Posted by Jimbob on September 17th, 2008
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Pancakes With Summer Fruits and a Strawberry Coulis

berriespancakeWhen I was little, my Mum only used to make pancakes on Shrove Tuesday and I remember my brother and I getting very excited and wanting to skip dinner, just to wade through a mound of pancakes!

Now I’m older of body (but certainly not in mind :-) ), I like to enjoy pancakes throughout the year and this recipe is great for pudding or even as a Sunday breakfast – being a fruit-lover, my daughter really enjoys this and it’s a great way of ensuring she is eating plenty of goodness for breakfast.

The ingredients are as follows:

For the pancake mixture:

  • 110g plain flour
  • 200ml of milk mixed with 75ml of water
  • 2 eggs
  • 50g/2oz butter
  • pinch of salt

For the filling:

  • Strawberries
  • Blueberries
  • Raspberries

For the coulis:

  • Strawberries
  • Sugar (to taste)
  • A small drop of water

Sieve the flour and salt into a mixing bowl and the make a well in the centre of the flour and break the eggs into it. Whisk the eggs with the flour.

Now gradually add small quantities of the milk and water mixture, still whisking until all the liquid has been added and the batter is smooth.

Now to make the coulis – tip the strawberries in to a warm pan, with a little water and sugar. Heat the strawberries for several minutes until it begins to look like jam. Now pour strawberries in to a blender/food processor and blitz until smooth. Now pour the mixture in to a bowl, through a sieve, which will remove any of the seeds and leave you with a wonderfully, bright red, smooth sauce!

For the pancakes, heat up the pan until it is very hot and then turn the heat down to medium. Add 2 tablespoons of the batter mix to the pan and tip it  from side to side to get the base evenly coated with batter. The underside of the pancake will be cooked pretty quickly and when it is, turn it over using a spatula .As soon as the top surface is cooked, add some strawberries, blueberries and rasberries and then fold the pancake in half. After about 30 seconds to 1 minute, the filling should be nicely warmed and ready to serve.

Serve on a warm plate, dust with a little icing sugar and spoon on the coulis, being creative and arty if you so wish!

Enjoy!

Categories: Recipes
Posted by Jimbob on August 9th, 2008
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Cooking Efficiently – Helping to Reduce Fuel Bills and Improve Kitchen ‘Green Credentials’

gas hobWith the ever-increasing cost of gas and electricity, I started to think about ways that perhaps we as a family could start to try and reduce our increasing bills.  One way that perhaps I had not considered before, is in the kitchen; obviously I would not want to revert to using a microwave oven to cook all meals, but there are a few simple steps we’ve put in to place to help keep costs down.

  • When boiling water,  cover the pan and it should bring it to the boil in approximately half the time it would take uncovered.
  • Flat-bottomed pans will ensure full contact with electric cooking rings – if the pan is not in full contact, then heating the pan will be far less efficient.
  • Certain pan types will conduct and retain heat far more efficiently, for example, copper-bottomed pans will heat up quicker than stainless steel. In addition to this, cast-iron pans retain heat far more efficiently, result in more evenly-cooked food and do not require gas/electric rings to be turned up as high, helping to reduce energy usage and therefore cost.
  • Ensure the size of the pan matches the electric ring, otherwise a percentage of the heat produced will be lost as waste.
  • Reducing cooking times sounds obvious, but when using the oven, try not to open the door part-way through cooking; the heat lost has to be replaced, which means the oven has to work harder and use more energy.
  • Try alternative methods for cooking, for example, for certain food types, it may be far more efficient to use a microwave, rather than an electric hob ring, or use an electric toaster rather than the electric grill in an oven.
  • Keep the electric hob rings clean – any dirt or burnt foodstuffs left on the rings will absorb heat and therefore, energy.
  • Keep the reflective areas below gas rings clean – again, the more reflective the surface, the far more heat will be radiated and the more efficient they will be

If you decide to adopt any of these, drop me a line and let me know how it has affected your energy bills – I suspect it will not make a huge difference, but should make some impact and afterall, anything is better than nothing.

Categories: Tips
Posted by Jimbob on July 26th, 2008
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Rhubarb and Custard…….Ice Cream

RhubarbMy mother-in-law has grown and abundance of rhubarb and kindly asked if we would like a stalk or 2. Now, having recently purchased an ice cream maker, I decided that rather than cook a rhubarb crumble and as it was the height of summer, perhaps I could conjure up a twist on this that would be a lot cooler?

