Pork, sage and apple burgers

These burgers taste great! Everyone has asked me to cook them again, but I think I will try them on the barbeque next time. I chilled these in the fridge for an hour or so before cooking, I find this really helps them to keep their shape whilst cooking. I cooked mine under the grill, but you could fry them if you like. I served our burgers with a lovely Scottish delicacy - Potato Fritters! I can also post the recipe, just request it in the comments. The caramlised onions definitely add to the aoverall flavour, so dont skip those! Apparently, these are popular at Belfast's Graffiti restaurant.

• 900g minced pork
• 1 onion , finely chopped
• 1 cooking apple , peeled and finely grated
• 1 egg
• handful sage

CARAMELISED ONION

• 3 onions , sliced
• 2 tbsp light muscovado sugar
• butter

 To caramelise the onions, cook them with the sugar and a large knob of butter over a very gentle heat for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, mix all the burger ingredients together in a bowl and season well. Shape into four burgers, then fry over a medium heat for 6-7 minutes each side until cooked in the middle.

Cashew Chicken

This is another takeaway-inspired dinner though not from the cookbook I used yesterday. This is a recipe that I put together after having a look at a few online recipes for chinese chicken meals. It can be easily adapted with any vegetables you have, and those that your family enjoy. Mine all love peppers, so I made sure to add those. It would be tasty served with rice or noodles, I used ribbon noodles. This tasted amazingly like the cashew chicken that our local Chinese takeaway does, so I was very impressed!

Serves: 4 

2 tablespoons cornflour 

200ml chicken stock 

3 tablespoons soy sauce 

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 

2 tablespoons vegetable oil 

1 (500g) pack chicken breast chunks 

1 small onion, chopped 

1 red pepper, chopped 

8 mushrooms, chopped  

1 (220g) tin water chestnuts, drained and sliced 

100g cashews    

 

Mix the stock with the soy sauce, ginger & cornflour intil it is all combined. Add half the oil to a large wok and stif fry the chicken until cooked through, about 7 minutes. Remove the chicken & set aside. Add the remaining oil to the wok, and stir fry the other ingredients for around 5 minutes, until heated through.  Add the chicken & the stock, and simmer for anouther 5 minutes. Serve with noodles or rice.

Garlic Cream Fettuccine with Bacon & Mushrooms

 This is a dish from one my favourite cookbooks - The Takeaway Secret. It's cheap book, no pictures, but fantastic recipes if you love takeaways. I have tried many recipes from it, mostly Indian & Chinese, but decided to give other sections a go. Well, I am so glad I did! This was absolutely delicious, very rich & creamy. My husband, who is not great with praise, even said he loved it. I thin the whole thing took about 20 minutes or so to cook, so great for a quick dinner.It would be easy to make this vegetarian if you left out the bacon.

4 slices of smoked bacon, cut into thin strips
5 large chestnut mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon butter
150ml double cream
 150ml semi-skimmed milk, mixed with 1.5 teaspoon cornflour
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
Pinch of salt
Pinch of black pepper
200 g fettuccine pasta (uncooked weight)

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the bacon and mushrooms and stir-fry for 6–7 minutes. Add the chopped garlic and chopped onion. Stir-fry for a further 1 minute. Add the butter, double cream, semi-skimmed milk and Parmesan cheese. Add salt and pepper and stir thoroughly. Cook for a further 3–4 minutes or until the sauce just starts to thicken. Fill a large pan with water and bring to the boil. Add a pinch of salt and the fettuccine pasta. Stir once and simmer for 5–6 minutes or until the pasta is just cooked. Drain the pasta through a sieve, reserving a little of the water. Add the pasta and remaining water to the frying pan and stir well until completely coated in the sauce.

BBQ!

Today was a BBQ day! How hot has it been your way? Even here in Scotland we have been baking! We just had a very basic BBQ (sausages and burgers) and made a few sides to go with it.I particularly enjoyed the sweetcorn salad, I keep going back for more!


