This is a recipe I created for dinner tonight and it turned out amazingly well, (especially since I just made it up), and I actually wish I'd made more! I served this sauce with some deep-fried battered jumbo king prawns (or Quorn fillets for those who don't like prawns, which in this house is everyone but me) and boiled brown rice. I will be posting the recipe for the prawns/Quorn meal later on (and this recipe can also be used for chicken or pork) but for now here's the wonderful sauce.
You can also start this sauce off by chopping a small onion and frying in a little oil until soft before adding the rest of the ingredients. I was somehow out of onions or I would have done this too. Other foods like carrots, mushrooms and bell peppers can also be added depending on what you feel like having.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons white rice vinegar
4 tablespoons chopped tomatoes (I used part of a carton with added onion & basil)
1 tablespoon concentrated tomato purée
3 tablespoons water
1 vegetable stock cube
½ teaspoon fresh grated ginger
¼ teaspoon chopped red chilli
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 1cm thick slices of fresh pineapple, core removed
Generous dash of soy sauce (or if like me you appear to be out of this then good old Worcestershire sauce will work)
Freshly ground salt and pepper
Method
1. Put honey, sugar and the rice vinegar into a pan. Heat until the honey and sugar have dissolved into the vinegar.
2. Add the tomatoes, puree, soy sauce and water and bring to the boil.
3. Once boiling turn the heat down low and crumble in the stock cube. Stir in the ginger, chilli and garlic and leave to simmer.
4. Chop the pineapple slices into small chunks and add to the simmering sauce, season with salt and pepper to taste if necessary. Leave on the heat to thicken, stirring occasionally, making sure it doesn't burn or stick to the pan.
You can make this sauce slightly in advance of your meal if you wish and reheat when you are serving, or do as I did and make it before the rest of the dinner, the time you take to prepare the rest of the meal will allow enough time for the sauce to simmer and thicken into a beautifully delicious sticky sauce.
Thursday, 14 April 2011
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Simple Eggs Florentine
This is my own take on the classic Eggs Florentine dish (one I prefer so much more than the original Eggs Benedict style which has ham instead of the spinach used in Eggs Florentine).
A traditional Eggs Florentine (and Eggs Benedict) uses an English (toasting) muffin as the base, but I like just a regular slice of toast on mine. The Eggs Florentine should also have a Mornay sauce instead of the Hollandaise that is used in Eggs Benedict but since it's much easier to buy a jar of Hollandaise than to make any of the sauces for it then that's what I use.
This is a great filling breakfast with just one slice of toast & one egg, or go for two slices of toast and two eggs for a super-yummy lunch.
Ingredients
2 slices of bread
butter
½ pack of baby spinach
2 eggs
1 tablespoon of jarred Hollandaise sauce
Whole nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
1. Boil a pan of water, adding a pinch of salt and a splash of white vinegar. Heat another pan with a small knob of butter (or small splash of oil).
2. Toast the two slices of bread to your own cooking preference. Carefully crack the two eggs into the pan of boiling water and add the spinach to the other pan.
3. When the toast is cooked, butter and put onto your plate. Grate a small amount of the whole nutmeg over the wilting spinach and when nicely wilted and hot, share between the two slices of toast.
4. The eggs should only take a couple of minutes to cook depending on their size and how runny you like them to be. I like to have a fully cooked white but a runny yolk so they are usually perfect by this point. Use a holey serving spoon to lift the eggs from the water. Let the water drain off and then place the eggs on top of the spinach.
5. If your Hollandaise has been chilled you can now put into a microwave for a few seconds (only a few as being in too long will split the sauce), or heat quickly in a pan, just to take the chill off. Drizzle over the top of the eggs to your own preference and then finish with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Enjoy!
A traditional Eggs Florentine (and Eggs Benedict) uses an English (toasting) muffin as the base, but I like just a regular slice of toast on mine. The Eggs Florentine should also have a Mornay sauce instead of the Hollandaise that is used in Eggs Benedict but since it's much easier to buy a jar of Hollandaise than to make any of the sauces for it then that's what I use.
This is a great filling breakfast with just one slice of toast & one egg, or go for two slices of toast and two eggs for a super-yummy lunch.
