food, reviews and of course coffee
Having really enjoyed the Mexico City Nachos from Wahaca, I decided I would have a go at making them myself.
I used some tinned black beans, I added some tortilla chips, and then dressed the dish with guacamole, chorizo, sour cream, grated cheese and a homemade salsa.
It was a really nice and fresh dish, and was a good copy of the dish I had in London.
I did a variation before with refried beans and homemade pink pickled onions, which was also a good copy.
This is a regular dish in our house.
I take salmon fillets. To these I had the zest of a lemon, lemon juice, crushed garlic, salt, pepper and a splash of olive oil.
I bake these in the oven for twenty minutes.
I usually serve these with a vegetable risotto.
This is a different recipe to one I have used before.
85g of unsalted butter
100g of light brown sugar
30g of caster sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
200g of gluten free plain flour
½ teaspoon of xanthan gum
75g of white chocolate chips
1 large egg
Preheat the oven to 180℃ and line two baking trays with baking parchment.
Add the butter to a heat-proof mixing bowl. Melt the butter in a microwave for approx 50 seconds, until just liquid. Ensure it has fully melted.
Add the brown sugar and caster sugar to the warm butter, stir well.
Now the add the vanilla essence and the egg. Mix into a smooth batter consistency.
Sift the plain gluten free flour and xanthan gum into the batter and combine into a soft shiny cookie dough.
Add the white chocolate chips
Spoon the dough onto the baking trays and flatten the dough mix into cookies.
Put them into the oven to bake for 10-12 minutes.
They are ready when they are starting to brown slightly but will still be very soft. Leave them on the tray to cool for five to ten minutes before transferring carefully to a wire rack to cool.
This recipe makes about twelve cookies.
In a large pan, gently melt 150g of dark chocolate, 50g of butter and 3 large spoons of Golden Syrup. The key here is gently, too harsh then the butter and chocolate will burn. Once it has melted then leave for 15 minutes. You need to leave it to cool down otherwise when you add the marshmallows they will melt.
Crush some gluten free biscuits. I used some gluten free shortbread from Tesco. I also added about 50g of gluten free rice cereal as well, for added crunch. Then add 50g of small marshmallows.
This mixture is then stirred carefully to ensure that all the ingredients are coated in the chocolate mixture.
Spoon the mixture into either a greased lined baking tray or a foil tray. Press down into the tray and ensure that it is evenly spread.
Then sprinkle the top of the rocky road with decorations. I used small marshmallows.
Chill in the fridge and then cut into squares or slices.
I have had pickled red onion when I have been out for meals at Wahaca and Wagamama. It was something that I had thought about making myself. I have had success in making quick pickled peppers for salads, so thought I could do it.
I thinly sliced a red onion and then added salt, white wine vinegar and a small amount of sugar. I then added some dried Italian herbs as well.
This I then left for a few hours. I then drained it in a sieve and served with a salad. It was rather nice.
Back in the 1980s I do remember seeing packs of yellow savoury rice, often branded Golden Vegetable or similar. I also remember never having it and never buying it.
Over the last few years (or is that decades) I have been cooking Spanish inspired rice dishes (which I have been known to call paella), and a range of risotto dishes. When cooking paella and risotto I always use a specialist rice to ensure that it cooks right.
Well there I was cooking dinner and we decided on a rice dish, however I had no paella or risotto rice in the cupboard. I did however have some long grain rice. So reviewing a few recipes I came up with the following recipe.
1 onion
1 small red pepper
3 or 4 mushrooms
Pack of diced smoked pancetta
200g long grain rice
600ml boiling water
Knorr Chicken Stock Pot
1 teaspoon of Morrisons Chicken Seasoning
Tomatoes
Fresh parsley
Dice the onion, red pepper and mushrooms.
In a large frying pan, heat some olive oil.
Cook off the pancetta.
Add the onions and pepper and cook until softened.
Add the diced mushrooms and cook for another minute.
Stir in the rice.
Stir the stock pot into the boiling water and add to the rice mixture. Add the chicken seasoning.
Simmer for fifteen minutes until the rice is cooked.
Garnish the rice with chopped fresh tomato and chopped parsley.
We had our rice dish with some fish and salad.
I was wanting to make some gluten free chocolate muffins, and though I have been using this recipe recently I didn’t have any yoghurt in the fridge so needed to do something different.
