Jilly's Kitchen

Cozze a la Pomodoro

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:26:00 +0000

It's Valentine's Day. Mussels seem like a good start. I wanted to make something lighter than the creamy Moules Marienere. Years ago I had a bowl at an Italian restaurant, simply prepared with tomatoes, onions, garlic, white wine and olive oil. Simple, delicious food is difficult to forget.

Finely chop one medium sized onion
Squash and peel 4 cloves of garlic
Soften both very slowly for 20 - 30 minutes in about 2 tblsp of good olive oil in a large saucepan.
Meanwhile...
Take a sack of mussels (the net kind that they sell at the fish counter) remove their beards and scrape off any white barnacles. Discard broken ones and tap open shells - if they close then use them - if not then discard.

Take 3 tomatoes, peel the skin and scrape out their seeds. Chop into small chunks.
Take a handful of flat leaf parsley and chop roughly.

Now is the time to put it all together...

Pour a large glass of dry white wine and put it into the pan of onions and garlic - turn up the heat to medium high. Burn off the alcohol and add the tomatoes (if you want a bit of heat - add a chopped chilli)

Gently decant the mussels into the pan and mix with the onions, garlic and tomatoes. Put a lid on and keep stirring every couple minutes. When the mussels have opened it's time to serve.

Serve with some crusty bread and a dry white wine.

Chocolate Caramel Brownies

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 17:42:00 +0000

These are extremely sweet and tasty little squares of chocolate and caramel gooiness. My daughter and I made them and were convinced immediately by the combination of flavours.

You will need:

70g butter
60g dark chocolate (70% or more cocoa solids)

85g plain flour

2 large eggs
200g caster sugar

16 squares of Cadbury's Caramel

A brownie tin greased and floured

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C

Heat the butter and chocolate in a small saucepan on a super low heat, stir often until the chocolate is just about melted, then remove from the heat.

Pour the smooth chocolate and butter mixture into a large bowl and add the eggs and sugar. Combine until you are left with a gelatinous chocolate and egg blend, doesn't sound so nice but it is a means to a delicious end.

fold in the flour until just combined.

Pour the mix into your greased and lined tin.

Arrange the chocolate caramel squares over the batter, evenly spaced in 4 rows of 4. Gently press down until they are partially covered.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre of the brownie comes out moist but not wet.

Allow the brownies to cool slightly then cut into portions.

This should makes16 Brownies for a greedy girl.

St Patrick's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 18:37:00 +0000

As it's St Patrick's day on Thursday I've added a couple of Irish recipes.

Soda bread

170g/6oz self-raising wholemeal flour
170g/6oz plain flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
290ml/½ pint buttermilk

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 400F/200C/Gas 6.
2. Tip the flours, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl and stir.
3. Make a well in the centre and pour in the buttermilk, mixing quickly with a large fork to form a soft dough. (Depending upon the absorbency of the flour, you may need to add a little milk if the dough seems too stiff but it should not be too wet or sticky.)
4. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly.
5. Form into a round and flatten the dough slightly before placing on a lightly floured baking sheet.
6. Cut a cross on the top and bake for about 30 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on a wire rack.

Irish stew
Ingredients
3 middle necks of lamb (about 1.8kg/4lb), filleted and boned - you need to end up with about 950g/2lb 2oz pure meat
650g floury potatoes , such as King Edward
650g waxy potatoes , such as Desirée or Pentland Javelin
1kg carrots
2 onions
½ tsp fresh thyme leaves
chopped fresh chives and parsley, to garnish

For the stock
bones from the lamb
1 large carrot , quartered
1 onion , quartered
½ celery stick, quartered
1 bay leaf
2 large sprigs of thyme
a generous sprig of parsley
6 black peppercorns , lightly crushed
Method
Make the stock. Put the lamb bones in a large heavy-based saucepan with the carrot, onion, celery, herbs, peppercorns and 1 tsp salt. Pour in 3 litres/5 1⁄4 pints water. Bring to the boil and simmer uncovered for 2 hours.

Strain the stock through a fine sieve to remove bones and vegetables, then return to the pan. Boil until reduced to about 1.3 litres/21⁄4 pints. (You can make the stock the day before - keep it in a covered container in the fridge, or freeze it for up to 3 months.)