Ingredients
2 slices of bread
butter
½ pack of baby spinach
2 eggs
1 tablespoon of jarred Hollandaise sauce
Whole nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
1. Boil a pan of water, adding a pinch of salt and a splash of white vinegar. Heat another pan with a small knob of butter (or small splash of oil).
2. Toast the two slices of bread to your own cooking preference. Carefully crack the two eggs into the pan of boiling water and add the spinach to the other pan.
3. When the toast is cooked, butter and put onto your plate. Grate a small amount of the whole nutmeg over the wilting spinach and when nicely wilted and hot, share between the two slices of toast.
4. The eggs should only take a couple of minutes to cook depending on their size and how runny you like them to be. I like to have a fully cooked white but a runny yolk so they are usually perfect by this point. Use a holey serving spoon to lift the eggs from the water. Let the water drain off and then place the eggs on top of the spinach.
5. If your Hollandaise has been chilled you can now put into a microwave for a few seconds (only a few as being in too long will split the sauce), or heat quickly in a pan, just to take the chill off. Drizzle over the top of the eggs to your own preference and then finish with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Enjoy!
Monday, 28 March 2011
Orange Mustard Chicken with Creamy Mash
Yet again another fantastically easy and tasty recipe from the WeightWatchers Cook Smart Easy Everyday book. This one actually comes as "Orange Mustard Chicken with Parsnip Mash" but I just cannot stand parsnips so replaced them with yummy potatoes instead and have adapted the recipe a small amount. I also added a generous splash of Worcestershire sauce to the marmalade and mustard mix.
Serves 1 (multiply as necessary)
Ingredients (for chicken)
1 teaspoon, wholegrain mustard
2 teaspoons reduced-sugar orange marmalade
150g (5½oz) skinless boneless chicken breast
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For potatoes:
Enough potatoes for number being served, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon low fat fromage frais (per person)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh chives or parsley (per person)
Butter, to taste
Method
1. Preheat the grill to medium high. Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the potatoes for approximately 20 minutes, or until cooked.
2. In a small bowl, mix the mustard and marmalade together.
3. Place the chicken, upper side face down, in a foil lined grill tray. Season. Grill for 8-10 minutes, then turn the chicken over and spread on the mustard and marmalade. Cook for a further 8-10 minutes or until the chicken is tender and the glaze has turned a deep golden colour.
4. Drain the potatoes, mash or put through a potato ricer, add the butter, fromage frais and chopped chives or parsley. Slice the chicken and serve piled on top of the mash.
WeightWatchers Cook Smart Easy Everyday (2011) is currently available from Amazon at the bargain price of £8.49. RRP £14.99
Serves 1 (multiply as necessary)
Ingredients (for chicken)
1 teaspoon, wholegrain mustard
2 teaspoons reduced-sugar orange marmalade
150g (5½oz) skinless boneless chicken breast
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For potatoes:
Enough potatoes for number being served, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon low fat fromage frais (per person)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh chives or parsley (per person)
Butter, to taste
Method
1. Preheat the grill to medium high. Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the potatoes for approximately 20 minutes, or until cooked.
2. In a small bowl, mix the mustard and marmalade together.
3. Place the chicken, upper side face down, in a foil lined grill tray. Season. Grill for 8-10 minutes, then turn the chicken over and spread on the mustard and marmalade. Cook for a further 8-10 minutes or until the chicken is tender and the glaze has turned a deep golden colour.
4. Drain the potatoes, mash or put through a potato ricer, add the butter, fromage frais and chopped chives or parsley. Slice the chicken and serve piled on top of the mash.
WeightWatchers Cook Smart Easy Everyday (2011) is currently available from Amazon at the bargain price of £8.49. RRP £14.99
Pork with Tomatoes and Red Wine
This incredibly easy and tasty recipe came from an absolutely wonderful book - full of fantastic ideas. It's the WeightWatchers Cook Smart Easy Everyday book, I have a few in this range now and it's great for healthier ideas even if you're not doing the WeightWatchers programme.
The book recommends serving this with boiled rice and fresh steamed vegetables but instead I served it with boiled baby new potatoes and it was nice like that too. It does make a lot of sauce though so probably best served in a shallow bowl no matter what you choose to serve it with.
The recipe also suggests bulking it out with additional chopped vegetables such as carrots, celery and leeks for a more filling casserole style meal.