This is made up of 2 components, custard and rhubarb, that are mixed together when placing in to the ice cream maker.

The first is the custard:

  • 4 Egg yolks
  • 100g Sugar
  • 1/2 Pint (300ml) of milk
  • 1/2 Pint (300ml) of double cream
  • 1 or 2 vanilla pods, seeds removed
  1. Slowly heat the milk in a saucepan until it begins to boil
  2. Whilst the milk is warming, beat the egg yolks together with the sugar
  3. When the milk has begun to boil, continue to beat the eggs and sugar and add to the milk
  4. Add the vanilla and return the mixture to the heat, stirring constantly – do not let the mixture boil, otherwise it will separate. Once the mixture has heated sufficiently, it will coat the back of a wooden spoon with a film
  5. Remove from the heat, leave to cool and then stir in the cream

Second, the rhubarb

  • 3 or 4 Rhubarb stalks
  • Sugar (to taste – I never like stipulating how much sugar to use, because some people prefer sharper-flavoured rhubarb, so just keep tasting throughout cooking and add more sugar where necessary)
  1. Slice the rhubarb and place in to a pan over a low-to-medium heat with the sugar
  2. Heat the mixture until it turns in to that gooey rhubarb mix that is synonymous with the filling of rhubarb crumble
  3. Remember to keep tasting whilst cooking and add sugar where required
  4. Take off the heat and leave to cool

Once both mixtures have cooled, then you can mix together very lightly, so you should end up with a kind of ‘ripple’ effect. Then place the combined mixture in to the ice cream maker and follow the associated instructions.

If you are serving this in a bowl for pudding, then you could even make up a ‘crumble’ mix to scatter across the top of the ice cream…..

Categories: Recipes
Posted by Jimbob on July 14th, 2008
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Home-Made Ice Cream – Kids Love it!

strawberry ice creamWhilst out shopping the other day, my daughter asked for an ice cream from a street vendor; of course, as you would expect of any discerning child, she opted for chocolate and savored every mouthful :-)

This gave me a thought; when I was a kid, my Mum always kept a tub of ice cream in the freezer, complete with a packet of cones in the cupboard (and if we were lucky, then a pack of those flaky chocolate fingers to stick in the ice cream!). I promised my daughter that we would buy a nice tub of ice cream to take home for future treats, however, when I picked up several tubs from the local shop, I began to read the ingredients and realised that the preservatives and additives contained in each would undoubtedly send her in to a frenzy of hyper-activity….what to do?

We then spied an ice cream maker and like in all great cartoon moments, you could almost see the light bulb appear from above my head! However, being slightly naive, I read the front of the box which stated, “make ice cream in 20 minutes”…..this got my daughter and I very excited indeed and we promptly headed home armed with our ‘miracle machine’. The initial excitement was soon dampened by my slightly more grounded wife, who questioned how perhaps I wondered how you could take warm ingredients and turn them in to a frozen product in just 20 minutes? Ok, so perhaps I should have read the rest of the box, which indicated the need to place the ice cream maker in the freezer for 12 hours prior to mixing…

So, 12 hours later, our excitement was on a par with 12 hours earlier! My daughters favourite fruit is strawberry, so we agreed to make strawberry ice cream. To me, this is fantastic because as with other forms of cooking, you know exactly what is going in to the food and you have full and complete control of this; no additives, no preservatives, no colouring and no flavourings, just plain and simple, quality, fresh produce.

Here’s the recipe we used:

  • 1 Punnet of strawberries (approx 500g)
  • 1/2 Pint (300ml) of double cream (ok, so it’s not going to be the most healthy, but who cares?!)
  • approx 100g of sugar (we actually used less than this because the strawberries were particularly sweet, so just use to-taste)
  • Juice of 1 lemon

And the fun bit:

  1. Whiz up the strawberries in a food processor or blender
  2. Mix in the sugar, cream and lemon juice
  3. Follow the instructions of your ice cream maker
  4. Spoon on to a cone and enjoy!
Categories: Recipes
Posted by Jimbob on June 28th, 2008
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Quality Knives – Is It Worth Investing?

KnifeIf there is one item in the kitchen that is worth spending that little bit extra on, then in my opinion (for what it’s worth) it is definitely a good quality knife. There is an abundance of kitchen equipment out there that has been designed to ‘make our lives easier’, claiming to prepare and cook an entire meal from scratch, whilst we sit back and enjoy the latest soap on television…..however, the item we use rely on the most and use regularly is a knife.

