Cod with Peppers and Potatoes

I don't actually know what this dish is called so I'm giving it a 'duhh' name. It's a recipe my sister gave me and it's dead easy and tastes awesome. I was too hungry to take a picture of it before eating so you'll just have to imagine it in your creative mind.

Feeds 2 people

You need:
250g jar of roasted mixed peppers (you can easily find this in the antipasti section at the supermarket)
250g new potatoes
1 red onion
140g green beans
2x175g cod fillets (these have a few tiny bones in it so you may want to inspect your fish before cooking it otherwise you'll end up pulling bones out of your mouth throughout the meal. max unglam)
1/2 lemon

And... go!
1. Cut the potatoes and onions into wedges (personal preference really) and halve the beans
2. Drain the oil from the jar of roasted peppers into a pan on high heat
3. Fry the potatoes and onions in the pepper oil for about 5min/until golden
4. Pour away most of the oil, leaving about 2 tbsp in the pan
5. Add the beans and peppers. Cook for another 5 min
6. Put the cod skin side down on top of your oily stirfry
7. Cover and let it cook for about 10min
8. Drizzle with lemon juice (I forgot this step and it still tasted fine)

The best part is you have your carbs, veg and fish all in one dish with no extra salt/seasoning!

Sloppy Joe

I came across this recipe on the Food Wishes website today while looking for something to make with the beef mince I had in the freezer. A sloppy joe is basically a burger but minus the whole binding, shaping and chilling the patties part. As such, it was super easy to make and tasted good! I did make some alterations to the recipe due to necessity though and I've posted the slightly modified recipe here. For the original (which serves 4-6) and the video on how to make it, go here.

Serves 2

Ingredients:
250g lean beef mince
1/4 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 red pepper, diced
5 tbsp ketchup
A dash of worchestershire sauce
Just under 1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 cup water
About 1 tsp (or to taste) salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
cayenne pepper, to taste

2 sesame seeded burger buns
a knob of butter

Method:
1) Start with a cold pan. Put the mince (helps later if you break it into small pieces first) and onion in the pan.
2) Turn on the heat to med-high. Stir the beef and onion while breaking the mince up into crumbly pieces.
3) Once all crumbly, add the garlic and stir.
4) Add the red pepper and saute for 2 mins.
5) Add 1/2 cup water and stir. (this de-glazes the beef juices that have dried up at the bottom of the pan)
6) Add ketchup, brown sugar, dijon mustard, worchestershire sauce, pepper and salt. Stir them all in.
7) Add 1/2 cup water and bring to simmer. Turn the heat on low and leave to simmer for about 30mins or until most of the water has evaporated.
8) Taste and adjust seasoning. Add cayenne pepper in and stir.
9) For the burger buns, butter the side that will come in contact with the mixture later. Place the butter side down on a hot frying pan. Remove from heat once it turns golden brown.
10) The mixture is ready to be served in the burger buns once the water has evaporated and you can pile the mixture on top of a spatula (and tilt it side to side) without it tumbling down.

See, no getting your hands all icky with burger patties! It also has a nice, sweet-salty taste and if you add cayenne pepper, it becomes slightly hot :)

Sorry, by the time I thought of posting this recipe up, I had already wolfed down the whole burger :S It's that good!
So, the pic up there was taken from the Food Wishes website and photo credits go to them.

the meng special

i've never been a fan of recipes. or long ingredient lists. or things that need to be defrosted then allowed to breathe.

what does that even mean?

why should this lump of dough need to breathe?!

and am i morally questionable for wanting to put it in the oven?!?!?!?!

basically, anything that takes you longer to cook than it takes to eat is a big thumbs down in my book - but my little escapade with breathing lumps of dough will be told some other time - involves a 2 inch thick pizza that turned out more obese american than italian as originally planned
i say book - but it's really more like a double-sided page of A4. i won't deny it - i'm a bit of a chef - i diligently studied culinary technique under the tutelage of my mother who was schooled in such kitchen matters by her foremothers and have been carefully honing my skills for the past three years.

mostly true.

i guess by "diligently studied" i mean occasionally noticed her cutting up bits of vegetables (fruits? apart from wikipedia who really knows anyway?) whilst i attempted to sneak a cheeky bite.
and maybe by "honing my skills" i meant drunken late-night attempts to make maggi goreng (still trying)

let's cut to the chase. this dish was named "the meng special" - as hard as it is for many of you to believe, it was not named by me - but i am very proud to say that there is a select group of caucasian men for whom this is the only asian dish they are able to cook (and enjoy): "if white man from liverpool can do it; anyone can!" is my general mantra (said in scouse)

now that i've made sure my pre-amble is longer than the recipe:

this will serve 3 people or 1 meng.