  Corn Salad

1 large tin of sweetcorn, drained
1/2 cup small-diced red onion (1 small onion)
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
3 tablespoons good olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup julienned fresh basil leaves

Potato Salad

750g boiled new potatoes
3 tablespoons mayonaise
3 tablespoons natural yogurt
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
Snipped chives





Coleslaw
1 small onion, finely sliced
1/2 small white cabbage, finely shredded
2 large carrots, grated

3 tablespons mayo
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pinch black pepper
Soak the onions in cold water for 30 minutes. Grain & pat dry. Combine all the ingredients, then
refridgerate overnight.

Big Mac Sauce

4 tablespoons mayonaise
2 teaspoons American yellow mustard
2 teaspoons tomato ketchup
1 tablespoons finely chopped gherkins

Mix & keep in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

 Yellow Rice

350g basmati rice
30g butter
Large handfull raisins
1 teaspoon sugar
1 scant teaspoon tumeric
Put all the ingredients in a large pan with 1 tsp salt and 500ml water, then heat until boiling and the butter has melted.Stir, cover and leave to simmer for 6 mins. Take off the heat and leave, still covered, for 5 mins. Fluff up and tip into a warm bowl to serve.

Pesto Pasta

500g cooked pasta
4 tablespoons homemade pesto

Chicken Adobo & Yellow Pepper Rice

This warm weather is lovely! We have spent the day in the garden with the paddling pool and sun loungers out. It also means that I cant be bothered with slaving away in a hot kitchen. I had some chicken thighs defrosted, so had a look at all my bookmarked recipes for something interesting that could be eaten hot or cold. I found a few chicken adobo recipes, so cobbled a few ideas togther to make my own version, plus a nice rice side dish from the Good Food website. 

 Chicken Adobo

120 ml cup soy sauce
120 ml apple cider vinegar
240 ml water
2 cloves chopped garlic
1/2 tsp ground pepper
6 chicken thighs

Pour the soy sauce, vinegar, water, pepper & garlic into a casserole dish that can be used on the hob. You shoudl be able to fit all the chicken in, in one layer.  Heat the sauce until simmering, then add the chicken. Cover & simmer for 30 minutes, turning the chicken over halfway through cooking.

After 30 minutes, remove the chicken and place under a medium grill, about 4/5 inches from the grill heat, for about 5 minutes. While they are grilling, turn the sauce mixture up to a good boil and reduce down to a thicker sauce to pour over the chciken on serving.

Yellow Pepper Rice

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion , finely chopped
• 1 red pepper , deseeded and chopped
• thumb-size piece fresh root ginger , finely chopped
• 250g basmati rice
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 600ml vegetable stock 

1. Heat the oil in a wide pan with a lid, then cook the onion, pepper and ginger together for 5 mins, stirring, until softened. Stir in the rice and turmeric for 1 min more, then pour over the stock. When the stock begins to simmer, cover with the lid.
2. Cook for 12 mins until the rice is tender and stock has been absorbed. If the rice is tender but a little stock remains, turn off the heat, cover again, then leave for 2-3 mins. Season and serve.

Chicken Tandoori Kebabs

Wow, it's warm here today. Nobody wanted anything heavy or too hot, and I certainly didnt want to be stuck in the kitchen with the oven on! I had chicken breasts in the fridge, so the obvious choice was chicken kebabs! I also had a tub of the home made pesto I had made a few days ago, so decided to have that mixed through with cold cooked pasta as a side dish. A nice big bowl of salad, some tzatziki I made using this Nigal Slater recipe and some warm pitta breads = perfect dinner on a hot day!

4 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
4 tablespoons natural yogurt
1 tablespoon tandoori spice mix
1 red pepper deseeded & cut into large chunks
1 yellow pepper deseeded & cut into large chunks
1 onion cut into wedges

Mix the tandoori spices with the yogurt, and marinade the chicken in the mixture for at least 2 hours (overnight if possible). Once it is nicely marnited, thread onto skewers with pepper/onion. Grill or BBQ until the chicken is cooked through.

Double crunch honey garlic pork chops!

