Category Archives: Easy

Cookies and Pate

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Cookies and Pate
Once again I managed to turn a holiday into an excuse to spend 12 hours a day in the kitchen, this time with a rather perfect background of Jazz recording next door, intoxicating blue sky and for that matter intoxicating amounts of wine.

 Although I particularly enjoyed the saxophone production line assisting me when making 80 canapés for the concert, the most successful recipes turned out to be duck liver pate (only in france) and chocolate chip cookies of which I couldn’t make enough…
Disclaimer: Unfortunately I had no scales or measuring jugs etc so I did mot of the amounts by sight… but I’ve written roughly the right amounts

Cookies
These cookies may not look much like cookies, more like misshapen slabs but I have testimonials that the are pretty damn good.

Makes roughly 30-40
500g butter
500g caster sugar
1tbsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
500-600g flour (until you have the right consistency)
pinch of salt
200g chocolate chips

1. Cream the butter and sugar together till light and fluffy.
2. Beat in the eggs one at a time with the vanilla extract, you will need to beat pretty hard to combine.
3. Add the flour a bit at a time with the salt and mix hard. You want to have the consistency of a stiff cake mix, not quite as solid as your average biscuit dough.
4. Finally stir through the chocolate chips.
5. Scoop ice cream size balls of the cookie dough onto a greaseproof paper lined tray and bake in the oven for 12-15mins at 180oC until the dough has spread out and the cookies are golden brown, just starting to crisp up on the edges, you may have to separate the cookies. Leave to cool and harden up, serve.

Pate
I’m not sure yet whether this pate will work out of france because it is so very french, mostly duck livers and garlic… I also realise the prospect of eating duck liver might freak some people out so there is an equally rich mushroom pate recipe below which pretty much looks the same too. Usually you would use brandy or port for this but all I had was wine… Likewise for the really daring feel free to set the alcohol in the pan on fire (flambé) I was just a bit scared of burning down someone else’s house.

Makes A lot.
900g duck livers
400g butter
pepper and salt
thyme
6 shallots
10 garlic cloves
200ml white wine
200ml red wine

1. Heat 200g of butter in a pan and add the shallots, garlic, pepper and lots of salt. Sweat for 5-8mins or until soft. Add the thyme.
2. Add the duck livers and brown all over, add the alcohol and bubble it off as quickly as possible (here is where the flambé comes in)
– you may want to do this in batches depending on your pan.
3. Blitz the livers mix and the rest of the butter in a food processor till smooth, pour into a dish and leave in the fridge to set.

Mushroom Pate

Makes a lot
150g butter
4 shallots
2 leeks

12 cloves garlic
700g basic white mushrooms (mix this up a bit and add different mushrooms for different flavour)
salt and pepper
tarragon
200g creme fraiche

1. Sweat the shallots, leeks and garlic in a pan with the butter, salt and pepper until soft. Add the tarragon and mushrooms and bubble until most of the liquid from the mushrooms has gone.
2. Blitz in a food processor with the creme fraiche, then pour into a dish and leave in the fridge to set.

No Bread Pizza – for healthy days

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No Bread Pizza – for healthy days

It is one of those days where you’ve spent the past weekend being inundated with free food and drink (in my case choir tour) and consequently eat a lot of cake because it’s free and you’re a student so your brain is always programmed to stock up with free food wherever you go. On top of that you are exhausted so end up buying a lot of chocolate on top of this because chocolate (while bad for your voice) is the best thing to sustain you through a long day. Finally you are also a food blogger so can’t possibly say no to eating three courses when you have already obliged yourself (and promised those around you) that you will blog about it. (see the Italian Isle of Man post.) Right about now you are where I am now, feeling like I’ve eaten an elephant over the weekend, caffeine withdrawal headache, hangover and sleep deprivation. In order to counteract this I have decided to have a day of abstinence/early night/detox, but abstinence doesn’t mean it can’t be tasty!
Here is the recipe for what I cooked myself for dinner, admittedly I have just gone and taken one of the best bits out of a pizza, BUT trust me it is still very filling, low calorie, nutrient rich etc, plus I woke up after this day feeling healthier, happier and ready to get back to the rich foods that normally fill up this blog.