I remember being given a knife many years ago that claimed to never require sharpening, could cut through most materials and could be used for any type of food preparation. And it could, however, its serrated edges sawed rather than sliced making a complete mess of the ingredients and my fingers on a number of occasions! I decided then to invest in a good quality knife.

A good quality knife should be far more efficient to use (requiring less force to cut) and as a result, the blade is less likely to slip and lead to injury, whilst lasting much longer than less expensive ones. There are many, many types, compositions, shapes and sizes out there on the market, however, I decided in the first instance (due to the amount I could afford at the time) to concentrate on choosing a chef’s knife, as this was the type I used most frequently.

I opted, after a fair amount of research, for a steel blade containing cobalt which increases its strength, complete with a wooden handle, partly for comfort and partly because it looks great! The knife is well-weighted, which means there is less effort required when I slice through ingredients. If you can, I would recommend trying the knife before purchasing, to ensure you feel comfortable with its feel and balance when using it.

In addition to the knife, I would also recommend investing on a suitable cutting surface. Personally, I have avoided using glass as you could quite easily slip and cut yourself, but rather adopted using a good, solid, heavy wooden chopping board, which is infinitely-less prone to moving or wobbling.

Categories: Tips
Posted by Jimbob on June 5th, 2008
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A Firm Favourite Amongst Friends; Malaysian Curry

Star Anise

Ok, so it may be time to quieten down on the Thai curry off-shoot reportoire as I am beginning to feel that I may be overdoing it slightly…. however, my Wife introduced me to this and I have to say, if you are after a receipe that is fresh, but with a little fire in it’s belly, then this may be the answer for you.

It takes the red curry base (well, most of it, there is a subtle difference!) and adds another dimension and provides a really great alternative from a neighbouring nation. Please see my previous article regarding red curry for the base recipe.

The base is similar to the red curry, however, rather than galangal, just add the same quantity of ginger as a substitute and, do not add any coriander root or seeds, black peppercorns or cumin seeds. Also, add a teaspoon of tumeric, which will give it great orange/yellow colour once it is all blitzed together. For the best tasting curry, I have found that doubling the amount of paste from my previous post gives more flavour and adds a little more heat. As with any curry, increase or reduce the number of chillies to suit your own taste/tollerance or guests taste/tollerance. It’s amazing how quickly you can build up your tollerance to chilli heat and I have fallen foul in the past of making paste that I thought was fairly tame, only to see steam pouring from friends’ ears and their faces turn a shocking state of red, whilst politely asking for a drink or two…!

For the rest of the ingredients, use the following:

  • Chicken thighs (skinned and boned, quantity to your choosing, I used about 1/2 kg) cut into bite-sized peices
  • A couple of good-sized onions
  • 3 or 4 kaffir lime leaves (you can either get these fresh from your local supplier or, dried from most supermarkets)
  • 1 Cinnamon stick
  • 2 or 3 star anise
  • 1 Can of coconut milk
  • 100 to 200ml of chicken stock
  • 1 Tablespoon of palm sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons of light soy sauce
  • 2 Tablespoons of fish sauce (don’t use any more as it can turn the sauce too salty)
  • Green beans

And the fun bit….

  • Make up the curry paste, in a similar vein to the red curry paste.
  • Heat some oil in a pan and add the curry paste until it becomes fragrant
  • Add the onion until it softens
  • Add the chicken and cook until browned
  • Add the coconut milk, chicken stock, palm sugar, fish sauce, kaffir lime leaves, soy sauce, cinnamon and star anise and simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour (depending on how much stock you have added). I have found that the longer you leave this, the better it tastes, however, don’t over-do it otherwise you will end up with dry, stringy chicken….
  • Season to your taste and add the green beans for a few minutes – they add a great crunch to the dish
  • Serve!

I hope you enjoy this as much as we do; it’s a firm favourite with our friends and family :-)

Categories: Recipes
Posted by Jimbob on May 21st, 2008
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Top Notch Sweet ‘n’ Sour

SweetnsourThere is nothing quite like ordering a take-away sweet and sour; the aroma that hits you when you open up that little tub of sauce, the ritual of pouring it over the chicken or pork balls and mixing it with fried rice….or so I thought until I learnt this little beauty whilst in Thailand. Personally, I haven’t eaten a take away S ‘n’ S since and swear by this recipe – I guarantee that the fragrant flavours that emanate from this when you serve it up will distill any take-away cravings you may have otherwise experienced.

