Taking On Jamie -Dish 3 - Sizzling Beef

So back on track, Taking On Jamie.
An Asian style dish. Great flavours and we did this one in just over 15 minutes
As usual I got everything ready. All utensils and ingredients lined up and Pans on stove
Plus a jug of boiling water ready to cook the Noodles
Be aware All this preparation actually adds 5 minutes or so to the time
But we did well I think

My Grandson Joseph loved it, in fact it has been requested for Grandma's Dinner next week

For 4 people

Handful cashews
Same amount of sesame seeds
2 pieces Sirloin steak, fat removed for speed
Salt and Pepper
2 tablespoons 5 spice powder
Sesame oil

250 gms mushrooms, broken up

Egg noodles, 4 nests
1 red chili chopped
Thumb size piece of peeled ginger, chopped
1/2 bunch coriander


100 gms fresh prawns peeled and tailed
2 cloves garlic peeled and fine chopped

Bean sprouts

3 Heaped tablespoons Hoisin Sauce
2 tablespoons Soy Sauce

Juice of a lime

Crunchy Lettuce leaves
Couple of Radishes
Some slices of cucumber
Coriander leaves for garnish

So
Everybody ready
Get Set
Go
Add a little Sesame oil to a hot pan
Add nuts and seeds and toss around and let toast for 2-3 minutes

Place steak on board
Season S & P and 5 spice  both sides
Rub around the board to pick up any spare seasoning

Little Sesame oil into another hot pan
Add steak

2 minutes
Turn
Break up mushrooms and add to steak pan
Shake
Cook another 2 minutes and remove steak from pan and set aside

Remove nuts and set aside

Meanwhile lets get onto the Noodles
First make the base for the noodles
Add the chili, ginger and coriander to the food processor and whiz
till makes a nice paste
Add noodles to a pot and cover with boiling water

Simmer for 2-3 minutes till they are soft

Take steaks out, leave mushrooms to continue cooking

In the pan you used for the nuts
Add a little more Sesame Oil
Add blitzed sauce
Shake about

Throw in the Prawns
Add couple cloves chopped garlic for added flavour

Toss
Add Bean sprouts
Mix
Then the real Asian flavour
Add
Hoisin sauce 
Soy sauce

Toss around

Squeeze over Juice of the lime
Pick off some Coriander leaves from your garnish and add

Drag the noodles out of the water and place into sauce
Toss well

Distribute into serving bowls
Now just add the crunchy salad ingredients

Sprinkle mushrooms on top

Slice the steak and add
Pop the toasted nuts on top
Have some lime wedges and chopped chilli for people to add
There ya go 

Here's Jamie's Version Mine looking pretty good I reckon

Eccles Cakes - When It's Wet and Miserable - Bake I Say

The weather was crap yesterday and I felt like something sweet for afternoon tea.Something quick and easy

So I got out one of my very old recipe books and Eccles Cakes caught my eye. Good oh, I have all the ingredients. So I whipped up a batch. 

 The recipe, I found was rather slack I felt, a bit lacking in ingredients and method, funny how they just expected everyone to know what to do. Aunt Daisy was like that as well. I guess all cooks did know what to do in the olden days

So I Googled it

I found the recipe from About.com British Food and have just copied it exactly, I think I may have made my discs just a little small but...they were great. Lovely taste. I ate 2 with my cup of tea. Even ate a couple more when we returned home from Quiz Night. I have some of the fruit mixture leftover. Storing in the fridge and will make some more later. A success I feel

Ingredients:

1lb 2oz/ 500g puff pastry

1oz/ 25g butter, melted

Pinch freshly ground nutmeg

2 oz/55g candied peel

4 oz/ 110g sugar

8 oz/ 225g currants

Preparation:

Pre-heat oven to 425∞/220∞C/Gas 7

 In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and butter and cook over a medium heat until melted.

 Off the heat, add currants, candied peel and nutmeg.

 On a lightly-floured surface, roll the pastry thinly and cut into rounds of about º inch/0.5cm thickness and 4 inch/10cm diameter.

Place a small spoonful of filling onto center of each pastry circle.

Dampen the edges of the pastry with a little cold water and draw the edges together over the fruit and pinch to seal.

Turn the patty over, then press gently with a rolling pin to flatten the cakes.

Snip a V in the top with scissors.

Place on a greased baking tray. I like to use baking paper

Brush with eggwash and sprinkle with a little extra sugar.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until lightly browned round the edges.

Place on a wire rack and allow to cool.

Try not to eat them all at once!

