I Love Curry

Butternut Squash, Red lentil & spinach Curry.

So the Euros are upon us! Finally we have football on the TV screen again, wahoooo! Obviously this calls for some food that go well with (ginger) beer, and festering in front of the TV for a while. And what’s better than curry?! In my personal opinion, vegetable curries are seriously underrated (along with vegetable pizzas, they are always better than pizzas with meat!), so with a big knife in one hand, and a butternut squash in the other, I set about to make my delicious curry!

Ingredients:

1x large onion

4 cloves of garlic

1x butter nut squash (diced into tiny little cubes)

A big, generous handful of red lentils

1x red chilli, chopped

1x tinned tomatoes

800ml chicken stock

Spinach

Cumin

Garam masala

Coriander

In a large cooking pan, heat oil.

Add in onions, keep the heat low, throw in a bit of salt.

After 5-10 minutes of cooking, add in garlic.

Allow flavours to come out, and add in red chilli.

Add in all of the herbs and spices.

By this point it should be smelling bloody lovely!

Add in your (what seems a huge amount) butternut squash.

Give this a good stir and then, throw in lentils.

Quickly after, put in all of the stock, and the tinned tomatoes. Give it another good stir and cover.

Allow the curry a good few hours to develop on the low heat.

Give it an occasional stir and don’t forget to put the rice on 15 mins before you dish up!

3-5 mins before dishing up add in a few decent handfuls of spinach and stir in.

What I think:

Overall a really nice meal. I’m always impressed when I make something with no meat (excuse the stock!) and my boyfriend appears to be a big fan. The colours were beautiful and the curry had a lovely texture throughout, and a tasty bearable heat. Had with rice (I made cute little rice towers), some kind of Bombay potatoes (need to develop that recipe) and some garlic nann bread the boyfriend picked up (I wouldn’t have a clue how to make that!). Easily made veggie by switching to vegetable stock! I enjoyed the meal even more when I realised how cheap it was! 

Mum-Ma-Mia! Slow that cooking down!

Slow cooked Italian Beef Stew.

On my days off from work I like to cook things that I’ve not tried before, or different ways of doing things. After recently receiving a slow cooker, I thought I’d try and do as much slow-cooked meals as possible, because they taste so much better!

Overall it took a good four hours to make, but that’s not bad because once it’s in the oven, its just a case of going back every 20-30 minutes to give a stir.

Ingredients:

400g Beef braising steak

1x red onion

1x onion

6x cloves of garlic

100g mushrooms

1x courgette

2x peppers (one red, one yellow)

2x tinned tomoatoes (400g each)

Basil

Rosemary

Start of with a large frying pan, heating up some olive oil. Once heated, add in both slices of onion. Gently cook on a low heat.

After about 10 mins, add in all of your finely chopped garlic.

After allowing the garlic to release its flavour, add in your beef. Remember to keep it on a low heat, you’re not really cooking here, just mixing with heat!

Season the meat generously with rosemary, basil, and a little salt.

Add in peppers, courgette.

Once everything is all in together, transfer to your oven-proof dish.

This is where you can add your two tins of tomatoes.

Place in pre-heated oven, should be about 110 degrees.

Pop back every so often, to keep an eye on the delicious pot of food.

What I think:

The food being slow cooked was so much tastier! The originally tough beef melted in my mouth! The whole dish tasted incredibly rich and full of flavour. Will be making again at some point for definite! If only I didn’t need to make sure I was in for the whole afternoon!  Tastes wonderful with some really good quality, fresh bread. Easy 10/10!

Mmmm Mmmm Nachos!

Beef Chilli Nachos.

My favourite type of food is probably Mexican, and some thing that I make really well is Nachos. I eat them when I’m out a lot, but nowhere seems to do them well.  So I thought I would show people how I make them, and then people can tell me how they like them/ if they have other ways of making them.

Friday night’s nachos were, Beef Chilli Nachos.  My favourite is definitely Chicken, but it’s always good to have some variety!

Ingredients:

400g Beef mince   1X Onion

2 X Chilli  1 X tinned tomatoes

2 X avocadoes  Zest of 1 lime

1 X large bag of tortilla chips
1 X Tin of Kidney beans

Cheese Soured cream

 To Make:

Start by making up some chilli. Brown the onions, add mince, add the chilli, add the tomatoes, and leave to bubble away for 20-30 mins (more time if you’ve got it).

Guacamole: So easy to make. Put some chopped avocado in the blender, along with chopped chilli, lime zest, squeeze the lime to add in a bit of juice, crack black pepper and it’s made!

Nacho construction (where people go wrong!):

For starters you’ll need a big roasting dish. Lay out a generous portion of tortilla chips, and dollop of guacamole, and chilli along with a handful of cheese. Place more tortilla chips over everything, dollop the rest of your chilli and guacamole

On the top, along with a huge helping of cheese. Place in the oven at 200 degrees for 8-10 mins. When you take it out, start throwing soured cream wherever you desire!

What I think: I think I make better Nachos then any I have bought, anywhere! With the main differences being: cooked in the oven, and guacamole/ salsa is also cooked with everything.If you drain any excess tomato juices before slathering them over your nachos, it will make for a better feast! Easily one of my most favourite things to ever eat. Too much love for nachos. 