Serves 1
3 tomatoes, chopped in to quarters
1 red pepper, cut into strips
1 small courgette, cut into circles
150g Portobello mushrooms (ideal) or chestnut (chea

per)
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
(NB If you like you could also add red onion or aubergine or sweet potato to bulk it up)
salt
pepper lemon juice
basil (ideally fresh but I used dried and it was fine)
(I added smoked paprika to this the other day as well and trust me mind was blown!)
1/2 ball low-fat mozzarella

Place the veg and garlic in a flat dish and sprinkle liberally with salt, a dash of lemon juice, some black pepper and LOTS of Basil. Now I’m not sure how long to cook this in the oven (I only have a microwave), but feel free to experiment, I expect you are looking about 15mins at 180oC. In the microwave, cook the veg on high for about 7-8mins. Scatter with torn bits of mozzarella and put back in the microwave or oven for about 2mins, until melted, enjoy…..

Of course this isn’t an exclusively healthy dish. You could add more mozzarella, add goats cheese, serve with garlic bread, drizzle with olive oil or pesto, add pepperoni or chicken or even for extra decadence try four cheeses and bacon….

Under the Sea

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Under the Sea

I have recently been spending a small fortune on Seaweed salad from Yo Sushi. In a similar way to the juice addiction I tend to have small time addictions with food where I eat certain things for months on end, every day at some time or other, and then suddenly decide I don’t want them again and stop eating it altogether. Previous fads have gone from the healthy, Pret’s avocado juice, Sainsbury’s melon snack packs, to the unhealthy, curlywurly’s, coconut and vanilla popcorn, to the plain strange, Bird’s custard with cocoa powder to make chocolate custard…. The main issue with the seaweed salad addiction is the fact it costs £2.50 a pop, which as a poor student I immediately knew was unsustainable. So as the juice before it, I am striving to make this at home.

The first step was research. I clocked the list of ingredients in the Yo Sushi version and shaved it down to the basics. As far as I could tell all I needed was; dried seaweed, soy sauce, sugar, rive vinegar, sesame oil and sesame seeds. I took one of those fairly dangerous gambles and ordered my dried seaweed off Amazon and managed to get four hefty bags for about £10 (I’ve used half so far). When they came, they neither looked nor smelt particularly appetising. When shredded and soaked in water they smelt even worse, but I persevered. I rinsed the slimy seaweed several times and drained it well.

Then I liberally seasoned it with the afore mentioned ingredients (to taste) and I was amazed. Like magic my slimy, smelly seaweed had transformed into a immensely tasty salad, incredibly reminiscent of the Yo Sushi version (although admittedly carrot would have livened up the colour.) In fact the only thing I would do differently was maybe use red Gamma seaweed or something instead of Konbu as it was a little more chewy than I expected, but otherwise I am feeling possibly a little too proud of my recent procrastination.

Beer Cake: The Yorkshireman

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Beer Cake: The Yorkshireman

The Yorkshireman’s birthday approaches. I am invited to a lavish champagne (okay prosecco) drinks reception followed by a meal at Brown’s. So what to give him….. When I have time (unfortunately this is not the case for all of my friend’s birthdays so I apologise – if any of my friends are reading this I promise you, your time will come soon – ) I like to make a cake and/or chocolates. The Yorkshireman is another one of my keen organist friends but since I have already made the organ cake, I turned to the Yorkshireman’s other love, Beer. I made a sheet plain sponge, first time using the brand new bright red kitchen aid!

4 Large Eggs
225g sugar
225g butter
1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
225g self raising flour
pinch of Salt 
milk to loosen

Beat the butter and sugar till fluffy, add vanilla and eggs. Add flour and salt (TOP TIP: beat on a slow setting first unless you want flour all over your work surface). Add milk until the mixture is still thick but is pale and light. Bake at 180oC for 30mins or until golden on top and cooked through (use a skewer, if it comes out clean.

before carving the sides to resemble a beer glass.  Then I made some salted caramel icing

200g sugar
2tbsp water
60ml cream
250g butter
300g icing sugar
Vanilla extract
2tsp sea salt (proper flakes)

Let sugar and water dissolve over a medium heat and  DO NOT STIR. Leave till it turns to a dark amber and is beginning to smoke, you can swirl it but DO NOT STIR. Take off the heat, leave for 30secs then add the cream and stir. Leave to cool till roughly room temp. Meanwhile cream the butter, vanilla and salt. Add the icing sugar (see flour tip) then half the cooled salted caramel, if too thick add water, refrigerate till needed. 