175g gluten free self-raising flour
1 tsp gluten free baking powder
2 tbsp cocoa powder
125g golden caster sugar
125g softened unsalted butter
2 medium eggs
100g dark chocolate chips
20g of dark chocolate chunks for decoration
1 tbsp milk
Heat oven to 180C or 160C fan and line a 12-hole muffin tin with 8 paper cases.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and creamy.
Beat in one of the eggs and then beat in the second egg.
Mix in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, chocolate chips and the milk.
Stir until smooth.
I bought my paper cases from Amazon, though I later found similar ones in Waitrose.
Spoon the mixture into the eight cases and then sprinkle the chocolate chunks on top.
Bake in the oven for twenty minutes so that they are firm to touch.
Put onto a cooling rack.
Eat.
This is not an authentic recipe for chilli con carne, but a dish I cook that has lots of flavour, is spicy, contains, beef, tomatoes, beans and chilli.
This dish serves 4-5
500g steak mince the 5% fat kind. You can use cheaper mince, but I find I often need to drain the excess fat after cooking off the mince.
Tin of tomatoes. We did for a while use cheap tins of tomatoes, but found that they lacked flavour so generally now use a quality brand. I use a blender to break down the tomatoes into a passata style base. If I had a carton or bottle of passata in the cupboard I may just use that instead of the tin.
Tin of kidney beans. For this dish I find the budget range fine.
Tomato puree. Like the tin of tomatoes, I have found budget brands of tomato puree okay for some dishes, but this I want that real hit of tomato, so got for a better quality version.
Two onions, diced. Sometimes I use brown onions, other times I use red onions, depends what’s in the fridge.
Red pepper, diced.
One carrot, diced. This is about “hiding” some more veg in the chilli, as well as adding texture and a little sweetness.
Cajun spicing (optional)
Chilli powder
Garlic powder, though you could use fresh.
A beef stock cube
A splash of Balsamic vinegar.
To cook the chilli I do the following steps.
Heat a large pot (or pan) and then add a little sunflower oil.
Cook off the mince in the pan, ensuring that it is evenly cooked through. If you have used a mince with 10% or higher fat content then drain off the excess fat.
Add the onions, pepper and carrot and stir into the mince.
Cook for five minutes, stirring every so often.
Add the Cajun spicing, chilli powder and garlic powder, stir into the mince. I generally use half a teaspoon of each. If you like your chilli spicier then add more Cajun spicing, if you like it hotter than add more chilli.
I might try using fresh chilli in a future version, this I would chop (and deseed) and add with the onions and pepper.
Cook for another minute.
Stir in the tomatoes and tomato puree. Sprinkle in the beef stock cube and the splash of Balsamic vinegar.
Stir, put on a lid and cook on a low heat for thirty minutes.
Add the tin of kidney beans and cook for five more minutes.
Serve.
I serve it either with rice or tortilla chips. Sometimes I use the chilli to fill soft (gluten free) corn tortillas, which I cover with cheese and then bake in the oven.
I made myself some chicken bao buns for my lunch.
I took some cooked chicken I had in the fridge. I heated up the chicken by pan frying and adding some miso sauce.
I used some bao buns from M&S, I microwaved the bao buns to heat them through.
Once the chicken was hot, I added it to the bao buns, I added some shredded romaine lettuce and then added some Yo! Japanese Creamy Mayonnaise.
I then folded the bao buns and ate them.
We made some gluten free white chocolate chip muffins.
Ingredients
100g unsalted butter softened, plus 1 tbsp, melted, for greasing
140g golden caster sugar
2 large eggs
140g natural yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk
250g plain gluten free flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g pack white chocolate chips
Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
I bought my paper cases from Amazon, though I later found the kind I like in Waitrose.
Beat the butter and caster sugar together until pale and fluffy. Then add the eggs and beat in for about a minute. You then need to mix in the yogurt, vanilla extract and milk. Combine the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl with ¼ tsp fine salt.
Add this into the wet ingredients and stir in. Finally, fold in the white chocolate chips and divide the mixture between the muffin cases.
Bake for 5 mins, then reduce oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and bake for 15-18 mins more until risen and golden, and a metal skewer inserted into the muffin comes out clean.
Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then carefully lift out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Will keep for 3-4 days in an airtight container.
You can after a day or two, pop them in the microwave for 10-15 secs on high to freshen up.