Beef Shin Stew

Hellloooooo summer where are you???? Were ready for you now, it's a bit miserable and grey here and everyone would really appreciate it if you just hurried up and started spreading all those lovely D vitamins around with your sunny rays, no....fine well F you then I'll just make a big vat of delicious stew and I don't even actually mind because I secretly prefer winter food anyway so I win.

Beef Shin Stew

Beef Shin cut into chunks
Beef Stock
Shallots
Carrots
Red wine
Bay Leaves
Seasoned Flour
Mushroom Ketchup

Cover your beef in seasoned flour and brown off in a big casserole dish, then add your peeled whole shallots and carrot's, fry gently for a few mins the add red wine, beef stock, bay leaves and a splash of mushroom ketchup.
transfer it into a pre heated oven and cook for as long as your dare or as long you have, I managed 3 and a half hours and I served it with mashed potatoes and savoy cabbage, lovely jubbley.

Triple Chocolate, Dime Bar and Raspberry Cheescake

There are loads of recipes that I have never made but really feel like I should have and cheesecake is definitely one of them, it also happens to be one of my most favourite things to eat so what the hell have I been doing for the last 26 years for the love of God?! I wanted to make a chocolate and raspberry cheesecake but then I thought why just use one type of chocolate when I could use three? So I used three, dark chocolate, white chocolate and two large bars of Milka with bits of dime bar in it, yea boy!!
I'm not gonna lie guys I didn't measure anything as usual because I like to live dangerously, so here is what I put in my cheesecake minus the measurements....

Dark Chocolate
White Chocolate
Milka with Dime bar
Chocolate Chip digestives
Butter
Coco Powder
Double Cream
Cream Cheese
Creme Fraiche
Icing Sugar
Raspberries
Caster Sugar




I used the choc chip digestives, coco powder, caster sugar and butter to make my base


I combined my cream cheese, cream, icing sugar and creme fraiche


Chocolate!!!!




I tried swirling in all the different chocolates to give it a marbled effect and the I added my raspberry's


Here she is in all her glory ready to be put in the fridge to set


My beautiful cheesecake...TA DA!!!!!

Pork Fillet with roasted Apples and Bubble and Squeak

The weather has been really nice recently until yesterday and it all went a bit tit's up with a thunderstorm, rain and full force winds that nearly blew me over
so I felt like eating something a bit comforting and pork fillet with apples sounded like fine idea to me!




I started off by pan frying the fillet in butter with apples and onions. I also put some potatoes to boil for my bubble and squeak.


I then transferred everything into a baking dish with some more butter (because I love it!) and half a can of scrumpy cider and left it to cook for around half an hour.


I mashed my potatoes with milk, butter, mature cheddar and pepper. I also added some cabbage to the mash that I had sauteed in butter but for got to take a picture of because I am a fool.


Bubble and Squeak!!!!


Here's my lovely pork when it's out of the oven.


And here is the finished article and yes it was amazing and yes I did it all myself and no you can't have any......

Stawberry and Raspberry Trifle

I adore trifle, laden with all that cream, custard and lovely fruit, it reminds me of long hot summer days, pimms with mint, cucumber and strawberries and running through sprinklers! It also reminds me of Christmas when my Mum makes one with Damson's or plums with crystallized violets on top which is delicious(My Mum said I mention her a bit often in my blog but I have just done it again so take that Mother!)
This is a very very simple version without jelly or sherry and I have cheated by using good quality shop bought Maderia cake and vanilla custard and the result was absolutely fabulous darling!!

One packet of maderia cake
Large pot of whipping cream
pot of vanilla custard
punnet of raspberries
punnet of strawberries
Good quality strawberry jam


My naughty shop bought Maderia cake cut into slices.


I covered the slices of maderia cake in 'Bon Mamma' strawberry jam.


I then covered the cake in strawberries and raspberries.


Look! The custard I used instead of making my own, I'll tell you what though Sainsburys 'taste the difference' Madagascan vanilla custard is truly delicious and has lot's of real bits of black vanilla in it which can't be a bad thing.


Instead of the usual one layer of cake and fruit, I went for two with a layer of custard in between.


I can assure you that is custard and not cream, if you look very closely you can see the vanilla..ooohhhhhh


Sorry about the less than great view from my balcony but I think my trifle needed some natural light to show it in all it's trifle glory!


The best thing of all about my trifle is that my stupid boyfriend doesn't like trifle so ha bloody ha to him because I'm going to eat it all and if I put on any weight then it's his fault for not liking the trifle.

Spring Chicken with Braised Leeks and Mashed Peas

As it's been so God damn hot recently instead of the usual roast dinner that I always try to make on a Sunday I decided to go for something lighter.
Chicken, peas and leeks seems decidedly Spring themed to me so I went with that. I roasted a whole chicken because you can get a couple of days worth of meals out of it and it's good to be a bit frugal every now and then!
For my mashed peas, I cooked frozen petite pois in butter, white wine and chicken stock for a couple of minutes, then added pepper and creme fraiche before blitzing.





I also made some delicious braised leeks by slicing them length ways, putting in a dish with white wine, chicken stock, butter and black pepper so basically all the things I put in my peas apart from the creme fraiche!


It was a truly delicious meal to eat on my breezy balcony watching the sun set on my ever loved Brighton.

Nasi Gorang Curry and Scampi Fries.....

I was trawling the isle of my local Asian supermarket getting ingredients for my Thai curry including nasi gorang paste, pork and prawn dumplings and veg.
I got home and started to prepare my lovely curry.










Whilst making the curry my lovely boyfriend came home from work with a treat for me, a pack of scallops which he knows I love but he absolutely hates. They weren't on the shell from a fishmonger they were in a packet from Sainsburys,to be fair my boyfriend knows nothing of food and would not know any better and that I would prefer my scallops big fat and juicy and preferably not in a packet like these came. But you must never look a gift horse in the mouth!
I had recently seen Heston Blumethal make his scampi fries by coating scampi in ground down scampi fries dust and thought I would do a dodgy version of that because I have a secret love for Scampi Fries so why not.




As I have said in a previous post I have lost my pestle and morter so had to use the back of a spoon to crush the fishy snacks and the result was not as fine as I wanted but I went ahead none the less.


I fried the little scampi coated scallops for a minute or so on each side.


And do you know what they were bloody delicious and I ate them all! They don't exactly go with Thai curry but I will make them again with a lemon mayonnaise dip as a special treat for myself and a lucky friend.

My Blog Was One Year old The Other Day......

All I seem to do at the moment is work and feel like I am neglecting my blog, so much so that I didn't even realise my blog was a year old on the 14th of April.
Well happy first Birthday my lovely little blog and I promise not to neglect you like that ever again.....just one more 16 hour shift to go until I'm free for a whole two days and I promise to do a bloody post.


Here is a photo of Piri Piri roast chicken that I stuffed with wild Garlic and served with roast Anya Potatoes (special knobbly little potatoes), roast courgette, salad and mayo..This is the best I can do at the moment so there you go!