Make the stew. Cut the lamb into large chunks. Peel the potatoes (keeping both types separate) and cut into pieces of similar size to the meat. Put the two different types in separate bowls of water to keep them white. Peel the carrots and cut into slightly smaller pieces. Slice the onions into thick rings.

Put the lamb in a large, clean saucepan. Pour in the stock and bring to the boil, skimming off all the impurities from the surface. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer gently for 10 minutes.
Add the floury potatoes, carrots and onions. Season generously and simmer for a further 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the waxy potatoes and thyme. Simmer until the lamb is tender (15-20 minutes). Take off the heat, cover (don't stir) and leave for 15 minutes. (You can make this up to 2 days ahead and keep in the fridge). Garnish and serve.

John Torode said s**t...

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 18:38:00 +0000

I was shocked, my husband was shocked and really I think Britain was shocked. He swore... on Masterchef ...Game on!

I love the new format. It is fair, as all of the cooks compete fairly against each other at the same time. It is exciting, as practically from the start of the competition, the contestants are cooking for critics. It places the participants out of their comfort zones and more closely reflects the environment within which these lunatics allegedly want to work.

Last night's episode, with John Torode on the pass showed us what he really is, not a host on a souped up game show, but a chef. In addition, Greg Wallace was eating the food, a role that one might expect a former greengrocer and costermonger to excell at.

I was against change, I didn't want change, but now that we have change I can see that we needed change.

Thai-style broth

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 15:54:00 +0000

I have called this broth 'Thai-style' because I am in no way an expert in Thai cooking and this is a very easy recipe that uses Thai flavours.

I was never a huge fan of spicy food when I was younger but as I have matured and my taste-buds have dulled - I adore chilli flavours. This is hot, so if you have a younger or more subtle palette than me, simply add less chillies.

This is a recipe for a super-simple broth that is perfect for a light lunch or a dinner party starter.

You will need:

1 litre of chicken stock
500g raw prawns (deveined)
a dozen button mushrooms halved or quartered
1 inch of raw ginger root, peeled
2 cloves of garlic
a stalk of lemon grass
3 Thai chillies (a mixture of colours is nice)
2 tblsp dark soy sauce
1 tblsp sesame oil
1 tblsp fish sauce

This couldn't be easier:

Simply pour the chicken stock in a pan and heat to simmering point.

Meanwhile finely chop the ginger, garlic, lemongrass and chillis together and add to the simmering stock.

Next, add the mushrooms and cover the pot, leave for about 10 minutes, until the mushrooms are soft.

Add the soy sauce, sesame oil and fish sauce, although feel free to omit the latter if it's a bit fishy for you. I sometimes add it, sometimes don't, it really doesn't make too much difference.

Finally plop in your prawns and cook until they are shell pink throughout.

Serve with some chopped chillis and a few sprigs of coriander if you like.

If you prefer a lighter colour to your soup, strain the stock containing the garlic, lemongrass, ginger and chillies through a piece of muslin and cook the mushrooms separately before adding them to the stock. Also use light soy sauce.

Sage Stuffed Monkfish

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 21:55:00 +0000

I've been on a diet, my whole world has sadly and probably counterproductively, revolved around this and exercise for the last few months. Christmas fortnight did not count, and I put on a few pounds. Altogether, including ups and downs, I have lost about 1.5 stone and would like to lose a further stone. Why, when I clearly love rich food, have I bothered? Well in April I am 40 and this is a mid life crisis.

Because of this I have been eating a lot of stir fries and curries, very tasty but sometimes we all need a release. Friday nights have become real food night in our house. This recipe is a bit indulgent, but not overtly. I have used a splash of olive oil and white wine as well as a knob of butter and a few slices of Parma ham, apart from these quite minor indulgences the recipe is still low fat (I think).

You will need:

2 large monkfish tail fillets (membrane removed)
12 sage leaves + a few to chop into the sauce at the end
6 slices of Parma ham
tomatoes on the vine
l tblsp olive oil
25 ml white wine
4 cloves of garlic, squashed
salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 180º C

First, take your monkfish and remove the odd jellyish membrane, it is tricky, I tend to use kitchen scissors and a prayer to do this, if there is a quicker and easier way I would love to know it.