slice 1 onion and 500g of turkey breast (recent incarnations have used boneless chicken thighs but i believe it is somewhat related to lack of exercise)

pour a little olive oil down, turn the heat up and start frying! after 30 seconds or so of sizzle pour down a tablespoon of sesame oil and generous amounts of soya sauce (preferably kikkoman) and then put the kettle on.

keep stirring the meat on a medium-high heat till it's cooked through. by this time the water should have been boiled - pour it into a pot and submerge three Blue Dragon wholewheat noodle nests. they take 2 minutes to cook. after two minutes - sieve them, throw them in and go crazy with the white pepper.
lower the heat a little and add more soya sauce if it doesn't smell awesome enough. asians tend to have a pretty built-in "soya sauce gauge" so if you are racially aligned to the dish you shouldn't have a problem. if you aren't - you won't notice anyway but just add more to be on the safe side. open up a pack of spinach (about 150g and ready-washed OF COURSE) and throw it in. STIR MORE.

when the leaves look like you just want to wring them out and hang them up to dry - we're done! :) sprinkle a bit more white pepper - mix and VOILA we have food.

i think the best time was clocked in at 12 minutes 13 seconds so if you manage to beat that and don't get hospitalised with salmonella (sneaky-sneaky cheating ain't allowed) then let me know!

lots of love xoxo

next up: how to choose the right songs for cooking. aka how to make an itunes egg-timer. aka how to make that awesome bit in bohemian rhapsody coincide with when you open the oven

Fiery Pork Curry (I didn't name this ok!)

As the name suggests, it's really spicy! So you might need to reduce the amount of chillies that go into it. Unless, you're one of those types that can eat a whole cili padi and not cry.

Anyway, I got this recipe from D's mum who has spent some time trying it out and tweaking it to perfection (except for heat level). The method is pretty straightforward although there is quite a bit of waiting around (30mins here, another 30 mins there...).

The ingredients might seem a bit tricky to acquire at first BUT I managed to find them ALL at Waitrose (sigh... my fave place!) so no worries there! Furthermore, most of the ingredients needed are of the store cupboard kind so you could always make this pork curry again whenever you feel like it! :)

Okay, enough bla-bla! Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

For the Paste:

20 dried chillies

1 tbsp coriander seeds

½ tbsp black pepper

½ tbsp cumin

125 ml (1/2 cup) water

For the curry:

500 g pork with some fat (lean belly), diced

2 peeled onions, cut into chunks

3 green chillies, sliced

2.5 cm knob ginger, peeled & sliced

5 cloves garlic, peeled & sliced

1 stick cinnamon

5 pods cardamom

5 cloves

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp vinegar (I left this out since I don't have it. Still tastes good!)

3 bay leaves

250 ml (1 cup) water

2 stalks curry leaves (Waitrose, not an Asian supermarket, was the ONLY place that sold them. Even then, it was the freeze dried version which can still be used.)

Method:

1. First, prepare the paste. In a dry wok, roast dried red chillies until smoky but not burnt. Remove. Roast coriander seeds, pepper and cumin briefly until seeds are hot. While still hot, grind spices with roasted chillies and water until very fine. Grind preferably with mortar & pestle. I used a blender so it wasn't as finely ground.
2. Use pork that has some fat content so that the final dish will not be too hard and dry. Cut it up into small bite-sized pieces. Mix pork with ground paste, onions, chillies, ginger, garlic, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, salt, vinegar, oil & bay leaves. Set aside for 30 minutes.
3. Add water and mix well. Cook over medium heat until water begins to boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Test meat using a fork. The fork should pierce through the pork easily. Once pork is tender, adjust seasoning to taste. Plunge curry leaves in and set aside for another 30 minutes before serving with rice. (I didn't bother setting it aside for 30 mins after plunging the curry leaves in; probably 5-10mins.)

Meanwhile, for those of you who might find the paste a bit too labour-intensive to make, D's mum has even provided a 'lazy' substitute!

Substitute for paste:

Marinate the pork with:

2 tbsp meat curry powder

1-2 tsp chilli powder, to taste.

(Taste as you marinate. Just don't swallow the stuff!)

And there it is, fiery pork curry! Try it out and let me know :)

x Dedicated to YMW who has asked for it to be put up x

Pasta From Scratch

My mum showed me how to make this last December. It's pretty simple, but the trick lies in kneading the dough enough - the more peple helping to do it, the less headache so it's fun to do with friends. If in doubt, try boiling a few strands first to see if you like the texture. It should definitely not disintegrate!