Then I smothered the cake with the remaining salted caramel before covering the whole thing in the icing. Finally I made some marshmallow frosting

1 egg white
100g sugar or 150g icing sugar

Beat the egg white till stiff peaks form. Slowly add the sugar and continue beating till stiff peaks form again and the mixture is thick enough to pipe, put in a piping bag.

Then I piped the icing on top to make the head. The final decoration was melted milk chocolate put in a piping bag which I piped on to try and emphasise the point…. Next time I promise it will be guiness made with Guinness chocolate cake






The Student 3-course meal

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The Student 3-course meal

You know those days when you feel like celebrating (in my case recovering from the flu) but have no money and have left it a little too late to organise stuff with friends? Or perhaps you have just finished an essay and are only just realising that you want food and celebratory food? (or perhaps to speed the essay on its way?) Or maybe you forgot it was your anniversary, but the budget is limited….

Poor mans G+T
so you have no ice, the college accommodation you’re in only provides a paltry fridge the size of a shoebox which of course you have stuffed half of with beverages rather than food… In my case I’ve chosen to refrigerate the tonic, but refrigerating the gin works just as well, especially if your G+Ts tend to be Gin with a dash of tonic…..
I like using Sainsbury’s ‘London Gin’, one above the basics so it tastes slightly better (or if you have parents visiting stock your cupboard with something nice, my personal favourite being Tanqueray, don’t mean to sound like an advert but I can really taste the difference – can’t wait till their visit in two weeks….)
Tonic wise, the basics is fine, but again if you can afford it schweppes is nicer – slimline for the calorie conscious.
To really pimp up this drink, i like to use a dash of lemon juice, one of the squeezable lemons will do, I find my G+Ts are so far and few between any lemons I buy tend to turn a nasty shade of green before I get round to including them in my drink…..
Not quite Gourmet but highly passable.

Starter from the Cupboard
A starter made from a student store cupboard is tricky… but i managed to create one with virtually no prep as well.
Starting point, some sainsbury’s basics chopped tomatoes and some crisp bread.

Chopped tomatoes
1 chopped onion
2 chopped cloves garlic
vinaigrette made with 1/2 oil, 1/2 vinegar (balsamic if possible)
salt and pepper
(if you have basil even better)

Mix altogether and top the crisp bread

In pizza express they would charge you £4.80 for that (and this serves a lot more than one)

Main Course
I always tend to have cooked chicken (mostly because I don’t trust my fridge to not give me food poisoning if I keep raw meat in there constantly), and I try and keep onions, carrots and sweet potatoes in my cupboard because they always come in useful.
So Supper today is…Mashed Sweet Potato Balsamic roast and ricotta cheese

Chop onions and carrots, toss in oil, balsamic, salt and pepper. Place in a microwave proof dish and cover with cling film, pierced in various places. Cook on high for 7-10mins. Remove. Prick a sweet potato and place in the microwave for 6mins on high. Remove and replace carrots and onions in uncovered, cook for 2mins, then stir in chicken and cook for a further 2mins. Meanwhile scoop the mash out of the sweet potato skin, season with salt and pepper and butter (sometimes I add a spoonful of pesto but it’s fine without)
Serve all with a dollop of ricotta cheese on the side.

Dessert
Ok so it would be really easy to buy a pot of Gu and heat that up in the microwave and all that but this is cheap and chocolatey and easy, and you can even call it molecular gastronomy because it has an element of science….

Dark Chocolate and water. Melt over a pan of water in a bowl without stirring. Cool. Once Cool whisk together. To pimp it up add a little orange zest and top with creme fraiche.

A cheap and easy 3 course meal, using mostly store cupboard ingredients. Add a large glass of red wine for real celebration.

Fish Pie

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Fish Pie

There is no point calling this post anything other than what it is, because this was simple, quick fish pie.
I don’t think any of us had really left the house for two days but the christmas food supplies were looking worryingly low…. One thing we yet again seemed to have multiplying supplies of creme fraiche. I have never knowingly made the same meal twice for my parents (so despite the fact I’ve been faced with this same predicament in the past, tonight I obviously had to brainstorm a completely new meal (damn my cooking obsession). We did however have a little prosecco left over from the parents’ recent christmas party, I used this as the starting point of my dish. What would I want to eat with a glass of prosecco?? I found some salmon in the freezer and a couple of prawns. The end result was fish pie with saffron mash
(I did also add crispy salmon to the top of the pie for texture, plus it is very easy , cook on both sides in a pan till crispy, plus I had some which I’d taken off the salmon, plus Yo Sushi may have got me addicted to the stuff..)