When you have done this, cut your fillets in half and arrange them so that the thicker end of each fillet is over the thinner end, this is so that when your wrap them in the Parma ham they create a uniform parcel. Sandwich these half fillets together with 6 sage leaves and a generous twist of salt and pepper.

On a piece of cling film, place three slices of slightly overlapped Parma ham. On top of this put one of your sandwiched fish fillet portions. Roll the ham over tightly and twist the ends of the film so that the package looks like a Christmas cracker. Repeat with the other fillets.

Place these in a roasting dish with your tomatoes, garlic and white wine then drizzle over the olive oil.

It should look a bit like this:

Place in the oven with the a lid on or, if you're using a roasting tray, put foil over, and cook for 20 minutes + 10 with the lid or foil off.

Remove from the oven and take the fish and tomatoes out of the pan and put onto a warm plate.

Place the pan ,containing the cooking juices, onto the hob over a medium heat. Add the chopped sage and butter and reduce until it coats the back of a spoon.

Slice the fish into thick slices and spoon over the sauce.

I hope you enjoy this very simple, but delicious fish supper.

Butternut Squash and Sage Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 09:19:00 +0000

My hand blender blew up. By 'blew up' I refer to a plume of weird blue smoke that stole out of it accompanied by the almost medicinal smell of burning electrics. It is, needless to say, dead.

Soup was off the menu in my house for a while, unless it was chunky chicken soup or some other equally unglamorous, but tasty, pottage. Or so I thought, until I remembered as a child, blending a lovely leak and potato soup with Mum, in a food processor. More washing up, but the same results.

Butternut squash and sage is one of those easy but really classy tasting soups. It's perfect for a dinner party starter, as it can be made the day before and just reheated at the last minute. You can make it with the superbly seasonal pumpkin instead of butternut squash, add a level teaspoon of sugar if you do, just to give it a touch of sweetness against the exceedingly savoury sage.

This recipe also calls for chicken stock, vegetable stock is fine if you are catering for vegetarians, however I urge you to use fresh rather than stock cubes. The difference in taste between the two is quite stark in this recipe.

You will need:

500g butternut squash cubed
a small onion diced finely
half a litre of chicken or vegetable stock
150 ml double cream
50g butter
half a dozen fresh sage leaves, chopped
several whole leaves to garnish

Using a large saucepan, melt the butter on a medium heat and fry the onion until it is soft and sweet, do not let it colour.

Add the butternut squash or pumpkin and warm through. Next add the stock and chopped sage leaves and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and allow the soup to simmer for about half an hour, until the squash is really soft and breaks up when you fork it.

Season well and liquidise, add the cream and warm through gently.

Serve with a sage leaf on the top.

Prawn and Dill Ravioli

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 17:16:00 +0000

Pasta made - what to do with it? Ravioli of course...
This recipe will serve 4 as a main comfortably.

You will need for the Ravioli and filling:

4 x 30cm lengths of fresh pasta (see recipe link)
1 egg beaten
400g raw prawns
a small bunch of fresh dill
squeeze of lemon juice
olive oil for frying
1 clove of garlic

Method

In a frying pan fry off the prawns with ½ the dill chopped; the lemon juice and garlic clove, crushed. Do this on a medium heat until the majority of the liquid has disappeared.

Take the pan off the heat and pop the prawns into a food processor and whizz until they are almost a paste.

Allow to cool.

When the prawn filling has cooled, take a length of the fresh pasta (ensure that the other 3 sheets are covered with a damp cloth so that they don't dry out) and cut it in half, lengthways, so that now you have 2 thinner lengths of pasta. Take a small teaspoonful of the filling and, about 2 cm in from the end and halfway between the sides, place the mixture. Next take another teaspoon of the mixture and approximately 2 cm away from the last teaspoonful place it on the pasta sheet in the same arrangement. Repeat this until you reach the end of the pasta length, leave at least 2cm free at the end.Now take a pastry brush and the beaten egg and paint a circle of egg wash around each teaspoon of filling.