Sweet ‘n’ sour is, by nature of it’s title, a combination of flavours that leaves your palet semi-confused with each mouthful, yet somehow they combine perfectly to perform a merry dance across the taste buds; just fantastic!

The problem with most traditional take away sweet ‘n’ sours is that the sauce seems somewhat radioactive in colour and ever-so slightly plastic in flavour. This recipe provides the ability to create a really fresh combination of flavours, whilst not compromising on aesthetics or aroma and, from start to finish, takes a mere 15 minutes or so to cook. I cooked this for my daughter and she ate every last mouthful, which in my eyes is a great testimony to the recipe – a big thank you to the cooking school in Thailand from which I was fortunate enough to learn this from.

Ok, the ingredients are as follows and as with every other recipe, feel free to ad-lib:

  • 1/2 Onion, cut into bite-sized pieces
  • Several tomatoes (nothing scientific here, as many or few as you wish), cut into bit-sized pieces
  • Several bite-sized pieces of pineapple (again, down to personal taste)
  • 1 Pepper (red, green, yellow or orange) cut into bite-sized pieces
  • Chicken – usually I use 2 or 3 thighs, de-boned and cut into bite-sized pieces
  • 1 Tablespoon of chopped garlic
  • 1 or 2 Spring onions sliced into approx. 1 inch pieces

Make the following sauce in a seperate bowl:

  • 1 Tablespoon of fish sauce
  • 1 Tablespoon of sugar (palm or brown)
  • 2 Tablespoons of tomato sauce
  • 1 Tablespoon of lime juice
  • 1 Tablespoon of soy sauce

If you wish, you can spice up the sauce and add an extra dimension to the dish a little by adding chopped, dried chilli – I tend to include 2 or 3.

And on to the cooking:

  1. Heat up your wok with a little oil and fry the garlic until it turns yellow
  2. Add the chicken and stir-fry until cooked
  3. Add the onion and pepper and stir-fry for about 30 seconds or so
  4. Add the sauce and stir in
  5. Add the pineapple and tomato and stir in
  6. Add the spring onion and stir in
  7. Turn off the heat and sprinkle in some freshly ground black pepper

Serve imediately with either steamed basmati rice or medium noodles and enjoy!

Categories: Recipes
Posted by Jimbob on May 14th, 2008
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BBQ Season – Quick ‘n’ Easy Bruschetta

bruschettaBruschettaThe nights are becoming lighter, the temperature is rising, the sun is beginning to show it’s face more and more, that can mean only one thing…..summer is on the way and it’s time to roll out the BBQ!

Every year, our trusted BBQ becomes my kitchen for the spring and summer. From straight forward, simple fish; mackerel, scallops, sea bass, river cobbler, tuna, bream or good old-fashioned meat; pork chops, steak, sausages, ribs, home-made burgers or chicken, whatever the ingredient, nothing in the culinary world gives me greater pleasure than chilling in the garden with a beer or glass of wine in my hand, cooking over the heat and aroma of charcoal. Whether cooking for just my wife and I, family or friends, I truly think this is one of the most sociable and enjoyable rituals of the summer months. What always makes me laugh is that every time we spark up the barbie, it’s always the males of the party that congregate around the embers….I suppose it’s a simple equation really; meat+flames+beer/wine+laughs=happy blokes!

Anyway, I’m rambling now so I’ll move on to the main course; this simple and straightforward recipe is a great compliment to any BBQ feast and is really straightforward to prepare and cook. Our greenhouse is now laden with fresh, home-grown fruit and vegetables and it’s time to take this fantastic array of produce and put it to good use. In and around the greenhouse, we’ve managed to grow (goodness knows how though, I can only put this down to beginners luck!) courgettes, spring onions, strawberries, pak choi, lettuce, rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil and amongst others, tomatoes….and an abundance of them!

So, simple, quick ‘n’ easy bruschetta; I take a couple of hand-fulls of cherry tomatoes (you can use any type, but these happened to be ripe and crying out to be eaten) and chop them in half. Place these in to a baking tray with some chopped garlic, pine nuts, drizzle with olive oil and tip in a good splash of balsamic vinegar. Place these in the oven at approximatelyBruschetta 180 degrees and cook for about 10 minutes. Once cooked, garnish with some ripped basil leaves and spoon over the top of  some sliced, toasted/grilled fresh french stick (baguette)…..oh yes!

Enjoy!