Best Carrot Soup - My New Version

I moved away from my normal Carrot Soup, today.
Saturday Lunch
Of course I was clearing out the fridge as I do, you know Waste Not Want Not

I had 3 sticks celery

4 large carrots

1 red chili

2 small onions

2 cloves garlic

1 courgette

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon Chicken stock powder

About 6 leaves of mint

1/2 orange juiced

70 gms butter

Extra Virgin Coconut Oil

The Coconut Oil, Mint and Chili were ingredients, I don't normally add to my Carrot soup 

but Wow... which extra addition made it special, I'm not sure but it was just divine

I think the addition of that extra chili and the mint at the last moment, really enhanced the flavours

By the way it wasn't hot, just flavourful

Will make this again

Gluten free of course…plus using the Extra Virgin Coconut Oil was an added extra, not only tasty but also very good for you

It will pass the Health Food Police

Just don't mention the butter!!!

I’ve started blitzing the vege for my soups and meat sauces recently, particularly good if you want to slip added vege, to hide from kids.

Method

So I melted the butter in a pot

In the food processor I added

2 cloves of garlic chopped

Onions chopped

Celery chopped

Courgette chopped

Whiz them up and add to pan

Season with S & P

Sauté till just soft

Meanwhile chop carrots and half of the chili

Add to food processor and whiz up

Add to pot

Season with chicken stock powder

Add orange juice

Stir and sauté for a few minutes

Cover with hot water and bring to a simmer

Simmer for about 15 minutes

Just before serving

Add Extra Virgin Coconut Oil

Chop the mint leaves and the rest of the chili

Pour soup into blender

Add mint and chili

Blitz to smooth

Taste and adjust seasoning if needed

If it too thick just add a little extra hot water

I served with Cheese scones

Hot from the oven

Time to go shopping and fill the fridge again

Yum

Beat Mumsy Meals - Comfort Food - So So Simple

Ive been rushing around, 'Taking on Jamie' and decided that it was time for The World's Most simple meal.
Steak for me, Fish for the Beloved.
Potatoes and peas mashed together, and a little extra vege on the side. cause I had it, cooked beetroot tossed in oil and Tarragon leaves, that's a great pairing. Actually I adore this kind of meal. So Tasty and Normal

Of course I cooked too much Potato and Pea Mixture so time for a superb leftover dish.

I bought some spinach for the kids dinner the other night. It was on special.
2 bunches, for cheap as chips
Actually I'm not really rapt in spinach. Baby spinach yes, it's not so earthy
So I've thought about how to use up the spinach I didn't use for the kids
Now Creamed Spinach is another thing. Flavoured with garlic and nutmeg that is and excellent use of this earthy vege.
Even better, I decided to join forces with the left over spuds and peas and make a quiche

It was very successful
I used 2 sheets of puff pastry, that made enough to make 4 little pies as well
Waste no Want not.

So Ingredients
1 large cup mashed vege
1 bunch spinach
3 cloves garlic peeled
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Grind of nutmeg
2 tablespoon of cream

6 eggs
1 cup cream 
S & P
50 gms grated cheese

2 sheets puff pastry joined together to fit the quiche tin
Use trimmings to make 4 little pies
Line the greased quiche tin and little pie tins with rolled out pastry
Set aside in fridge to rest

Method
In a large pot of boiling water
Add garlic cloves and spinach
Bring back to boil and blanch for about 2 minutes
Drain
Stick under cold water to keep the colour and cool down

In your hands squeeze out as much water as possible
Place in food processor
Season with Salt pepper and nutmeg
Whiz
Add cream

In another bowl
Add eggs, cream and cheese
Season with S & P
Beat together
Add to food processor
Whiz

Pour into prepared shells
Have your oven pre-heated to 220 C
Bake in hot oven for about 10 minutes
Turn temperature down to 180C
Cook for about another 15-20 minutes

The bottom should be crisp and the filling set

It was excellent, it would easily feed 4 people, with a salad

The little pies took about 15 minutes, this would depend on you oven

Now here's a little tip
I also saved the water from the potatoes and peas
Nice little vege stock
How thrifty is that?
So I was making a Japanese Curry for the kids for Dinner, to have with the spinach
There were some meat trimmings
I popped then into the vege stock in a pot
Added trimmings from the carrots, celery and onions, that I was using for the
curry
Simmer away for about 15 minutes, longer if you have time

Drain and you have a tasty little stock to add to any casserole/curry that you are making

Comfort Food - Cheap and Very Cheerful - Vegetable Bake

I am making some food for a friends friend, who is stuck in hospital, for quite some time.
Everytime I make a dish, I make enough to freeze some. This is a good idea anyway.
Being able to bring some food out of the freezer,  virtually instant food.
You can sit and have a glass of wine while it bubbles away in the oven.
As I am Taking on Jamie, I thought I would time this. Took a little longer than 15 minutes. You could eat it immediately but I think it needs to be baked.
But you could make it earlier in the day and then just stick it in the oven for about 25 minutes or until it is golden and bubbly. All ready for the oven or freezer