Fish Pie

3 salmon fillets
12 prawns
500ml stock (I only had chicken but fish would be better)
5tbsp creme fraiche
3 shallots
3 garlic cloves
1-2tbsp butter
pepper and salt
bay leaf
1/2 lemon
large handful of dill chopped
100ml white wine

750g charlotte potatoes (I just mashed them with skins on but feel free to peel)
bay leaf
peppercorns
salt
few saffron strands
3-4 tbsp butter
2-3tbsp milk

1. Sweat the chopped shallots in the butter for 3-4mins with a good sprinkling of salt then add the garlic for a further 2-3mins
2. pour in the wine, add pepper and the lemon chopped into slices (yes I do mean whole) and the bay leaf
3. Let bubble for 1-2 mins before adding stock, let bubble for 5mins. Add creme fraiche and take off heat
4. Meanwhile boil potatoes with bay leaf, peppercorns, salt and saffron in water.
5. When soft, drain and mash using a handheld whisk (bizarre but good) with the butter, adding the milk to the end to have a thick creamy texture.
6. Place the salmon fillets, skinned and chopped into chunks into the bottom of an ovenproof dish. Add the prawns scattered around
7. Chop the door and mix in the sauce, pour over the fish. Top with the mash
8. Bake in the oven at 180OC for 10mins until lightly golden on top

The Posh Man’s Jagerbomb

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The Posh Man’s Jagerbomb

My Dad has a new addiction, introduced to him by the man who lives upstairs.  His latest fix was obtained last night when he popped his head in to where I was working studiously at my desk (ok admittedly the Kitchen table and with How I met your Mother on in the background…) at 5 to 7 to declare that we were going out to dinner to Quod with the man who lives upstairs. (So that is how the parents avoid stepping foot in any actual supermarkets for food for the entire time I am away). Feeling that having eaten my calorie allowance for the week at a lavish New Years Eve dinner at the organist’s house, I opted for a light salmon salad. However my healthy intentions were scuppered when my father suggested dessert. His excuse was that it would ‘speed me on my way’ to drinks with friends and he was of course right, I’d much rather be able to order that in a club than a Jagerbomb, although I admit it would be harder to drink/eat while dancing…. It is rarely on the menu at a restaurant but waiters always seem incredibly pleased when you ask for it, it’s rather like being in an exclusive club, in the know. Recently my Dad has passed on this knowledge to me and I haven’t looked back. It’s a very simple, quick, easy and not heavy after a big meal, perfect dinner party fare. On top of all of this it carries the triple threat of a Jagerbomb: caffeine, alcohol and sugar, no wonder it hits the spot. This dessert is an Affogato. A single scoop of ice cream served with a shot of coffee and a shot of amaretto which is poured over for a lethally delicious hit. Zizzi’s served it with amaretti biscuits which worked very well crushed up on top and a shot of frangelico. In Quod they served it with langues de chat biscuits, in Pizza Express they served it in a teacup and at home I served it in a cocktail glass with crushed hazelnuts. I wonder if it would work with Ben and Jerry’s and mocha (the big kids version)

Countdown to Christmas: 2 days to go

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Countdown to Christmas: 2 days to go

Now the struggle is no longer against an empty fridge, but instead against a choco-blok full fridge of ingredients I am not allowed to use (according to myself…) This is quite a challenge as I am tempted by delicious looking smoked salmon, home made hummus, a huge log of stuffing and copious amounts of mince pies and brandy butter. But instead I turn once again to the freezer (it’s always these moments that I miss having a freezer at uni, surely a freezer would be most useful to a student who is very poor and can is only cooking for one? Cambridge take note…) I was also keen to make a fairly healthy meal tho prepare us for the excesses of christmas (see above) I’m also not allowed to go too exotic with my Dad and Grandpa (and hide the onions – they have quite similar tastebuds) So in the end I pull up a twist on an old recipe of mine (pea pesto) to serve with a french classic, chicken in white wine sauce, with a healthier slant.