I love a good bowl of soup.

Carrot, Ginger & Orange Soup

I absolutely love fresh soup, so as it’s my day off and I have plenty of vegetables in my fridge I thought I’d treat myself. I have an amazing soup book, “A Soup for everyday”, Written by Covent Garden Soup Company. It has a huge amount of soups, but sadly not the one I had decided I was going to make! Maybe I’ll write to them and tell them the recipe so they can put it in their next book teeheehee!

Ingredients:

1x chopped onion
1x diced garlic clove

2x (absolutely huge) carrots

20g chopped, fresh Ginger

Orange zest from one Orange

½ Orange, chopped

200ml Chicken stock

On to the making!

Gently heat through (not brown) onions & garlic in olive oil over the hob. Leave for about 5 mins.

Add in carrots, ginger, orange & orange zest, Chicken stock. Cover and leave for a about 20 mins.

Blend until everything runs smooth.

Season to taste.

Chicken, roasted Peppers & Pesto Pasta.

Chicken, roasted Peppers & Pesto Pasta.

This meal is most probably top of my list for “comfort food”. I adore it! It’s one of those meals where you can tuck in, and continue to eat until it’s all gone (enough to make you feel like a labrodor!). It’s easy to make, looks good and isn’t as fatty as most other comfort food dishes.

Ingredients:

1 x Red onion, sliced

3 x peppers (more colour variety will of course make it look more appealing!)

2 x Chicken breasts, chopped.

2x tablespoons of pesto

180g Pasta

A good glug of olive oil

Start by slicing both peppers and onion, and place in a roasting dish, with the addition of a glug of olive oil.  Roast for about 20-25 mins (but keep an eye on it and give it a mix half way though.).

Begin to boil pasta.

Gently fry chicken breasts in a pan- try not to cook in too much oil as there will be plenty in the dish when everything I added together.

Rinse pasta.

In the roasting dish add your pasta, chicken and mix in the few tablespoons of pesto. Viola! Dinner is made!

What I think: I think I’ve already made it clear how much I adore this meal. Easy and tasty, and relatively effortless. 

Eating out in Edinburgh- Café Cassis

Eating out in Edinburgh- Café Cassis

The last weekend I went out for lunch with The Boyfriends family to celebrate his Mum and Sister’s birthday. Wooo! We headed to, Café Cassis, (part of The Salisbury Hotel) A French restaurant in the Newington area of Edinburgh.

The restaurant offers a very nicely priced lunch menu, with the option of having specials on a board. We all opted for the lunch menu, which offers two courses £8.95 with the option to add on £1.95 for a dessert.

I opted for a bowl of Moules marinière with cream, garlic and parsley, in a delicious sauce, served with a few baskets of bread for the table to share.  I was so happy with this starter. Having the bread also meant I could soak up all of the juices to leave a clean bowl! The portion size was pretty generous, especially for a starter, and to my delight I didn’t have to throw any muscles away as they were all opened, woo wooo!

For my main course I had, beef bourguignon, which looked like a small portion when it came out, but it was deceptive as it was actually the perfect portion size! The meat was wonderful, very tender, and the whole dish had plenty of flavour.

For dessert I chose Homemade nougat ice cream terrine served with crème anglaise and

Raspberry coulis. It wasn’t the most impressive looking desert, but it tasted good and was a lovely way to finish the meal.

What I think: The service was excellent. We had one waitress to take all of our orders, and two waitresses to serve everything, so food came out very swiftly! The quality was wonderful throughout and I don’t think there is anyway you expect more, especially with such a small price tag on the set meal. The restaurant itself looked for clean and fresh. I expect I will go back for more. All things considered I don’t think I can give it any less than 9/10 (an upgrade on desserts and it would be a very easy 10).

Restaurant website:  http://www.cafecassis.co.uk/index.html

Red Lentil and Apricot Påté

Red Lentil and Apricot Påté

100% that it tastes so much better than it looks!

When I was vegetarian I always used to eat lentil påté, made by cauldron, but recently I’ve not seen it anywhere! So with the knowledge that lentil works will as a pate I have decided to try and make some for myself. I spent a while mumming and ahhhing into my cupboards deciding what ingredients to throw into the mix, and finally decided on a few spices and apricots.

Ingredients:

• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 180 g dried red lentils
• 800ml vegetable stock
• 5 dried apricots
• 2 teaspoons of sunflower spread
• 2 teaspoons of ras-el-hanout
• 1 teaspoon of garma masala
• 1 teaspoon of cumin

Directions:

Brown onions and garlic in oil.

Add in spices.

Add the dried red lentils, along with 800ml of vegetable stock.

Leave to cook, stirring occasionally for 15-20 mins

When the lentils have absorbed the majority of the water, get a sift and squeeze away excess water

Add 2 teaspoon of sunflower spread/ marge

Using a hand processor, blend the mix until it forms a smooth paste

Put mix in greased tin

Cover, and cook for 30-40 mins at 180 degrees.

What I think:

It’s not the most attractive thing I’ve ever concocted in the kitchen, but it is high up there on my list of tasty things. Especially tasty things that I can eat at breakfast! I was hoping the lentils would hold their colour a wee bit more, but that is my only disappointment.  The texture is spot on and it’s easy to spread.