Smoked Mackerel Kedgeree

I love Kedgeree but I have never made it with curry powder or smoked haddock instead I like to make it with smoked mackerel, turmeric, cumin and chili powder, it's very delicious.

Basmati Rice
Smoked Mackerel
Frozen petite pois
Onion
Free-range eggs
Turmeric
Chili Powder
Cumin
Salt

It's so simple to make, just cook your rice, fry the chopped onion in the spices and hard boil your eggs and peas. Mix it all together and flake the mackerel in near the end and that's all there is to it.


Lovely Peppered smoked mackerel


Free range eggs from my Mum's chickens, look at the lovely pale blue one!





There is a very noticeable contrast in the photo's I have taken as the brighter ones are in my kitchen and the softer looking ones were in my living room under my lamp whilst I was eating the kedgeree but I can assure you it's the same kedgeree!

Beef and Red Wine Stew with Cheese and Chive Dumplings

Ive had a sad couple of days as I had to attend the funeral of a beautiful friend who was taken far to soon and far to young but it was a very fitting service with the soundtrack to 'Back To The Future' playing as we entered the church which could not have been more perfect for him. He was such a huge character with an amazing Mohawk, an amazing laugh and more friends than anyone I know because he genuinely cared about people and was interested in what they had to say no matter who they were.
people had to sit on the floor of the church and a big crowd gathered outside the doors which is testament to the man he was.
After a hugely emotionally draining day followed by a 10 hour shift at work starting at 5am the next day I needed something warm and comforting and what's more warm and comforting than stew and dumplings? I have used Jamie Oliver's recipe for the dumplings.

Beef and Red wine Stew with Cheese and Chive Dumplings

For the Stew you will need:

400 Grams Stewing steak
Glass of Red Wine
2 large Carrots
1 Onion
1 Leek shredded discarding the green end
Beef stock
Seasoned flour
Knob of butter
Salt and Pepper

Dumplings
170 Grams of Flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp cold butter, cut into small cubes
mature cheddar, grated
1 small bunch of chives, chopped
Pinch of salt
60ml of milk

Cover the steak in the seasoned flour and brown off in a pan in the butter and a dash of oil. Remove from the pot once browned and add the chopped onion, leeks and carrots and fry for around five minutes before putting the steak back in. Next add the glass of red and stock and leave to simmer for around three hours on top of the stove or you can put in the oven covered. I like adding shredded leeks to my stew for the gorgeous flavour and the texture it gives to the stew.


For the dumplings mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and butter. Rub the mixture between your fingers like when you make a crumble until it looks a bit like large breadcrumbs.


Add the grated cheese and the chives and mix together with a fork before Pouring in the milk bit by bit. You may need extra milk but just make sure your mixture doesn't get to wet.

Divide the mixture in to balls and plop on top of the stew around half an hour before the three hour cooking time is up.

They seriously swell up and I had some mixture left over!

I finished my stew under the grill so the dumplings would brown a bit on top.

I served mine with mash and peas and it was lovely and much needed, sorry for the lack of stew photo's I just concentrated on the dumplings more!

Butternut Squash, Ginger and Coconut Soup

What a lovely mini Summer we just had but now we are back to what October should be like and I'm glad! Cold and windy with leaves falling off the tree's and crunching underfoot which always puts me in the mood for soup and what could be more autumnal than a big bowl of golden butternut squash soup with the addition of creamy coconut milk, fiery chilli's and warming ginger. I am another of those weirdo's who actually prefer the Autumn and Winter months to the summer.
I love all the food the colder months bring especially Autumn with all those gorgeous vegetables and I can't deny that Christmas is my favourite thing in all the world but enough about that (for now)...

Butternut Squash
Tin of Coconut Milk
2 small Red Chilli's with seeds
Knob of Ginger Grated
1 Diced Onion
Chicken Stock
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper


Peel and chop your butternut squash




Saute your onion, chili and ginger in a pan with a glug of oil


Add the butternut squash and cook for around five min's


Next add the coconut milk, chicken stock and leave to cook until the squash is tender


Blend the soup, season to taste and it's ready to eat, yum indeed.
I have to say this is a very rich and gently warming soup and I think it stands up really well on it's own and you don't need bread but of course you can do whatever you want and have tons of bread of bread with it but don't blame me if you feel sick after....

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....