Chicken in white wine and creme fraiche

This started off being based on a recipe I found. But then I just made it up. A very scrummy, healthy(ish!) meal.
Adjust quantities to tastes/no. of people. I used a lot of wine (I bought another bottle to drink, of course!), but you could substitute that for stock for a cheaper/child-friendly/different twist.

Serves 2 but so easily adjustable.
2 chicken breasts
6 shallots, peeled and halved
2 garlic cloves, crushed
8 Mushrooms, quartered
2/3 – 3/4 bottle of wine (I said I used a lot…!)
Stock (I made my own as I’d bought a chicken and butchered it)
3tbsp creme fraiche
3 bay leaves
Salt/pepper
Tarragon
Rice, to serve

Brown the chicken in some oil. Add the shallots & garlic and soften. Add the mushrooms also to soften. Remove all from the pan and add half of the wine. Boil it down for a few minutes, then replace the veg/meat to the pan. Add seasoning and bay leaves. Add a few tablespoons of stock. Keep simmering. Add more liquid as required.
Cook the rice so that it’s ready for when you want to eat.
Cook the chicken and sauce for up to an hour – this is a great one to start and then serve when people are ready to eat. If you want to thicken the sauce, sprinkle in a little plain or corn flour but make sure you boil the sauce having done this.
A couple of minutes before serving, add the creme fraiche, and remove the bay leaves. YUM! :)

You could also serve with potato.
Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Sweet Potato and Salmon Fish Cakes

These are delicious, healthy and simple :)

You’ll need (for 6 cakes): 2 salmon fillets, 2 sweet potatoes, 1 finely chopped red chilli, chives/dill/parsley, seasoning, 1 lime, 2 eggs, breadcrumbs.

Boil the potatoes until becoming soft and add the skinned salmon to poach it until it is cooked.
Drain and then mash these together, adding the zest of the lime, the juice of half of it, your choice of herb, the chilli and the egg.

Leave until cool enough to handle and then shape into fish cakes. Dip into a beaten egg and then into the breadcrumbs.
You can either shallow fry them for a few minutes on each side or bake in the oven for 20mins. If shallow frying rest in the fridge for 20mins so they keep their shape.
Serve with veg, and they taste great with sweet chilli dipping sauce. Make chips if you need more carbs!!

Butternut Squash Risotto

“What do I do with the butternut squash I’ve bought!?” Thankfully, I found a recipe good for butternut squash risotto. Dave didn’t even mind the veggie-ness so it must have been okay! Adjust quantities below according to number of people etc:

– Cut the squash in half, peel it and de-seed it. Cube the non-bulbous end and roast in the oven in oil + seasoning for about 30mins or until nice and crispy.

– Whilst that’s cooking, cube the rest of the squash and put it in a pan to boil it.

– Dice an onion and soften in a pan. Add some garlic to taste and the rice. Fry for a couple of minutes then add a glass of white wine (or however much you want to spare!) and boil off.

– Add the stock slowly and seasoning (thyme, pepper, rosemary). Keep adding the stock a little at a time. Add more wine towards the end so that you get some of the flavour. Also add some cheese or cream towards the end if you want a richer/creamier risotto.

– When the risotto is nearly done, mash the boiled squash and stir into the risotto.

– We served the whole thing on a bed of spinach leaves to add flavour and texture. Put the roasted squash on top.

– Don’t forget to serve with a glass of that wine!!

Twisted Shepherd’s Pie

I realise I haven’t blogged in a while – put it down to moving back up to the North. But yesterday saw me bake (we’ll call it a bake since it’s put in the oven!) a classic home-favourite: Shepherd’s pie.

Dave added herbs (oregano, rosemary) and seasoning (salt, pepper, garlic) to the usual sauteed onion, browned mince, softened carrots and mushrooms mix and added chopped tomatoes and Worcestershire sauce. I added a slightly unusual addition: MARMITE. It adds a certain je ne sais quoi to the flavour of this dish. Even if you don’t like Marmite, I’d recommend giving it a go.

No traditional Maris Pipers were seen on top of this bespoke pie. I love sweet potato and they work well on top of the pie. Boil them up and then mash them with a knob of butter and my now not-so-secret addition: Nutmeg. I don’t know what it is but I think a tiny bit of nutmeg with sweet potato just brings out the flavour.

A small amount of cheese on the top of the creation; baked for about 15mins, and voila! The perfect twist on a classic.

2 Types of Sandwich

I think this may be an example of the difference between a man’s and a woman’s ideas of sandwich-types:

Dave decided to see what he had in the fridge and make a sandwich. Toast, Nando’s sauce instead of butter, ham and quiche. Obviously a standard toasted sandwich selection of fillings…(but I’m informed that it’s okay because “it was a crustless quiche” – that’s okay then!!)

Dave’s lunch…

I decided to make a sandwich of a different type. A Viccy Sponge. I used Mary Berry’s 8-oz recipe with an addition of vanilla extract and buttercream filling alongside the jam. Yum!

My Victoria Sandwich

Two very different but rather unhealthy sandwiches!

Quiche kind-of-Lorraine

My grandparents came for lunch today and I decided to cook them a Quiche. I mixed a number of recipes, as well as putting my own touch to it. Apologies in advance for the dodgy pictures: I used my phone camera rather than a decent one!

Pastry: I don’t use lard-based recipes. You can if you’d rather but I find this easy and tasty.

7Oz Plain flour; 3.5Oz diced unsalted butter; good pinch of salt; 3tbsp cold water. Rub together the flour, butter and salt until the texture is that of fine bread-crumbs. I also added some ground black pepper to this one. Add the water a bit at a time until the mixture comes together to a nice dough-ball. You don’t want it too watery and sticky, but 3tbsp should be perfect.

Chill the dough in the fridge for about 30mins (just enough time for me to go and buy a new handbag…no jokes…!) and then roll it out on a floured surface to about 0.5cm thick. Roll the pastry over the rolling pin and place onto the case. (I used a 9.5″ loose-bottomed flan tin). Push into the edges, take off any large overhanging bits of pastry, and blind-bake with baking beans (rice works just as well) for 15mins at 160’C. Take out the beans/rice and cook for a further 5mins for the pastry to crisp up.

Filling: Pancetta and onions. Although you can use what you’d like.

Fry the Pancetta and Onions (2 packs of pancetta, cut up small; 2 diced shallots from the garden) until the pancetta is crispy and the onion caramelised. Put in the bottom of the pre-baked case. Mix 10 flOz double cream with 2 eggs and an extra egg yolk. Add 3Oz grated cheese. Pour this over the pancetta and onions:

Bake for 25mins or until the middle doesn’t wobble and it looks like this:

Hope you enjoy it like my Gran and Grandad did :)

NB: you can use half milk and half cream or even all milk and 2 eggs if you don’t want it to be so naughty..!