They dont look like pork chops, do they? I have never coated chops before, but it is quite tasty! The sauce is so tasty, drizzled all over the crispy chops. The orginal recipe is here at RockRecipes, but I made a few wee changes. I used less cayenne and pepper, and used sweet paprika. I also put my chops in the oven while I made the sauce, as I wasnt convinced my inch-thick chops would cook all through in the pan. I think this would taste lovely with rice or noodles, but we opted for chips as we havent had them in ages. Big Bee had trouble eating because of her sore throat, but the 2 wee ones ate all theirs up! None of us had tasted anything quite like this, but all agreed it was delicious.

6 pork loin chops

Sift together:
125g flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1  tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground thyme
1 tsp ground sage
1 tbsp sweet paprika
Tiny pinch cayenne pepper

Mix 2 eggs plus 60ml (4 tblsp) water to make an egg wash.

Sauce -
2 tblsp olive oil
3 crushed cloves of garlic
200ml honey
60ml (4 tblspns) soy sauce
1 tsp black pepper

Dip the pork chops in the flour mix, then the egg wash then back into the flour,  and make sure they are well coated. Fry in frying pan with plenty of oil until crispy & quite golden (anout 5/6 minutes), then flip.  Once both side are golden, transfer to an oven tray & put into a 180C oven while you make your sauce.

Heat the  olive oil in a small pan and then cook the garlic for a minute or two, but dont let it change colour. Add the honey, pepper & soy sauce, and simmer gently for 5/10 minutes. This can bubble over VERY easily, so keep an eye on it.

Remove the chops, place on a warm plate & drizzle with the honey sauce. Serve with chips/noodles or rice & vegetables.

Creamy Pesto Chicken

I made some delicious homemade pesto today, especially to try out this recipe. Well, I have to say, it was a success! All the kids liked it, loved it in fact. I have one poorly daughter tonigth though, so she had a cornetto for dinner (tonsilitis). Im sure she would have loved this though, I will make it again when she is feeling better. You can use any breadcrumbs, but I love Panko so used those. They are Japanese breadcrumbs, I use them for Katsu curry, you can find the recipe here. I used to travel to the nearest city to buy them from the Asian supermarket, but Tesco sell them now! I served our chicken with green beans and hassleback potatoes.

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 3 tbsp Homemade pesto recipe here
• 85g mascarpone
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 100g breadcrumbs , I used Panko
• 175g baby tomatoes

1. Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Use a small sharp knife to make a slit along the side of each chicken breast to form a pocket. Mix together the pesto and mascarpone, then carefully spoon a quarter of the mixture into each chicken breast and smooth over the opening to seal.
2. Brush a little oil, about 1 tsp, all over each chicken breast and season well. Tip the breadcrumbs onto a large plate and season. Place each breast on the plate and press all over with the breadcrumbs. Place in a lightly oiled shallow baking dish along with the tomatoes  Drizzle over the remaining oil.
3. Cook in the oven for 20-25 mins until the chicken starts to turn golden and is cooked through.

Hassleback Potatoes

 

These make a really tasty alternative to roast potatoes. Very simple to make (as is everything I choose to cook ha ha) and need little attention. The only slightly tricky part is slicing the tops, even now I still sometimes slice too far down & chop the potato in half! Make the cuts quite close together, but dont go more than half way through the potato.

I use baby potatoes for this, but not tiny ones as they would be too difficult to slice. Allow about 3 or 4 potatoes per person if they are small. Slice each potato halfway down, making the cuts quite close together. Toss in olive oil & sea salt & some pepper, then bung into a roasting tray. Roast at 200C for about 45 minutes to an hour, depeneding how you like them.

Homemade Pesto

My first ever attempt at homemade pesto! Very tasty it was too - way better than jars of the stuff you can buy in supermarkets. I have been growing my own basil on my windowsill, so had plenty to use as it had really sprouted lately. This will keep in the fridge for a day or two, or cover with a layer of oil to keep for up to 4 days.

Large handful of basil leaves
3 tablespoons olive oil
25g freshly grated parmesan
25g toasted pine nuts
1 crushed garlic clove

Blend all together in a food processor or with a hand blender.