Monday 15 June - Macaroni Cheese

Why would I blog this one - everyone knows how to make this!

I always have the ingredients in for this, and if I don't really feel like cooking I'll go for this. Has the added benefit that of course everyone likes it!

To start off I made a bog standard roux - no measuring here, I just added things until it looked right

Then in went lots of grated cheese - Monterey Jack and Cheddar - (it was USA Week in Lidl!)

To add a bit of extra flavour I added tabasco , lots of dijon mustard and some Worcestershire sauce

This sauce was stirred into the pasta, and the topping was added - I made breadcrumbs with grated cheese and a dash of olive oil and sprinkled these over before baking until all bubbly.

Very simple, but very, very good!!

Sunday 14 June - Jerk Chicken

It's barbeque weather at the moment, and I like the idea of using it to cook the meat part of a  meal, rather than a general pig out on lots of different types of meat.

I decided to do Jerk Chicken as it's one of Georges favourites, and it was just the two of us for the evening.

The Jerk marinade was made with fresh scotch bonnets and spring onions, ground up in the mini processor with various spices - whole allspice and black pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon and lots of fresh thyme - soy sauce, brown sugar and lime juice bound it all together.

The resulting paste was massaged into chicken breasts - I used skin on bone in breasts. Note the gloves, essential for contact lens wearers handling fresh chillies!!

After marinading for around 8 hours, it was cooked slowly over charcoal.

To serve with this I made an old favourite in this house - rice and peas. However, I made it in my trusty rice cooker, and it worked very well indeed.

The soaked basmati rice and a tin of kidney beans had spring onion, chilli, all spice, and coconut milk added, and then it was just left to cook.

Finally, to serve up, I fried some slices on plantain in coconut oil

Delicious - and VERY spicy!!

Friday 12 June - Crab Risotto Cakes

This was another Simon Rimmer recipe, that I found while searching online for a recipe for Crab Cakes. Most versions use so much crab it would be far too expensive to make them, but this recipe was more realistic.
I made two versions - crab for adults, and a veggie version for fussy teenager.

The base for both was a plain risotto, just made in the normal way and then left to cool.

For the veggie version I stirred in saffron, sun dried tomatoes and chopped basil and parmesan

For the crab version, fresh crab meat, tarragon, spring onions, fresh chilli and lime zest

 

The risotto was then formed into balls. The vegetarian ones rolled around a ball of mini mozarella.

Both lots were then floured, egged and finished off with fresh breadcrumbs before deep frying

We served them on a broad bean puree - cooked broad beans whizzed up with thyme, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil.
These came out a bit lumpy, so we had to push them through the mouli once they were processed.

Would definitely make the risotto balls again, despite my hatred of deep frying anything, but next time would use left over risotto as it was all very time consuming to start from scratch

Saturday 6 June - Duck with Peppercorn Sauce

This recipe is one we have cooked a few times before, and we first made it after seeing Simon Rimmer making it on a TV show. The recipe found it's way into my folder of recipes that I've found online and printed off for further use.

We always have duck breasts in the freezer, as when Lidl have them on their specials we buy a few to keep in - they are massive and one duck breast feeds all three of us easily.

The recipe started with a cold pan, and the duck skin side down. It then went into oven to finish cooking.

I've changed the recipe for the sauce slightly, as it contained only brandy and cream - I added a drop of white wine and some chicken stock, and used creme fraiche to make it lighter. I also crushed the peppercorns as they can be a bit hot if you bite into a whole one.

This is what makes the dish summery for me - the vegetable base. Cubed cooked new potatoes were fried in the fat that came out of the duck.

Once these were crisp, in went grated lemon zest, peas and some chopped spinach.

The sliced duck was then served on the potatoes with the sauce poured over the top.