The only changes I made were small, other than the potatoes instead of rice, I used an extra 50g of the pork and 25g of mushrooms just because I didn't want to waste the little amount that would have been left over and used a tiny amount of olive oil when frying the pork and onion. I found the amount of cornflour used wasn't enough to thicken the sauce so used extra, this is something you can adjust to your own preference.
Serves 4 (although we fed 3 from this with a lot for leftovers)
Ingredients
350g (12oz) pork tenderloin, cut into strips
1 large onion, chopped
400g can chopped tomatoes with herbs
150ml (5 fl oz) red wine
1 tablespoon tomato purée
150ml (5 fl oz) hot vegetable or chicken stock
1 teaspoon dried herbes de Provence or Italian mixed herbs
225g (8oz) chestnut or open cap mushrooms, halved
2 courgettes, sliced thickly
1 teaspoon dried sage
2 teaspoons cornflour
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
1. Heat a large, lidded, non stick frying pan and dry fry the pork and onion for 5 minutes then stir in the tomatoes, red wine, tomato purée, stock, herbs, mushrooms, courgettes and sage. Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
2. Blend the cornflour to a paste with 2 tablespoons of cold water and stir into the pork mixture. Simmer, uncovered, for 1-2 minutes to thicken the sauce. Season to taste. Serve.
And that's it! Told you it was easy!
WeightWatchers Cook Smart Easy Everyday (2011) is currently available from Amazon at the bargain price of £8.49. RRP £14.99
The book recommends serving this with boiled rice and fresh steamed vegetables but instead I served it with boiled baby new potatoes and it was nice like that too. It does make a lot of sauce though so probably best served in a shallow bowl no matter what you choose to serve it with.
The recipe also suggests bulking it out with additional chopped vegetables such as carrots, celery and leeks for a more filling casserole style meal.
The only changes I made were small, other than the potatoes instead of rice, I used an extra 50g of the pork and 25g of mushrooms just because I didn't want to waste the little amount that would have been left over and used a tiny amount of olive oil when frying the pork and onion. I found the amount of cornflour used wasn't enough to thicken the sauce so used extra, this is something you can adjust to your own preference.
Serves 4 (although we fed 3 from this with a lot for leftovers)
Ingredients
350g (12oz) pork tenderloin, cut into strips
1 large onion, chopped
400g can chopped tomatoes with herbs
150ml (5 fl oz) red wine
1 tablespoon tomato purée
150ml (5 fl oz) hot vegetable or chicken stock
1 teaspoon dried herbes de Provence or Italian mixed herbs
225g (8oz) chestnut or open cap mushrooms, halved
2 courgettes, sliced thickly
1 teaspoon dried sage
2 teaspoons cornflour
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
1. Heat a large, lidded, non stick frying pan and dry fry the pork and onion for 5 minutes then stir in the tomatoes, red wine, tomato purée, stock, herbs, mushrooms, courgettes and sage. Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
2. Blend the cornflour to a paste with 2 tablespoons of cold water and stir into the pork mixture. Simmer, uncovered, for 1-2 minutes to thicken the sauce. Season to taste. Serve.
And that's it! Told you it was easy!
WeightWatchers Cook Smart Easy Everyday (2011) is currently available from Amazon at the bargain price of £8.49. RRP £14.99
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
Strawberry Pancakes
Well it was Pancake Day today after all! These didn't last very long with two kids around the house.
This morning I had the idea to use up some fresh strawberries I had that were getting to that too-soft-to-just-eat stage so I decided to incorporate them into my pancakes for today. I did estimate a good bit with the ingredients so don't panic about being utterly exact with the quantities. You want the pancake batter to be quite thick but still able to be dropped from your spoon into the pan without any help. I also found that before I reached the end of the batter it was starting to thin itself a little so I mixed more flour through to thicken it up a bit.
Ingredients
420g plain flour
6 tsp baking powder (or just use self-raising flour instead of plain and omit the baking powder)
large pinch of salt
100g golden caster sugar (you might need more if your strawberries are rather tart)
4 eggs
400g fresh strawberries
350ml semi-skimmed milk
2 tsp cinnamon powder
Method
1. Trim the strawberries, remove all stalks and any unripened areas (I also removed any areas that had gone squishy). Purée with a food processor (a blender or hand blender would work too) until smooth, or just pulse gently if you want little strawberry lumps within the finished pancakes. Pour into a measuring jug. For me 400g of strawberries turned into 350ml of strawberry purée. Add the milk to the strawberry purée and mix well.
