I then plated up.

On go the lentils and then slice the grilled chicken and place on top.

Serve with steamed vegetables.

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Beef Wellington

This is my version of the classic Beef Wellington.

Beef Wellington

I used sirloin steak, which I cooked in a pan until it was cooked medium rare. You can of course cook the steak how you prefer it. Ensure it is cooked to a point before you would call it perfect, as it will cook more in the oven.

I then cut the steak into portions, about two inches square.

The steak was then spread with a mixture of chopped mushrooms and mustard. I used French whole grain mustard.

Using some puff pastry (and I will admit I do buy ready made puff pastry as I have no idea on how to make it).

I cut out some circles, about four inches in diameter. Placed one circle on the baking tray, added the steak. Using beaten egg and a pastry brush I brushed egg around the edges of the circle and placed a second circle of puff pastry on top. This top puff pastry circle was then brushed with beaten egg.

The parcels were then baked in an oven for about ten to fifteen minutes until golden brown.

I served mine with a mix of salads.