Categories: Recipes
Posted by Jimbob on April 18th, 2008
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Monkfish with Sun-Dried Tomato and Parma Ham

MonkfishHow can such an ugly fish taste so wonderful?!

Having purchased a rather large piece of monkfish for the Tom Yam soup in my previous post, we were left with  a fair portion sat awaiting some imagination and thought to compliment this wonderful ingredient. It’s funny to think that some 15-20 years ago, monkfish was only ever deemed good enough to use for scampi….oh how times of changed! Because this is now an expensive fish (the vast majority of the fish is waste and only the tail ends up being sold), it deserves some care and attention when cooking – this is not something that I cook with very often, so generally on special occasions and on this occasion, my wife passed an exam and I was extremely proud of her. She has invested a tremendous amount of time and effort in the lead up to this exam, whilst trying to juggle a full-time job and being  wonderful mother to our daughter, so hats off!

This lead me to think of what I could do with the monkfish; I remembered that way back when we first met, I attempted to win my wife over with a bit of cooking and whipped up some chicken breast, stuffed with garlic and mozzarella, wrapped in parma ham, served with roast potatoes and caramelized sugar snap peas. I remember that she was suitably impressed and decided to play on that dish slightly – if it worked before, the odds certainly appeared to be stacked in my favour ;-) .

I took some sun-dried tomato paste (or just use sun-dried tomatoes), which is pretty rich in flavour but compliments the fish extraordinarily well and, blitzed this up in a blender for a few seconds. I then laid out several pieces of parma ham (enough to wrap a portion of monkfish completely) and smeared them with the blitzed paste.

Wrap the monkfish in the paste-covered parma ham and cook in the oven at about 180 degrees for about 15 or so minutes.

Serve with vegetables – I opted for potato wedges drizzled with olive oil and parsley, baked in the oven for 30 minutes.

Because it was a bit of a celebration, we ate this with a bottle of Rose Sancerre (my wife’s favourite), which complimented the dish fantastically!

Quick, easy and great in flavour, enjoy!

Categories: Recipes
Posted by Jimbob on April 16th, 2008
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Thai Tom Yam Soup with Monkfish

tomyamThis is one of the most refreshing soups I have had the pleasure of tasting – it is absolutely fantastic and bursting with flavour and incredibly easy to make. What is really great about this is that it takes about 10 minutes to prepare and 5-or-so to cook, so is ideal for a quick meal during a busy week and is full of fresh ingredients, so very good for you to boot.

I chose to make this soup using meaty fish, which won’t flake during cooking and opted for Monkfish; you can use any other derivative, chicken or even tofu if you fancy it, although I haven’t tried this yet.

Ok, so here’s the ingredients and as with any recipe, these are just suggestions so feel free to use your gastronomic-artistic license to experiment!

  • Monkfish (amount of which depends on how much you wish to eat, or spend!)
  • 1 Onion, cut into bite-sized pieces
  • 1 Large tomato, cut into bite-sized pieces
  • Approx. 30g of mushrooms, cut into bite-sized pieces*
  • 1 Tablespoon of galangal, thinly sliced
  • 1 Tablespoon of lemon grass, thinly sliced
  • 2 Kaffir lime leaves, rolled and cut into small slices
  • 2 Spring onions, sliced into approx. 1 inch pieces
  • Fish or chicken stock (you can get good quality, pre-made in the shops, approx. 400-500ml)

*For authenticity, I purchased some Thai mushrooms which look like ears(!) from the local Thai supermarket. Ok, so they don’t look the most appertising, but they do taste good

Place the following in to a bowl and stir to make a sauce:

  • 2 Tablespoons of lime juice
  • 2 Tablespoons of fish sauce
  • Between 1 and 15 dried chillies cut into small pieces (depending on how hot you like it, I use about 4 or 5 and it’s hot!)
  • 1/2 Tablespoon of sugar (palm or brown)

Ok, th fun bit:

  1. Place the stock into a pan with the lemongrass and galangal and boil for a couple of minutes – this will start and infuse the stock with those fresh flavours
  2. Add the monkfish and this will start to cook pretty quickly
  3. Once the monkfish has changed colour, add the onion and mushrooms and cook until bubbles start to appear in the middle of the pan – do not stir at this stage as you will lengthen the time prior to boiling and leave the vegetables over-cooked
  4. Now add the sauce you prepared earlier
  5. Now add the tomato
  6. Turn off the heat, add the kaffir lime leaves, spring onion and serve immediately
  7. Enjoy!
Categories: Recipes
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