Caramelised Onion Tart and Yellow Raspberries

I had all these lovely warming, hearty recipe's planned for the coming weeks but instead of cold wind and rainy days we have a mini heatwave and the last thing I feel like eating is stew and mash so instead I decided to make an onion tart with salad and new potatoes and I'm glad I did.

5 Onions Sliced
Double Cream
One Egg
Grated Mature Cheddar
Puff Pastry
Butter

I was naughty and used shop bought puff pastry for this but I know Lot's of us do that now and it's easy and good quality so why not!
I rolled out my pastry into the tart dish and should have blind baked it but I totally forgot so if you make this recipe make sure you do blind bake it!
I caramelised my onions in a pan with butter and a dash of oil over a very low heat for around half and hour but you can do it longer for a deeper, richer colour but me and my dinner guest were in a rush to eat.



To make the savoury custard I beat my eagg and added to the double cream and Lot's of grated mature cheese. When the onions were ready I put them in the pastry case and poured the custard mixture over the top and placed it into a pre-heated oven along with some vine tomatoes in a separate pan to roast.



I took my lovely tart from out of the oven and served it with new potatoes that I had tossed in butter and pepper, and green salad with avocado and the lovely roast vine tomatoes.






Just to complete the summer food vibe I was going to make Eton Mess because I had some yellow raspberries but I can't take any credit for this dessert as I bought the meringues, put extra thick cream on the top and finished with raspberries so not exactly hard work. I didn't even crush it all up but the meringues were from Waitrose so they were all chewy in the middle and tasted rather lovely so I'm not going to loose sleep over it.

Home-made Scotch Eggs.

Ive never been a fan of scotch eggs and I think this has a lot to do with the fact that the majority you can buy are horrible, made with really cheap nasty pink pork product, overcooked grey eggs and saw-dust like coating....errrrrr
But the idea of a good home-made scotch egg is an altogether different being and totally appeals with proper organic pork and free range eggs with gorgeous golden yolks which is then rolled in breadcrumbs and fried, whats not to like?!
I have to tell you this was a totally spur of the moment thing so I used what I had available to me so would have added a few extra seasoning ingredients that I did not possess but they were still the most awesome scotch eggs I have ever eaten so there.

Good quality sausages preferably from a butcher
Free range eggs
Panko or any breadcrumbs
beaten egg
seasoned flour
oil for frying

First I boiled my eggs for around 4-5 min's and I was hoping for soft boiled but they turned out hard so timing is something I will need to work on with this. Next I skinned my sausages and put the meat on a flour dusted chopping boarrd and flattened it.


When my eggs were ready and cooled I placed them on the pork and worked the meat around them until completely covered and vaguely rounded, I'm afraid I didn't take a photo of this stage because I am a human and we do stupid stuff like that sometimes.



I the dipped the meaty eggs in beaten egg before rolling breadcrumbs and frying for about 8 minutes. You are meant to deep fry but I didn't have enough oil for that so mine were shallow fried and it worked out fine. For the health conscious amongst you I'm sure you could oven bake them but that method is not for me.


Yum yum piggies bum....something my Dad used to say when I was little about yummy food we were about to eat, it seems fitting here...






I highly recommend eating them with English mustard and tomato sauce coz it's proper lush.xx

Roasted Duck Breast with Fondant Potaoes, Sauteed Greens and a Cranberry and Red wine Reduction

Yea that's right I roasted some duck breast, made fondant potatoes and a reduction and it wasn't even a special occasion, it was just a Wednesday.


I got two beautiful organic free range duck breast's and seared them skin side down to render the fat to cook my fondant potatoes in.


I have never made fondant potatoes before so looked at a few different recipes on the Internet to get the basic idea. I did not bother with the traditional barrel shape as it was only a Wednesday so opted to cut two large potatoes into three and flatten the ends, you should really make sure they all the same size but I did not do this and I recommend you do as obviously some of my potatoes cooked faster than other's, rookie mistake.



Once the potatoes had been cooked in the duck fat for around 20 minutes so they were crispy with a lovely golden brown colour I added the stock and some freshly milled pepper.


After the searing of the duck I put them in the oven for about 8-10 minutes, then covered them in foil to rest while the potatoes cooked. I in fact let them rest for nearly an hour and they were the most succulent and delicious duck breast I have ever eaten, they were like duck flavoured butter.




I'm afraid I forgot to take pictures of the reduction/jus being made but it was just a very simple recipe of red wine, brown sugar, cranberry sauce and some of the juices that had leaked from the duck as it rested all simmered together until it reduced by around half.


This was a really delicious treat and although I won't be cooking like this every day of the week sometimes it's just worth it.

