food, reviews and of course coffee
This is a nice accompaniment to many different dishes.
Take some new potatoes and boil for about fifteen to twenty minutes, drain (and importantly allow to dry).
In a large frying pan, fry off some pancetta and rosemary before adding the potatoes. Cook the potatoes and if required crush and then serve.
Take four organic chicken thighs (now you could use chicken breast, but personally I feel that the thighs have more flavour). Remove the bone, but leave the skin on.
In a bowl add the boned chicken thighs, the zest and juice of two lemons (before adding the juice of the lemons, cut some slices as a garnish). Add some parsley, rosemary and black pepper. I also added onion and olive oil. You could use some garlic if you like.
Marinade the chicken for about an hour, longer if you like your chicken really lemony.
Heat a griddle pan (or you could use the barbecue) and cook the chicken, skin side down (this should lower the amount of fat as well as getting nice and crispy skin).
Once the skin side is golden brown, turn over and cook the flesh side until cooked.
Serve with salad or vegetables.
I served mine with crushed new potatoes and coleslaw.
I do enjoy duck and a simple roasted duck breast is a relatively quick and easy dish to make.
For this recipe I will focus on the duck over the accompaniments.
This is a nice dish for a dinner party and can be prepared quickly and easily.
Take some pork medallions (thick slices of pork tenderloin) and place them on slices of apple – I peeled and cored the apple. Place a basil leaf and then wrap round a slice of pancetta bacon.
Place in a roasting dish and splash with olive oil and season with ground black pepper.
Roast in the oven for twenty to thirty minutes until cooked. I made one mistake which was to roast them in a pan, when they really needed a grill pan.
Serve.
This morning I had a different cup of Illy. I have been buying the strength 4 tins (red) however yesterday I bought the strength 5 tin (black).
I was well impressed with the coffee I made, delicious.
BBC reports on an interview with Jamie Oliver.
Jamie Oliver says he plans to revisit his school dinners campaign because he is not satisfied with the government’s action on the issue.
The celebrity chef challenged the junk food culture and pressed for healthier school meals during his campaign.
Makes for interesting reading.
One think about healthier school dinners is that it is not just about changing the food, it’s also about educating the children and importantly the parents too.
One of my favourite sausages is the merguez sausage.
This is a North African spicy lamb and beef sausage that is really nice and meaty with a hot and spicy taste.
Merguez is made with lamb or beef, and flavoured with a wide range of spices, such as sumac for tartness, and paprika, cayenne, or harissa, a hot chilli paste that gives it a red colour.
I have had Merguez sausages in Cafe Rouge and have had trouble finding them for sale in my local suppliers.
However was pleased to find them in Taste.
Just grilled they were delicious.
Went out for dinner tonight, a spur of the moment kind of thing at a local pub.
For starters I went for what sounded like an interesting dish.
It consisted of slices of Bury black pudding topped with goat’s cheese and cranberry sauce.
Overall it was interesting but not really anything special. It lacked flavour and there was way too much salad on the plate.
One dish I seem to make much more on a regular basis is pan roasted chicken.
This is an easy and quicker dish than a simple roast chicken in many ways.
Start off with some chicken, either joint a whole chicken, or buy some thighs and legs (they have more flavour).
Place them in a pan with onions, pepper, pancetta, mushrooms, cubes of bread, herbs and a good dash of olive oil.
You can add other things as well such as sweet potato, parsnip, partially cooked potato, tomatoes, sausages and courgettes if you so wish.
Roast in a hot oven for about thirty to forty minutes.
The bread is a key as this will soak up the wonderful juices.
I did a double take when first saw this kitchen gadget in John Lewis recently.
I could not believe that such a device existed.
Well it does and here is the photograph to prove it!
It is a toaster which you can use to also poach an egg!
Bizarre!