Pick up the other half of the pasta sheet and place it over the last. Press down gently around the mounds of filling to stick the two pieces of pasta together

With a small round cookie cutter, cut out each filled raviolli morsel. As each piece of ravioli is cut, pick it up and with your thumb and forfinger, press down around the filling. If there are any holes then the ravioli is likely to separate.

Repeat this with the other 3 lengths of pasta then let the ravioli rest in a fridge for an hour or two before cooking.

To cook, get a large pan on boiling water on a rolling boil, gently lower in the raviolli a couple at a time,bring back to the boil and cook for about 5 minutes.

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil or a tasty sauce. I served mine with a lemon butter sauce. To make this: melt about 50g butter in a frying pan and squeeze in about 1 tblsp of lemon juice. Pour over the sauce and garnish with the remaining chopped fresh dill.

Fresh Egg Pasta

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 17:12:00 +0000

Making pasta is not hard, in fact it is so simple that I think I'm doing it wrong (if I am then don't hesitiate to correct me!). The most labour intensive part is rolling it through the pasta machine.

Here's what you will need:

500g 00 flour (if they don't sell this in your local supermarket then go to a deli and they should)
3 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks at room temperature
pinch of salt
bowl of water

What to do:

Clean off your work surface and pile your flour onto it. Make a well in the middle and put in your salt and eggs. With your hands break up the egg yolks and mix into the flour until you have a rough dough.

Keep a bowl of water next to you so that you can wet your hands then kneed the dough if it is too stiff. This is better than adding water to the dough directly as the last thing you want is to add too much.

Kneed the dough for about 10 mins until you have a springy but firm dough. The dough doesn't need to be too smooth. In fact it is better for it not to be too smooth at this stage because if it is overworked the strands of gluten in the dough will break and the pasta will lose it's elasticity.

Split the dough into two balls and wrap each ball in a damp cloth. Let the pasta relax for at least an hour at room temperature.

Rolling the Pasta

When your dough has rested uncover your first ball and with a rolling pin, roll it out unit it is about 1cm thick.

Making sure that the pasta machine is on the thickest setting feed the past through. Turn the handle with one hand and support the pasta coming through with the other. Move up a setting and repeat this process. Continue three or four more times.

Fold the piece of pasta in half and repeat this whole process again.

Next you need to cut this piece of pasta in half and lay one half under a damp cloth and fold the other strip into three ( like a leaflet) and feed it through the machine again this time widthways rather than lengthways. This is supposed to improve elasticity. Repeat taking the machine down a coulple of settings each time.
Fold over again and repeat again until you have a length of pasta that is about 1 ½ cm thick. Now your pasta is ready to use.

It goes without saying that you need to do the same with the other piece of rolled pasta and start from the beginning with your other ball. It is hard work but worth it if you are going to make a filled pasta.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:53:00 +0000

After buying some broccoli (amongst other things) at the supermarket today. I got home and realised that I already had a whole head of it in the fridge, so I decided to make some soup. The obvious soup to make with broccoli is broccoli and stilton. I didn't have any stilton, so I have made a cream of broccoli and thyme soup. It's really simple and really delicious.

You will need:

A whole head of broccoli, chopped up
1 small onion finely chopped
a knob of butter
2 chicken or vegetable stock cubes
1 ½ litres of boiling water
50 ml double cream
a few sprigs of fresh thyme

How to make it:

In a large saucepan, soften the onion off in the butter (5 -10 mins) on a medium heat. Do not colour the onion. Add the chopped up broccoli and coat in the onion mixture.

Next you need to add the hot water and then crumble the stock cubes into the liquid. Bring the whole pot to a boil and reduce the heat to a simmer.

Keep it at this heat for about 20 mins, until the broccoli is really soft. Strip the small fresh thyme leaves off their stalks and add to the pot, then take the pot off the heat and either blitz the soup in a food processor or use one of those hand held devices.

Stir in the double cream, season and serve.

Simple and super tasty!

Seafood Risotto

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 20:46:00 +0000

You will need:

400g mixed raw seafood (prawns, squid, mussels and scallops)
300g superfino carnoroli rice
1 litre fish stock
1 onion chopped really finely
30g butter + 50g cubed chilled butter to finish
100ml dry white wine
juice of ½ lemon
bunch of fresh dill chopped finely
2 tblsp olive oil (for frying)
1 clove garlic
seasoning to taste

Method:

Heat a heavy based 30cm frying /shallow casserole dish to a medium heat and add 30g of the butter. When this is melted, add the finely chopped onions. Fry the onions until soft but not coloured (5- 10 mins).