This is a Vego Dish, you could make it Gluten Free, if you use cornflour instead of wheat flour.
Lovely cheesey sauce smothering broccoli, topped with mashed potatoes

I followed Jamies advice and got my pans hot and ready to multi task

This will feed 4 people

3 large potatoes
75 mls hot milk
30 gms cold butter

2 heads broccoli

100 gms butter
1 onion chopped
1 carrot grated
1/2 cup flour
 Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
About 800 mls Whole milk 
1 Bayleaf

100 gms grated tasty cheese

Get ready
Put milk and Bayleaf into microwave and heat for about 2-3 minutes

Put a pot of salted water to boil for broccoli
Have another pot of salted cold water for the potatoes
Melt butter over medium heat in another pot for sauce

Break broccoli into florets
Throw into boiling water and blanch for about 3 minutes

Drain and run under cold water to keep the lovely green colour

Peel potatoes and cut into smallish cubes about 1/2 inch for faster cooking
Throw into cold water and bring rapidly to the boil
cook till tender about 10 minutes

Meanwhile chop onion and grate carrot and add to melted butter
Season with S & P
Cook down about 5 minutes till tender
Add flour, stir well
Cook another 4 minutes to cook out the raw flour taste
Add hot milk all at once and stir to ensure there are no lumps

 Cook for about another 4 minutes adding more milk if it is too thick, don't want it gluggy

Add broccoli  to sauce and transfer to serving dish

Now, your potatoes will be cooked
Drain well and mash
I used a potato ricer, does such a good job,
Takes a little longer but it's worth it
I bought mine for about $9, many years ago from The Warehouse. Its been a great asset
You don't have to spend a fortune

Add hot milk to potatoes
Stir, beat in cold butter
Check seasoning and adjust if necessary

Spread the potatoes over the Saucy Vege

All ready to go
Cooked in  27 minutes
That's not too hard

Quite a lot of carnage though. No one talks about the washing up.
I've got a good dishwasher which did all of this for me

Taking On Jamie Dish 2 - Swedish Meatballs

Taking on Jamie - Dish 2

Swedish Meatballs with Rice and Swede

For 4 people

This dish really appealed to me.

I had to make a couple of changes to his recipe

The original had celeriac

Not really in season here and it's expensive

I am trying to be frugal don't you know

So I thought how about Swede (rutabaga for people from the States)
I love it. It is so underrated. When cooked properly it is sweet and wonderful.
 

Swedes to go with Swedish Meatballs

Perfect

Also I couldn't get any fresh dill

So I used a tube of dill

Got all the right flavour

Jamie used Cranberry Jelly

I used some Guava Jelly made by my friend Mary

You could Red Currant Jelly I reckon

Pretty good

This was delicious...I have to say his recipes are excellent
Even if you are just making them, not trying to prove a point like me
 

Creamy Sweet tasty sauce over little meatballs

All served over Rice, Sweet Swede and Spinach

Wonderful

Of course it took longer than 15 minutes cooking time

Once again it took me about 5 minutes to set up,mis en place

I think I should call this something else. I haven’t prepared any of the food I have just got everything together
So ipad and stop watch at the ready