2. Lightly grease your pan, I used a well known brand of butter substitute (don't use the light versions) and a tiny amount of rapeseed oil whenever the pan needed regreased throughout cooking, but just use whatever you would normally use for greasing/frying. Obviously using real butter would add a lovely flavour too. Put the pan on to heat up. You want to keep it hot enough to cook the batter but not so hot that you'll burn the outsides and the insides end up raw - it'll just depend on your cooker and you might need a few attempts to get it right.
3. Into a large bowl, sift the flour and baking powder, then add the cinnamon (I just estimated my amounts but you can adjust or even remove this totally, depending on how much you love cinnamon.) Then add the salt and finally the sugar.
4. Break the eggs into the flour and give a quick stir and then slowly add the strawberry/milk mix. You want a thick-ish batter so don't add it all in one go as you might find yourself having to add more flour instead. When you have the batter to a nice consistency make sure that all the ingredients are well stirred in and get ready to cook those pancakes!
5. Drop a spoonful of batter onto your pan. The size of the spoon depends on how big you want your pancakes to be! I used a large plastic kitchen serving spoon but only used about 1/2 to 1/3 of a spoon for each pancake. When the surface starts to form some bubbles use a fish slice or palette knife to flip the pancake over and cook on the other side. The time needed for each side depends on the heat of the pan and how thick the pancakes are so you might find the first couple don't work so well as the later ones when you're in the flow of how long each takes, but you want each side to be nicely golden without being too dark a brown.
6. Once cooked through, slide the pancake from the pan onto a clean tea towel. Keep going until all the batter is gone and you have a mountain of delicious pancakes! You can even do what I did and hope that they count as one of your five a day due to the strawberries inside. ;)
The yummy pile of pancakes I ended up with (minus a couple that may have mysteriously vanished before photo time):
This morning I had the idea to use up some fresh strawberries I had that were getting to that too-soft-to-just-eat stage so I decided to incorporate them into my pancakes for today. I did estimate a good bit with the ingredients so don't panic about being utterly exact with the quantities. You want the pancake batter to be quite thick but still able to be dropped from your spoon into the pan without any help. I also found that before I reached the end of the batter it was starting to thin itself a little so I mixed more flour through to thicken it up a bit.
Ingredients
420g plain flour
6 tsp baking powder (or just use self-raising flour instead of plain and omit the baking powder)
large pinch of salt
100g golden caster sugar (you might need more if your strawberries are rather tart)
4 eggs
400g fresh strawberries
350ml semi-skimmed milk
2 tsp cinnamon powder
Method
1. Trim the strawberries, remove all stalks and any unripened areas (I also removed any areas that had gone squishy). Purée with a food processor (a blender or hand blender would work too) until smooth, or just pulse gently if you want little strawberry lumps within the finished pancakes. Pour into a measuring jug. For me 400g of strawberries turned into 350ml of strawberry purée. Add the milk to the strawberry purée and mix well.
2. Lightly grease your pan, I used a well known brand of butter substitute (don't use the light versions) and a tiny amount of rapeseed oil whenever the pan needed regreased throughout cooking, but just use whatever you would normally use for greasing/frying. Obviously using real butter would add a lovely flavour too. Put the pan on to heat up. You want to keep it hot enough to cook the batter but not so hot that you'll burn the outsides and the insides end up raw - it'll just depend on your cooker and you might need a few attempts to get it right.
3. Into a large bowl, sift the flour and baking powder, then add the cinnamon (I just estimated my amounts but you can adjust or even remove this totally, depending on how much you love cinnamon.) Then add the salt and finally the sugar.
4. Break the eggs into the flour and give a quick stir and then slowly add the strawberry/milk mix. You want a thick-ish batter so don't add it all in one go as you might find yourself having to add more flour instead. When you have the batter to a nice consistency make sure that all the ingredients are well stirred in and get ready to cook those pancakes!