Serves 5 ppl
Preparation time: Very long
Boiling time: ideally 3-5 mins but obviously until edible

Ingredients:

4 eggs
4 cups 00" flour

*The number is the way flour is classified in Italy, referring to how finely it is ground and how much bran and germ have been removed. I think it's durum wheat flour, and it's supposed to also be good for making ravioli, gnocchi, even pizza dough. It's definitely available in big Tescos and Whole Foods.*

Method:

1. Put the flour in a heap on a clean work surface.

2. Make a hole in the middle of the heap, and break the eggs into the hole.

3. Knead the egg into the flour in circular, outward movements until completely incorporated.

4. Knead the dough, using a strong hand, for quite a long time. I can't say exactly... Sorry :S

5. Roll the dough out flat and cut into thin long strips. Do in batches if it's easier. It makes life easier if you do the strands in a uniform size, so they get cooked at the same time. Hang the strips individually on the edge of the counter or over a basket - whatever's the easiest. The idea is just that the strands don't stick to each other, and hanging it sort of stretches it in a nice way. One method for cutting it is to roll the flat dough eggroll-style, cut it, and then roll it out. My dad disagrees with this though!

6. Drop into well-salted boiling water (not simmering). Do not overcrowd, laziness = fail. The boiling time will vary slightly according to how thinly you have cut the strands.

7. Ta-da! You are done. Toss it on the fire (in a pan lah, not like ON the fire) with your sauce. In the picture above, we used lots of garlic, good olive oil, and giant prawns. The juice from the prawns get absorbed by noodles really well, so if you use seafood, go RAW! Tomato sauces are good too, but I don't really recommend anything too rich and creamy, because it is super filling already as it is. My dad also claims it can be used for bǎn miàn so you can try!

Beef Shepherd's Pie

I got this recipe off Sophie Dahl's cooking programme on BBC iplayer and made a few changes to it (due to necessity more than anything!). Nevertheless, it tasted amazing! So good that I made it a week later (I usually don't repeat recipes til at least 3 weeks or so)!

Anyway, here's the video of the whole episode if you wanna watch her make it (and a few other things) step-by-step. She only makes the shepherd's pie towards the end though. She also does a vege option for the recipe by replacing the beef with puy lentils. However, since most of us are avid meat eaters, I'll only be posting the beef one.

Serves 2-3

Prep time : 30 mins

Cooking time: less than 1 hour

Ingredients:
For the champ topping:
3 potatoes (her recipe calls for floury potatoes, such as King Edward or Maris Piper but you can use any type tbh), peeled, chopped
small handful frozen peas
knob of butter
2 spring onions, roughly chopped
25ml/1fl oz milk
75g/3oz cheddar, broken into chunks
pinch smoked paprika

For the beef mixture
1 tbsp olive oil
1 red/white onion, peeled, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled, crushed
2 small carrots, peeled, chopped into small pieces
1 celery stalk, trimmed, chopped into small pieces
400g/14oz canned plum tomatoes
1½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp Tabasco
pinch smoked paprika
1 fresh bay leaf (I used those freeze dried ones instead)
85-90ml/3-3½fl oz red wine
100ml/3½fl oz chicken/vegetable stock
1 sprig fresh rosemary (Again, I sprinkled freezed dried ones from a bottle)
splash balsamic vinegar (Left this out since I didn't have it)
small handful fresh (or dried but use less) flatleaf parsley, roughly chopped
250g/9oz lean beef mince
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper


Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. For the champ topping, heat a pan of salted water, add the potatoes and bring gently to the boil, then simmer until the potatoes are nearly cooked through, about 15-20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, for the beef mixture, heat half the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat and gently fry the chopped onion, garlic, carrots and celery for 5-10 minutes, or until softened.
3. Add the remaining beef mixture ingredients except for the mince and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat slightly and simmer for 4-5 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Keep warm.
4. Heat the remaining olive oil in a separate frying pan over a medium heat, add the mince in batches, if necessary, and fry until golden-brown. Stir the tomato sauce into the beef.
5. When the potatoes for the champ topping are almost done, add the frozen peas and cook for a few more minutes until the peas are tender.
6. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a low heat, then gently fry the spring onions until softened. Add the milk and heat through.
7. Drain the potatoes and peas and mash roughly. Add the warm milk mixture to the potatoes and continue to mash until combined but still chunky.
8. Spoon the beef mixture into a medium pie dish and top with the champ. Scatter over the cheese and smoked paprika.
9. Place the dish onto a baking sheet and bake the pie for 25-30 minutes, or until the potato is golden-brown.

Like most stews, it still tastes amazing, if not better, if eaten the next day :)
Unfortunately, I didn't take a photo of it after I made it (twice!) :( Sorry, will make sure I do the next time! Watch video if you need enticing!