Steak, Dauphinoise Potatoes and Tomato and Mushroom Sauce

Me and the BF always have steak with home-made thick cut chips, mushrooms, tomatoes and my rather lovely peppercorn sauce and the reason is because that is my BF's favourite meal and he finds it rather distressing if I suggest other ways to have our steak....Well I was naughty and didn't tell him I had bought steak and decided on making some different accompaniments to got with it.
I decided on potato dauphinoise because it's rather bloody nice isn't it and a tomato and mushroom sauce with salad on the side. And I know its not traditional to put onions in potato dauphinois but I felt like it so there you go.








My creamy, garlicky potatoes ready for the oven


Gorgeous organic vine tomatoes


To make my sauce I chopped big vine tomatoes and sauteed them with onions and mushrooms


I then added cream and pepper to the tomatoes...yea that's right cream in my sauce and cream in the potatoes what was I thinking


God I love dauphnoise potatoes, they always look and smell so amazing


Here is the finished article, I know I have thrown tradition out the window here by adding onions to my potatoes and having a creamy sauce with the creamy potatoes and I didn't realise until it was to late that I had added cream to everything (I like cream) but it did work because the tomatoes cut through the richness and the cucumber on the side freshened things up a bit so all in all it was a nice change from the usual chips and peppercorn sauce and luckily my BF liked it but I could tell he was missing the peppercorn sauce with the sad far away expression in his eyes....

Withdrawl symptons.....and Paella!

I hate Internet service providers who give hideously bad service and steal money they are not owed from your bank account and leave me without Internet for a month, they still are not providing me with Internet so I have bought a dongle with Internet on it that I can use as I can no longer function without it. I have seriously got horrible withdrawal sypmtons and pangs of guilt knowing how long it had been since my last post, it was bloody horrible and I hate not being able to read other people's food blogs, it's one of my favourite things to do! I have so many things to post but I am going to start with this delicious rice dish that is a kind of paella/savoury rice but what I do know is that it's delicious and really easy to make.

Easy Paella/Savoury Rice

Paella or risotto rice ( I used Japenese which is really similair to risotto rice)
Two peppers red and yellow
One onion
Chorizo Sausage
Peas
Prawns
Pinchitos or if not just use tumeric, chilli powder and cumin
Vegetable or chicken stock


The start of my delicious savoury rice/risotto/paella... Some chorizo sausage, Piri Piri oil and 'Pinchitos' which is a Spanish herb mix generally consisting of garlic, cumin, thyme,paprika, oregano, turmeric and pepper.


Fry your chorizo, onion and peppers


Add your spices


Add the rice and stir, let it cook for several minutes before slowly adding stock a little at a time and stirring like you would a risotto until the rice is cooked through...this requires patience but is worth it.


I even roasted a chicken in piri piri oil to go in my rice, it's definitely worth it as the chicken is so delicious and moist


I added some prawns and peas at the last minute so they kept there sweetness.
I adore this type of easy, simple cooking that produces such delicious results.

I have many more post's to do so you can expect a few more over the next few days and I would also like to say 'hello' to my new followers, it's always so nice to get new readers!x

No Internet

I am currently in dispute with my internet provider so have no access....Ive got so many post's to write and really hate not being able to update my blog, its so fustrating but hopefully will be back on in the next few days. Love you all and can't wait to get back to my much loved blog!!!xxxx

Clam Spaghetti

I adore seafood and had a massive craving for some but due to not getting paid until next week I didn't have the funds to buy any which made me sad but then I remembered that I had a big jar of clams from 'carluccios' in my cupboard and that made me happy, hoary! I adore the taste of clams, they remind me of being in Portugal picking through a huge pot of them, drinking cheap but great wine whilst watching the sun set over the sea...sigh...
I also happened to have a large jar of 'Soup de Poissons' which is fantastic stuff that mainly comes from France and I highly recommend you try some as it's fantastic quality, it can be eaten on it's own or used as a base for bouillabaisse or a pasta sauce and I thought it would work really well as a sauce base for my clams.


I'm not usually a fan of seafood from a jar or a tin but was amazingly surprised at how delicious the clams were.

To make my lovely clam pasta I started off by putting some spaghetti on to boil and then put everything together I needed for my sauce, I got two small red chilli's off my little chilli plant and chopped them, chopped 3 garlic cloves and three fresh tomatoes that all went into a deep non-stick frying pan with some olive oil to saute for a few minutes.


Only a small amount of spaghetti needed as I'm the only person eating due to my boyfriend hating seafood because he's mentally ill.







Next I added my clams and about a quarter of a jar of the 'Soup de Poissons' and let it cook for about a minute and a half before adding my spaghetti that I had left relatively al dente because that's how I like it but cook it for longer to suit your taste of course.




To finish it off you would normally scatter some freshly chopped parsley but as this was store cupboard clam spaghetti we make do with what we have and I have a chive plant so snipped a few bits off that and it went really well together. In an ideal world I would have liked white wine to have been added to the sauce but hey ho it was still really delicious without and most defiantly the best store cupboard meal I have ever made!