Meanwhile in a large stock pot heat the fish stock until it is hot but not boiling.

Next add the rice and 'toast' slightly in the butter and onion mixture. Add the wine and cook until the liquid has evaporated. Now comes the part where you have to be attentive: add a ladle full of the hot stock into the dish and stir with a wooden spoon until it to has evaporated. At this stage it's a good idea to ensure that the pan is not too hot; the stock needs to disappear, but not too quickly. Repeat this process until all of the stock has been used and the rice is cooked through. If you've run out of stock before you think that the rice is cooked then just use previously boiled hot water. The rice should be soft but still have a slight bite. Remember, you aren't making rice pudding.

Having an assistant would be wonderful but if you do not, and I never do, then you need to cook the seafood in a frying pan next to the rice. Heat a frying pan and add the olive oil and chopped garlic, fry off the seafood and add a squeeze of lemon juice and half the chopped dill.

When the rice has finished cooking, quickly stir in the chilled butter, this is called the mantecura and adds the creaminess to a risotto. Then stir through a squeeze of lemon juice, the seafood and the other half of the dill. Season well and eat.

Necessity is the mother of a good risotto

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:07:00 +0000

A few months ago, I made a seafood risotto. It was the first time that I had made a seafood risotto and I got the recipe and ingredients from Waitrose. It was a special offer recipe created by Delia Smith. I bought the ingredients, at half their usual price, and set upon making the risotto as soon as I got home.

It became apparent early on in the cooking process, that the risotto was really very smelly. The recipe called for a 'Soupe de Poisson' which did have a rather strong odour.

We ate the risotto, or I did as my husband choked on it, we even gave some to the next door neighbours who later told me that they'd liked it.

A couple of week later we were watching 'Have I got News for You' and one of the featured news stories was about the same Delia seafood risotto recipe for Waitrose. Apparently lots of people found that upon making the risotto, the smell was so strong that they had to triple bag it and put it in the outside bin to extinguish the smell from their houses. Needless to say, I didn't make it again.

What did come from this experience was a desire to make a perfect risotto in the traditional manner. I looked into the types of rice to use; Arborio, Vialone Nano, and Carnaroli amongst other lesser know varieties. The method; slow and attentive seems to be the general consensus. As well as the different ingredients to use; whatever you like appears to be the rule.

But what I really wanted, was to be able to make a seafood risotto that tastes great and doesn't make the whole house smell like a fish market.

Salmon with Pesto and Mediterranean Vegetables

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 19:11:00 +0000

This is a really simple yet flavoursome dish. I have used my homemade pesto. I would urge you to make it; it really does make a difference. This dish serves two.

You will need:

2 skinless salmon fillets
2 tblsp pesto

For the Mediterranean Vegetables:

2 courgettes sliced about ½ cm thick
6 mushrooms halved
2 small onions quartered
½ red, yellow and green pepper cut into cubes
2 cloves of garlic, whole but squashed
1 stick of fresh rosemary
2 tblsp toasted pine nuts
2 tblsp extra virgin olive oil

Method:

heat the oven to 175° C. Combine all of the prepared vegetables and pine nuts in a roasting tin, add the olive oil, crushed garlic cloves and stick of rosemary. Mix together with your hands. Place in the oven. Cook for 35 - 40 minutes.

When the veg has been cooking for 20 minutes:

Pan fry the salmon on a medium heat on one side for 3- 4 minutes. Your pan needs to be oven-proof. After this time, flip the salmon and spoon a tablespoon of the pesto onto the cooked side. Put the pan in the top of the oven and cook for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes take out the salmon and let the fish relax in the pan for up to 5 minutes.

Take out the veg and serve with the salmon in a large dish.

Pesto

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:43:00 +0000

Fresh pesto is fantastic. Inspired by a first class meal at Locanda Locatelli, I have made a few store cupboard Italian sauces; this pesto is one of them.

I have used Pecorino cheese, Parmesan is fine although, I find it can be a little too salty. The choice is yours.