Coq au Vin (blanc) with pea mash (serves 5)

2 medium onions
5 chicken breasts
glass of white wine
handful of thyme
5-6 cloves garlic
chicken stock
lemon juice
salt
pepper
1tbsp flour
2tsp groundnut oil

500g frozen peas
handful mint
salt
pepper
2 cloves garlic
lemon juice
1tsp truffle oil

Chop onion into small squares, smash garlic with a crusher or bang the flat side of a knife hard against garlic halves to flatten. (NB to peel garlic easily, chop each clove in half and push from skin side to pop clove out of its shell)
Heat oil in a large pan and add onion and garlic and a good sprinkling of salt (to draw out the water from the onion and aid sweating)
When soft, add the wine and thyme, pepper and lemon juice. Add the chicken breasts and top with chicken stock, and simmer for 15mins. Remove chicken from the pan, add the flour and whisk to avoid lumps, reducing till you get a slightly thickened sauce, place the chicken back in the pan to serve
Meanwhile for the pea puree, bring the peas to the boil and immediately drain. Place into a food processor with all the other ingredients and blitz till smooth

Serve



The Countdown to Christmas 4 days to go

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The Countdown to Christmas 4 days to go

Still trying in vain to use up the fridge before the huge food order I have coming. Trying in vain to persuade my parents that we need quite so much food (about 3 days worth of cooking…) So I decided to use up the never ending packet of feta and the random 2 potatoes in the corner of the fridge and I even managed to use up a packet of Greek yoghurt (there are 4 coming in the shopping…) and the breadcrumbs that have been in the cupboard since last christmas (I turned my nose up at Paxo  in favour of real breadcrumbs….) I made salmon and feta cakes and moussaka style potato gratin, with a few measly mange tout.

Serves 2

2 salmon fillets, no skin
50g feta
100g breadcrumbs + more to roll in
salt and pepper
mixed herbs
1 tbsp truffle oil

2 potatoes
500g greek yoghurt
2-3 cloves garlic
cinnamon
1 egg
2tbsp grated manchego
ground cloves
nutmeg

Cook the salmon fillets in the microwave (should be about 1-2mins)
Place in a food processor with the feta and breadcrumbs and season to taste
Meanwhile slice the potatoes and top with the crushed garlic. sprinkle over salt and pepper, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Mix the yoghurt, egg and cheese in a separate bowl and pour over the potatoes. Bake in the oven for 15-20mins at 180OC (fan) until bubbling and slightly golden on top.
Meanwhile roll the salmon mixture into balls and flatten into patties, coat in breadcrumbs
Fry the patties for 3-4 mins on each side until golden.
Serve

The Run Up to Christmas – 6 days to Christmas

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The Run Up to Christmas – 6 days to Christmas

So the race is on up to Christmas. In my case the race is on to empty the fridge before the shopping arrives in 2 days time, on which I have managed to buy an extraordinary amount of food and enough Gin to probably last the year (my mum pointed out that we already had 2 bottles, I don’t think she’s realised I’m planning on taking some up to Uni….) So dinner today will have to be eating up, an experimental creation. My mother rather unhelpfully made about 5 times too much couscous for a dinner party on wednesday (I wasn’t there, couldn’t be helped) so that is the focus point around which this meal is based. Poking around in the fridge I find some left over tinned tomatoes, half a packet of feta cheese and some Ferraro Rocher chocolates. Poking around in the freezer I found a packet of puff pastry. Leaving the chocolates for later, I decided to make a puff pastry couscous pie. Not only does this use up the majority of my ingredients, but also wins me bonus points for health and environment, it being a vegetarian dish.

So I made a thick chutney using the chopped tomatoes. Boiling them down to a thick constancy with 2 large tbsp of sugar, a large pinch of salt, some ground coriander seeds, a splash of white wine vinegar and for some christmassy warmth some ground cloves. Putting that aside to cool, I toasted about 5 blanched whole almonds I found in the cupboard (using up another thing) and stirred fresh parsley (I say fresh it was frozen fresh….) through my mothers couscous which seemed to contain pumpkin seeds, though I couldn’t tell you what else. Laying out my sheet of puff, I spread a little chutney on one half, topped with a good mound of couscous, scattered over the almonds and some pitted black olives and finished with chunks of feta. I brushed the edges with egg wash, folded over the other half of puff and then painted the whole thing with egg wash. All it needed was to bake in the oven at 200OC for 15-20mins until golden brown.