i.e. Pans on the stove

All packets open ready to go

All utensils at the ready and a jug full of boiling water

So here ya go

Meatballs

200gms each of beef and pork mince

Good squirt of dill from tube or 2 tbs chopped fresh dill

1 tbs olive oil

S&P

Couple of sprigs of thyme

Rice and Swede

1 large swede

1 pkt baby spinach

1 large cup Basmati rice

2 cups boiling water

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the Sauce

1 tablespoon  caraway seeds

Slug of vodka

1 tablespoon  guava jelly

4 tablespoon  cream

To serve 
60 gms, approx, Sour Cream

Mixed with 1 tablespoon  Dill from tube

To start

Have pots on medium heat

Peel the swede and cut into small cubes

Add olive oil to large pan

Season  $ & P and sprigs of thyme

Add swede to pan

Toss

Pour over just enough boiling water to cover the bottom of the pan

Season

Cover and cook till tender

Add spinach

Season

Cover just to wilt spinach

In the pot you are going to use for rice

Add rice direct to hot pot

Add boiling water straight away

Season with salt

It will boil immediately

Stir

Cover and turn down so it just bubbles away

Meanwhile have another pan over medium heat

Add 1 tablespoon  olive oil

Season mince with S&P

Add dill from tube or chopped dill

Mix well with hands

Divide into 4 pieces

Break each quarter into 5 pieces

Use wet hands

Roll into balls

Throw into pan as you make them
to get them underway immediately

Add caraway seeds

Toss and cook till golden all over

By now rice and swede should be cooked

Mix together 

Add vodka to meatballs

Flambé,  
Let bubble till vodka burns off

Add jelly

Toss to mix

Add cream

Bubble away for about a minute

Put rice and vege Into serving dish

Pour meatballs and sauce over

Plonk a nice dob of sour cream mixed with dill over the top

Ready to go

In 18 minutes 52 secs

Plus assembly time say around 5 minutes

Not too bad, getting better
 Here's Jamie's version

Have frozen half of it for future dinner

New One tomorrow  

Taking On Jamie - Dish 1 - Mushroom Fafalle

So I thought my winter blog project this year would be is to take Jamie on with his 15 minute meals.

My friend JT tried with her friends Rose and Frank and they reckoned took 30 minutes. 

My daughter in law Helen has given some of the recipes a go and mmmm she put out a challenge. Can anybody do this?

I can do this... I thought.

I have both series on my ipad

So the plan was to get mis en place and then cook along with the video 

I bought the stopwatch app for my phone

and off I started

By the way it was delicious. We both loved it

So for the first one I made Mushroom Fafalle

I got my mis en place, by the way this was getting together all of he ingredients not any actual cooking or chopping.
BUT I don't have a garlic crusher, as I don't like them and I did peel the garlic, Chopping it took quite a bit of time

Getting all the stuff together took about 7-8 minutes

So I didn't count that I only timed the actual cooking

He does that

Jamie doesn't really give you quantities so I guessed

That's not too hard though

I made a couple of changes to the recipe. 

I don't want this to be an expensive challenge

So if I haven't got an ingredient at the time I would substitute

I didn't have any baby spinach. 

So I cut some cabbage into small triangles and blanched it in salted water and drained it.

Set aside to cool 
He used the spinach straight frpm the bag so he had a heads up on that.
Didn't feel that was cheating

It was delicious, so sweet... also Jamie had hazel nuts, I substituted cashews

I am going to make this salad again. It is delicious. 

Blanching the cabbage, as Marco says, is 'Genius'

I had to pause a couple of times as didn't have everything ready 
Like I forgot to sort the mortar and pestle
and I hadn't got the food processor ready

Funnily enough, I thought I had everything

Must be more diligent next time

So I set up the iPad and my timer

Here are the ingredients 

This made enough for 4 people, I froze the leftovers for a dinner in the future

Good slurp Olive oil 

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

250 gms Mushrooms

25 gms Dried mushrooms

Boiling water

3 cloves garlic peeled and finely chopped

Salt and pepper

Thyme leaves

1 tsp Chili flakes

About 100 gms Sour cream

Zest of 1 Lemon

Handful of chopped parsley

Fafalle Pasta 100 gms per person

Salad for 2 people cant keep that

Blanched cabbage

Cashews

1/2 Grated apple

50 gms Blue cheese

French Dressing

You need all you pans on the stove over med heat and a jug of boiling water to hasten things up

First cover the dried mushrooms in boiling water to soften and get a stock

Place pasta into well salted boiling water 

Cook about 8-9 minutes

Add olive oil to a frying pan to start off.

Add mushrooms

Just break them up no need to finely chop

It's a rustic dish

Add garlic, S & P and chili flakes and thyme leaves

Toss around and cook about 2 minutes

Meanwhile add nuts to a small pan just to toast lightly to get the maximum flavour

Add soaked dried mushrooms and their stock to the pan
Cook them down

Start to prepare the salad
Take nuts out of pan and crush them not too small in a mortar and pestle
Put your greens (in my case blanched cabbage)
onto a platter
Grate apple over the top
Put little knobs of blue cheese on top and
sprinkle with crushed nuts
Set aside

Back to mushrooms
Place in food processor and give them a whiz till reasonably smooth
Back into pan
Thin down with a little of the pasta water
keep a bit more of the pasta water if needed, to thin down the sauce

Pasta should be ready
Drain and add to pan

Add sour cream
Toss to mix

Zest lemon
Chop parsley
Mix together
Put 1/2 of this into the pasta
Toss well

Pile onto platter
Garnish with remainder of parsley and lemon

Pour some french dressing over salad
Below Jamie's version

Serve

So I paused a couple of times. as I said, I'd forgotten to set out some bits and pieces

So I think it took me about 20 minutes plus the mis en  place

5-6 minutes

So this was an easy dish 

Couldn't do it in 15 minutes though

Keen to see whatt happens next time