These quantities will make a medium sized jar. Make sure that your jar is sterilized and the pesto will keep in the fridge, under a layer of oil, for six months.

You will need:

2 garlic cloves
2 tblsp toasted pine nuts
250g fresh basil leaves
2 tblsp grated fresh pecorino cheese
300 ml extra virgin olive oil
a pinch of salt

How to make the pesto:

In a blender or food processor, whizz the garlic and salt together then add the nuts until they are just crushed.

Next pop in the basil leaves, a few at a time. When these are all combined add your cheese and then your olive oil.

You should be left with a bright green paste. Initially the flavours are a little too fresh, but over time they mellow and you are left with a subtle smokey flavoured sauce.

Pesto is great simply mixed with cooked pasta or as a topping for fish and chicken. It is incredibly versatile.

Locanda Locatelli

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:45:00 +0000

Recently my husband and I had the good fortune to enjoy a meal at Locanda Locatelli in London. This is Georgio Locatelli's well deserved, Michelin starred restaurant on Seymour Street.

Apart from an incident where the waiter's strongly accented English led us to make the mistake that a glass of sparkling wine was £4.50, rather that £15.00 (each) and my husband ordered two; we found the restaurant to be very reasonably priced considering the quality and masterly execution of the dishes. In short it was the best meal that I have ever eaten.

The visit has inspired me to include more Italian food in our diet. I have started with some basic pesto, have made a walnut paste to use in pasta with herbs and fresh tomatoes and an agrodolce sauce to eat with monkfish. These sauces are rustic and wholesome, the general basis for Italian cooking, but they also contain complex flavours and layers of taste which, if combined correctly, can really 'pack a punch'. The test is whether I can combine them correctly. Regardless, it is fun trying.

Clockwise from top: Pesto, Walnut Paste and Agrodolce sauce.

Venison with a Rich Redcurrant Sauce

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:22:00 +0000

Provenance, from the French provenir, "to come from", means the origin, or the source, of something. The term was originally used for works of art, but today it is a word that we apply particularly to food. Since the Bovine spongiform encephalopathy outbreak in the 1990's we have, rightly, become more fussy about the origins of our food and in particular our meat.

I had the good fortune to be given two venison steaks, the provenance of which could be plotted from living creature to plate. I had never cooked venison so I was a little apprehensive at the start, I thought that the rules that applied to beef steak would probably apply to venison steak, thankfully, I was right. I used vegetable oil and a small amount of butter to sear the meat prior to cooking in a hot (200° C) oven for about 20 minutes.

What you will need:

For the meat:
2 venison steaks
tblsp oil
2oz butter

For the Sauce:
100g mushrooms sliced thinly
3 rashes of chopped streaky smoked bacon
200ml red wine
50ml port
50ml brandy
1tsp Marmite (strange but try it!)
1tsp ketchup
1tsp redcurrant jelly

Potato, Parsnip and Parmesan Bake

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:22:00 +0000

This is a great accompaniment to any meat dish, I particularly like it with a roast dinner.

You will need:

for the initial simmer;
1 large or two medium sized potatoes peeled and cut into ½ cm slices
2 large pasnips peeled and cut into ½ cm slices
1 pint / ½ litre of milk
salt and pepper

In the baker;
The parcooked potatoes and parsnips
150ml milk
100ml creme fraiche
50ml double cream
100g parmesan grated
100g white breadcrumbs
20g butter cubed

Again I have used a smaller stoneware baker from the Pampered Chef http://www.pamperedchef.biz/sarahkelly

Risotto with Butternut Squash and Smoked Bacon

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:59:00 +0000

Risotto is traditionally a labour intensive dish (personally I have never felt the desire to labour) however with a stoneware baker that I bought from a Pampered Chef party it is possible to make creamy rich risotto in the oven, with a fraction of the effort.

Prior to baking I mixed together the rice, onion, garlic, butternut squash, bacon, sage and chicken stock in the baking dish.