5. Drop a spoonful of batter onto your pan. The size of the spoon depends on how big you want your pancakes to be! I used a large plastic kitchen serving spoon but only used about 1/2 to 1/3 of a spoon for each pancake. When the surface starts to form some bubbles use a fish slice or palette knife to flip the pancake over and cook on the other side. The time needed for each side depends on the heat of the pan and how thick the pancakes are so you might find the first couple don't work so well as the later ones when you're in the flow of how long each takes, but you want each side to be nicely golden without being too dark a brown.
6. Once cooked through, slide the pancake from the pan onto a clean tea towel. Keep going until all the batter is gone and you have a mountain of delicious pancakes! You can even do what I did and hope that they count as one of your five a day due to the strawberries inside. ;)
The yummy pile of pancakes I ended up with (minus a couple that may have mysteriously vanished before photo time):
And this just goes to show the love that goes into these pancakes. I burnt one accidentally and it just so happened to be in a heart shape. Some people see Jesus in their food, I just see love. Haha! ;)
Hello!
Hi and thanks for following my blog! I thought I should introduce myself a little before launching into foody things.
I'm Susie and I live in Arbroath, on the east coast of Scotland. I'm in my late 20s but only until July. ;) I live with my partner of 8 years Dave, and our two beautiful daughters Roxie, 7 and Connie, 3.
I became a stay at home mum (SAHM) when I had Roxie (I had previously been a university student), and more recently I launched my own internet business called Pot of Gold Crafts, I sell many items all handmade by myself. As well as that I have many hobbies, I like to do all the crafts for the business for myself too and I also help with costumes in a local theatre club. I have also been undertaking a BA degree with the Open University although I have been on a break from that for just over a year until I can magic up some more free time to study in.
So yeah, I'm a pretty busy person, add my addictions to playing computer games such as The Sims, and some housework now and again and it's amazing we even have time to eat.
But cooking is definitely such a fun thing for me, I'm obsessed with trying new things, trying to invent things and just making people happy with food.
So that's what One Woman, One Kitchen is all about. I'll be posting some of my own concoctions, some from other sites, books or magazines that I've tried out and enjoyed and also look out for reviews of cookbooks, magazines and even just new cooking products or kitchen gadgets (another obsession of mine). And hopefully lots of yummy looking photos too.
I hope you can all find something you love from my blog, I undertake a variety of different cooking styles, from baking things from scratch, to total invention, to "cheating" with boxes and packets and even on the busier days "just throw in the oven" meals (although I'm sure you don't need any instructions on how to do those) and all the way up to the weird and wonderful and a variety of foods that you wouldn't be ashamed to serve at a dinner party.
So sit back and enjoy and I hope you find some inspiration to give at least a few things a shot yourself as well.
I'm Susie and I live in Arbroath, on the east coast of Scotland. I'm in my late 20s but only until July. ;) I live with my partner of 8 years Dave, and our two beautiful daughters Roxie, 7 and Connie, 3.
I became a stay at home mum (SAHM) when I had Roxie (I had previously been a university student), and more recently I launched my own internet business called Pot of Gold Crafts, I sell many items all handmade by myself. As well as that I have many hobbies, I like to do all the crafts for the business for myself too and I also help with costumes in a local theatre club. I have also been undertaking a BA degree with the Open University although I have been on a break from that for just over a year until I can magic up some more free time to study in.
So yeah, I'm a pretty busy person, add my addictions to playing computer games such as The Sims, and some housework now and again and it's amazing we even have time to eat.
But cooking is definitely such a fun thing for me, I'm obsessed with trying new things, trying to invent things and just making people happy with food.
So that's what One Woman, One Kitchen is all about. I'll be posting some of my own concoctions, some from other sites, books or magazines that I've tried out and enjoyed and also look out for reviews of cookbooks, magazines and even just new cooking products or kitchen gadgets (another obsession of mine). And hopefully lots of yummy looking photos too.
I hope you can all find something you love from my blog, I undertake a variety of different cooking styles, from baking things from scratch, to total invention, to "cheating" with boxes and packets and even on the busier days "just throw in the oven" meals (although I'm sure you don't need any instructions on how to do those) and all the way up to the weird and wonderful and a variety of foods that you wouldn't be ashamed to serve at a dinner party.
So sit back and enjoy and I hope you find some inspiration to give at least a few things a shot yourself as well.
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