You will need:

1 box Arborio rice
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic finely diced or pressed
salt and pepper
3 chicken stock cubes made up to about 2 ½ pints
one whole butternut squash, cubed
6 rashes of streaky smoked bacon, chopped
small carton double cream
50g grated parmesan
a dollop of butter

Again I used a number of Pampered Chef products - the chopper really is fantastic. If you are interested in any of the products please follow this link: http://www.pamperedchef.biz/sarahkelly

I feel certain that the true risotto connisseur would turn his aching back on this recipe but the proof of the pudding is in the eating and this eats rather well.

Masterchef 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:44:00 +0000

Dear Greg and John,

I am blond and young. I also use too much salt in my food.

Yours Sincerely
Young Blonde Lady

Dear Young Blonde Lady,

You're through to the quarterfinals!

Yours Lustingly
Greg and John

My Guilty Pleasure

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:28:00 +0000

I have a bit of an obsession, besides food of course.

Recently I was invited to a Pampered Chef party, having never heard of it I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a bit like an upmarket Tupperware party with kitchen gadgets instead of plastic boxes.

The party was great, so I went to another, then 'hosted' one of my own. The products, from superb knives to stoneware baking dishes and every other kitchen gadget in between (including a fabulous chopping device that actually works) are all high quality and aesthetically pleasing.

One of their baking dishes called a stoneware baker is great for making one pot dishes including risotto, which I am going to demonstrate in the next video recipe.

If you are interested in finding out more about any of the Pampered Chef products that I have used please follow this link. http://www.pamperedchef.biz/sarahkelly

Cupcakes

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:12:00 +0000

I bought a cake decorating kit the other day at a Pampered Chef party and in the following video recipes you will find the results of my labours.

For the cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 180°C

125g butter softened (I would stress the need for butter here and not margarine it really makes a difference)
125g caster sugar
2 large eggs
125g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp vanilla extract
2-3 tblsp milk

For the icing:

150g softened butter
250g - 300g icing sugar
1 - 2 tblsp milk
¼ tsp pink (or indeed any colour which suits) food colouring

The cake decorating kit is a Pampered Chef product, if you are intersted in this or any of the Pampered Chef products please follow this link http://www.pamperedchef.biz/sarahkelly

Petite Chef

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:02:00 +0000

Check out this site. I'm on it too.

Diet?

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:09:00 +0000

I, and probably most every other normal person, have overeaten this Christmas. After a week of a yo-yoing dial, this morning the scales confirmed a consolidated five pound gain. I can only hold up my hands and squeal 'mea culpa'.

I decided to make a stir fry, something warm and nourishing. I added hot chillies to give it some depth and some ginger and lemon grass for a bit of zing.

Unfortunately I teamed it with belly pork which was, if I say so myself, delicious, but fatty in the extreme.

Diet? Not this week, I'll begin next Monday...

Let it Snow...

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 15:09:00 +0000

January has arrived and it has been snowing for about three weeks now, yet, I never tire of the view from our windows. Nor, do I tire of the excuse to make food to warm the body and soul. This food does tend to contain a few calories, but good food so often does.

In my opinion there are few things in life more satisfying than sitting in a warm house, with a bowl of freshly made soup and a heartily buttered piece of crusty white bread waiting expectantly before you. Soup is possibly the easiest of dishes to create and undoubtedly, one of the most gratifying.

I have made some Leek and Potato soup or Vichyssoise if you eat it cold, which in sub-zero temperatures, I can not contemplate. It is easy and cooks fairly quickly. The ingredients are cheap, which is helpful during belt tightening January. I have added some double cream at the end, but you could substitute this with milk or even leave this addition out.

To make this you will need:

1kg potatoes cubed
1 medium onion diced
3 leaks chopped
Approximately 1.5 litres of cold water
1 chicken stock cube
salt and pepper to taste

To be taken with a thick slice of homemade white bread, preferably the crust. With food like this to eat I don't mind if it snows for another three weeks.

Crispy Szechuan Belly Pork

noreply@blogger.com (Jilly) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 23:09:00 +0000

This is a terrific and cheap dish. Belly Pork is one of the most flavoursome, yet underrated, pieces of meat available. With its high fat content, if cooked on a high heat, it is incredibly easy to create the crispiest crackling ever.

Preheat the oven to its hottest setting

To make this you will need:

A medium sized piece of Belly Pork
2 tsp of flaked sea salt
½ tsp of Szechuan pepper corns
drizzle of olive oil